Fly Or Die: iPhone 5

You’d think that doing an iPhone 5 Fly Or Die would be a piece of cake, what with 2 million pre-orders in 24 hours, but it’s not so simple. All the complaining of boredom and slight lack of innovation out of Apple… well, it’s not too far off of the truth.

Apple took a huge risk with the original iPhone, and even with the iPod. But it turns out that those products changed their respective industries. And the iPhone, in particular, is the company’s most profitable product ever, usurping the iPod. Now, Apple is the most valuable publicly traded company in the world, and while they’ll take smaller risks with products like the iPad, there’s no reason to make a major change to their shining star.

For this reason, many see the iPhone 5 as a very slight upgrade to the iPhone 4S. The design isn’t all that different, though the screen is a bit larger, and even iOS 6 isn’t all that revolutionary. Especially Maps, but don’t get me started on that.

But in the end, Matt and I still felt compelled to give the new iPhone a fly. It’s not necessarily about the product itself, though I maintain that it’s still one of, if not the, best phone on the market. Our flies have more to do with Apple’s ecosystem. Owning a MacBook, iPad, iPhone (and iPod Touch, if you’re really serious) makes life much easier than owning a Galaxy S III, a Samsung Z series laptop, and a Nexus 7 tablet.

It’s about the ecosystem, and the iPhone 5 is now the flagship of that ecosystem.