Tech Central: In the end, iPhone 5 won't be the letdown many think

Apple’s iPhone 5, released Wednesday, was pretty much exactly what we were expecting.

It has 4G/LTE data capabilities, a slightly bigger screen, and a thinner and lighter body.

And unfortunately, there’s no one feature that’s set to really capture people’s imaginations in a big way like the iPhone 4’s high-resolution Retina display, or the voice-activated virtual assistant Siri, which was a major selling point for 2011’s iPhone 4S.

Is this a big deal?

Hmm, let’s go back to the last time Apple released an “underwhelming” iPhone.
The 4S was minimally improved over the 4. Yet, in its first full quarter on the market, Apple sold a whopping 37 million units vs. Wall Street forecasts in the 30-32 million range.

And what about the last time Apple released a product that offered zero surprises? This year’s new iPad sold 17 million units last quarter, one million ahead of expectations.

An easy way to garner attention is to knock Apple’s products, despite their undisputed success out in the real world.

Apple is the world’s best producer of consumer electronics and the world’s best retailer, as measured by metrics like profit margins and sales productivity, not to mention the extent to which its moves are copied by competitors like Samsung and Microsoft.

But perhaps more importantly, Apple has people’s attention in a way that no other company can match. Even people that hate Apple pay attention to what it’s doing.

In fact, there’s more excitement surrounding the iPad Mini and iTV — which don’t actually exist, mind you — than the new Nokia smartphones.

What does that tell you about the state of the world?