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Like hundreds if not thousands of people yesterday, I downloaded Apple’s(AAPL) latest mobile operating system - iOS 6 - for my iPhone and the household iPad. From that you can deduce that I am an
Apple product fan and there is need to regale you with the number of iPods, the Mac computer and the new MacBook Air that we have. All you need to know is we are an Apple house.
Early reviews for the iPhone 5 have been very favorable and no doubt Apple will reap the rewards as those with earlier versions of the iPhone - 3G, 3GS and 4 - upgrade their device. As I noted earlier this week, both Apple and AT&T (T) have shared that the new device broke prior order records so it stands to reason the iPhone 5 will be a success. The greater RF chip content will no doubt do wonders for the likes of Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), Avago Technologies (AVGO), and TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT) and other key suppliers, like Cirrus Logic (CRUS). The addition of 4G LTE to the iPhone 5 bodes well for an expanded royalty agreement with InterDigital (IDCC), a strong 3G-4G intellectual property and technology company that counted Apple as a licensee for its 3G technology previously.
As we all know, however, no matter how good the hardware is, the real driver of the consumer experience is the software. As I mentioned above, yesterday Apple released iOS 6 and generally speaking a full number upgrade denotes some major new features and functions in the OS. While I have been very excited about several features, particularly Passbook, iOS 6 seems more like and modest upgrade worthy of the name iOS 5.5 rather than iOS 6. Yes, there are some new features and several existing ones have been overhauled, but out of the gate iOS 6 seems far less a breakthrough than a few modest step forward. Even the addition of greater Facebook (FB) integration is a nice to have, but following such a move with Twitter it is not a need to to have item in my view.
Early reviews on Apple’s own new Maps offering are less than favorable and it seems the many thoughts, my own included, that warned of dire consequences for the GPS and mapping companies - Garmin (GRMN), Yahoo (YHOO) and AOL (AOL) to name a few - may have been a bit premature.
Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity in iOS 6 is Passbook. Not only does it lack the intuitive nature that has come to define Apple’s products, but it seems that Apple has released a less than fully baked product. Or at least one that could have been much more.
Initial concerns for Passbook were raised last week when we learned the iPhone 5 lacked near field communications (NFC) capabilities, but after downloading and attempting to use Passbook its shortcoming seem far greater. Unlike Constant Contact’s (CTCT) CardStar program that allows you to enter in your own reward cards on the spot, you have to click through the Apple App Store and either download or update the app of the company whose card you want to use.
Of course that only works if the app is updated for Passbook. Currently only a little more than a handful are ready and available. Even with some of those, all the kinks have yet to be worked out and can be seen by an attempt to use Passport in the real world to redeem movie tickets.
All in all, I had high hopes for Passbook and iOS 6. All told, it seems like both were less than ready for prime time. Perhaps Apple could not line up all the Passbook players in time to conform to the September launch date. Odds are this will raise doubt over Apple’s ability to continually innovate each and every year in order to keep pace with its now expected annual product launch cycles. No company can continue to deliver blockbuster breakthroughs each year, year after year and at some point, a wall will be hit.
Some will say “this would never have happened while Steve Jobs was alive” or “Steve must be be rolling over in his grave over this.” Maybe but we do know that Apple will continue to improve its offerings, and even under Jobs’s watch it took a while to go from Mac.com to Mobile Me to iCloud. And that’s the point - while Apple may have stumbled, it will figure it out over time. Let’s remember too that at the outset there were hardly any apps in the App Store and now there are not thousands but hundreds of thousands.
The question is can Apple figure out Passbook and get all the pieces together before Google (GOOG) and its Android partners - Samsung, LG, Sony (SNE), HTC and others - or Windows Mobile and its cast of characters finally get into the pole position for the smartphone and mobile payment race?
