iPhone Now Playing Catch-Up

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So the new iPhone 5 has been announced, and the big news is that it has a larger screen than the old iPhone and will support 4G LTE.

In other words, Apple is now chasing other smartphone vendors, who have had large screens and LTE for over a year. Surely this does not bode well for Apple’s post-Jobs future?

UPDATE: Mostly via Twitter, many people have informed me that Apple has been playing feature catch-up for a long time with the iPhone. So this is nothing all that new. The iPhone’s success isn’t really predicated on specific features, but on the quality of its UI/ecosystem/usability as a whole.

Point taken. I still think today’s announcement might be a bit of a warning sign for the long-term growth of the iPhone brand, but maybe not.