Is the iPhone Falling Behind? Steve Wozniak Seems to Think So

Apple’s iPhone might still be selling in droves, but some are beginning to wonder if it’s bound to last. The reason boils down to features, an area where things are lacking at the moment with the company. While its current iPhone 5 brought a fair bit to the table, it didn’t bring along the typical “wow” factor that we’ve come to expect from Apple. That phone’s launch was one of Apple’s few where the product felt more evolutionary than revolutionary.

Ever since the original iPhone launch, there’s been a features battle of industry versus Apple. Today, the vice versa seems to be true, and one person backing that up is company co-founder Steve Wozniak. He states, “Others have caught up. Samsung is a big competitor. But precisely because they are currently making great products.“

He goes on to state that while it’s nice that there are so many Apple loyalists who wouldn’t dream of buying into the competition, “this loyalty is not given“. Apple has often shied away from certain features – especially NFC – and given the current state of things, we have to wonder how much longer that’ll be the case. Apple likes to innovate, invent, and not borrow ideas or license technologies from others, so it could be a tough road ahead.

Rumor has it that the iPhone 5S and especially 6 could be game-changers, though. The iPhone 5 brought a couple of nice features to the table, but at the end of the day, it felt mostly like a hardware upgrade. The iPhone 5S, then, could be the software upgrade, whereas iPhone 6 would be the blend of the two with an updated SoC, likely A7. This is speculation on my part.

The next couple of years are going to be very interesting for the company, and given the fast-pace of things, the market this time next year may look totally different. Will Apple start adopting the features of its competitors? Or will manage to get that “wow” out of us with its own unique features? Speculate away.