Why the iPhone 5s is a big deal

Apple announced this morning 3 features that will change the future of mobile devices. Here is why.

Touch ID (fingerprint sensor)

Apple’s Touch ID sensor is covered by a laser-cut sapphire crystal and a stainless steel detection ring, but don’t get blinded by fancy words: the new iPhone 5s is going to popularize biometric security.

Yes, almost everyone knows that fingerprint readers have been baked into mobile devices for a while now, the difference is that soon even your old aunt will be using it.

Fingerprint recognition is today a much more precise and secure technology than facial recognition (sorry Android), and much more convenient too: it’s definitely easier to move your finger to wherever the sensor is, than to hold a camera up or even to move your head to face it.

Apple is famous for bringing technology to the masses: the iPhone revolutionized touch smartphones in 2007, even though phones with touch capabilities existed since 1994; the iPad did the same with tablets in 2010, even though Microsoft had already tried back in 2001. We are about to see that happening all over again.

M7 (motion co-processor)

Apple also announced the M7 motion co-processor at the launch of the iPhone 5s today, and that little chip might well be the seed of the future iWatch.

Some people were expecting an iWatch announcement, a “one more thing” from Tim Cook, but one thing is clear: Apple cannot afford introducing another beta product, it has to be polished and finished.

A successful smartwatch will need to have a long enough battery and a small and thin form factor (besides innovative features, obviously). That smartwatch hasn’t been announced yet, but Apple is probably preparing something with that M7 chip in mind.

In the meantime, the co-processor will help to increase battery life, which is one of the biggest complains that every smartphone user has:

M7 knows when you’re walking, running, or even driving. […] Since M7 can tell when you’re in a moving vehicle, iPhone 5s won’t ask you to join Wi-Fi networks you pass by. And if your phone hasn’t moved for a while, like when you’re asleep, M7 reduces network pinging to spare your battery.

A7 (64-bit processor)

The fact that Apple is able to use a 64-bit processor without breaking any existing app and without affecting the battery life of the iPhone is already impressive, but wouldn’t it be great if it could do something new beyond playing big-name video-games?

Today’s smartphones are more than capable of handling every day-to-day tasks, but by having such a powerful hardware, smartphones are set for something bigger and I can’t wait to see what it is.

Image via Apple