Looks like Apple hit home runs with all of their updates this cycle. Interestingly I haven't seen this universal praise for any other Apple update cycle before. Unfortunately I am not in the market for any device right now.
I would disagree that they hit homeruns on everything. The most obvious "single" would be the iPhone 5C which, by all accounts, is underselling expectations significantly. As a consumer, Apple "lost the game" by not introducing an iPhone with a larger screen size. Why are HTC and Samsung doing so well in the phone market? Because they offer what clearly millions of people want: a 5" screen. If Apple had introduced a 5" screen iPhone this cycle, how many would they have sold? I can't tell you how many people who have, this year, switched from long time iPhones to Samsung/HTC for this reason (my family included).
That said, I'm buying the iPad Air as an upgrade to my iPad 2 and I'll be updating my 2011 MBP as well because I think they've really hit homeruns for those two.
> The most obvious "single" would be the iPhone 5C which, by all accounts, is underselling expectations significantly.
Hrm? Apple's first-week iPhone sales significantly beat analyst estimates and their own records. It doesn't seem plausible that those were all 5Ses.
> Why are HTC and Samsung doing so well in the phone market? Because they offer what clearly millions of people want: a 5" screen.
HTC are not doing well in the phone market. As for Samsung, the Note 3 managed 5 million channel sales in one month, with total sales of the series over a couple of years of only 40 million. 40 million sales over two years is a drop in the bucket for Samsung's sales; the bulk of their sales are of low-end devices (with small screens).
> If Apple had introduced a 5" screen iPhone this cycle, how many would they have sold?
Well, I know I wouldn't have bought one, whereas I did buy a 5S. Not everyone wants giant phones.
> Why are HTC and Samsung doing so well in the phone market? Because they
> offer what clearly millions of people want: a 5" screen.
Not sure that's supported by the data. Do you have a specific reason for assuming that and not one of the countless other differences is the reason why people pick, say, an HTC or Samsung over an iPhone? (As in: preference for Android; availability; etc.)
"The most obvious "single" would be the iPhone 5C which, by all accounts, is underselling expectations significantly."
No one has proven this, it's just a rumour circling the internet. Anecdotally I've seen plenty 'in the wild', but potentially not as many as the 5S (hard to tell aside from the gold), so it's unclear whether it's been a sales disappointment.
That said, I'm buying the iPad Air as an upgrade to my iPad 2 and I'll be updating my 2011 MBP as well because I think they've really hit homeruns for those two.