Apple launched an iPhone with a larger screen to counter the rage of large screen smartphones started by Android manufacturers. The iPhone 5 features a 4″ screen compared to the 3.5″ screen that its last 5 predecessors carried. Apple also increased the resolution of the screen for the second time on the iPhone, thus maintaining the retina display quality. The iPhone 5 features a 8MP camera, a custom A6 chip from Apple and an aluminum body.
When we look at the competition, the biggest competitor on the Android front for Apple is the Samsung Galaxy SIII. The Galaxy SIII has been on sale for a while., is fairly popular and features a large 4.8″ screen. The camera on the S3 is 8MP and Samsung also puts all its might into the CPU / GPU for the same. Running Android Jelly Bean, Samsung Galaxy SIII is the hot favorite for Android lovers and one of the most premium smartphones for anyone who wants to buy one. Given its positioning, the S3 is the largest competitor for Apple out there.
With recent price cuts, the Samsung Galaxy SIII costs Rs 33,250 in India. That’s a good price, given the handset sold for over Rs 40,000 not very long back. The SIII features S-Voice, which is a virtual voice assistant competing with Apple’s Siri. They also feature S-Beam that can beam data from one Galaxy device to another by just tapping the phones.
Compared to the S3, as Apple plans to launch the iPhone 5 in India, their pricing doesn’t beat the SGS3. Apple’s starting price for the iPhone 5 is Rs 45,500. With discounts, it might retail for Rs 44,000. That’s still almost 30% more or Rs 10,000 expensive than the top of the line Samsung device on the market. Samsung also has a 32GB version of the Galaxy S3 to compete with Apple. The differentiation for Apple remains its design, OS and a brand value that is far greater. Will that result in more sales than the Galaxy S3? We would wait to see how the market responds.