What you lose if you switch to the iPhone 5

Those who preordered the new iPhone 5 while stocks were still available last Friday or who are lucky enough to get a new iPhone this Friday after waiting in what are sure to be long lines at stores will get their shiny new smartphone. They’ll get its deeper screen and extra row of app icons, the addition of 5GHz Wi-Fi support, LTE cellular support (available in an increasing number of Verizon and AT&T cities, but not yet an option in nearly all Sprint cities), a microphone and internal speaker both said to be better, a faster processor, a thinner and lighter case, and some bragging rights.

But after the excitement wears off, iPhone 5 owners may notice some capabilities are gone or changed in unexpected ways.

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Everyone knows that the iPhone 5 (like the fifth-generation iPod Touch also being released on Friday) uses a new 8-pin connector called Lightning instead of Apple’s longtime 30-pin dock connector. Apple will sell a bulky adapter for $29 and an adapter cable for $39.

First off, I have to say I’m shocked that a Lightning-to-dock adapter isn’t included with the new iPhone or iPod Touch at no charge. After all, Apple did include the $10 power adapters with its new MacBooks and its Thunderbolt Displays to let old chargers connect to the new MacBooks’ thinner power plugs.

Furthermore, that adapter does not support video-out, so if you have a VGA or HDMI cable now, you won’t be able to use it. In other words, forget about connecting your iPhone 5 to a projector or TV monitor to deliver presentations.

You can still use wireless AirPlay streaming, but only if the projector is connected to an Apple TV, which supports HDMI natively and for which Kanex makes the ATV Pro VGA adapter. Apple TVs are rarely available at conferences for delivering presentations; while you may have one at home and perhaps in your corporate conference rooms, you likely won’t have one when making presentations on the road or at trade shows.

Apple says it is working on video-capable Lightning cables and adapters, and it expects to sell them in a “few months.” If you present from your iPhone, you might hold off on upgrading to an iPhone 5 until it does. In the meantime, you may want to present from your iPad instead.

The new Lightning connector’s adapters also don’t work with the iPod Out feature in previous iPhones that some stereos rely on to control the Music app for audio playback. You may find your home or car stereo no longer works with the iPhone 5 as it did with earlier models.

You can also expect dock peripherals of all sorts — from charging stands to portable stereos, from car audio systems to camera and recording gear — to not work with the adapter. There’s no easy way to know until you try. All I can suggest is that you get a fifth-generation iPod Touch and a Lightning adapter and see how that works first; return them if they don’t and skip the iPhone 5 until native peripherals are available. For the likes of a car stereo, that may be never, so either switch to Bluetooth audio streaming or stick with an iPhone 4S or earlier iPhone.

The switch to the space-efficient Lightning connector poses the biggest loss to iPhone users, but beware of other gotchas.

For example, the iPhone 5’s deeper screen (1,136 pixels) is unknown to most apps, so they won’t extend to take advantage of it. Instead, you’ll see a border where the old screen ended (960 pixels), though the width remains at 640 pixels. Developers can update their apps to sense the device and change the screen geometry accordingly. Apple says it will make that update for its apps by Friday, but that could take weeks or more. In the interim, you’ll have an experience gap across your app library. That fractured user experience is very un-Apple.

If you’re an international traveler, also be aware that the iPhone 5 uses the new Nano SIM standard, and your existing SIM cards won’t work in it. Carriers have yet to produce the new Nano SIMs; until they do, you won’t be able to swap SIMs to use the iPhone 5 in other countries.

Finally, there’s been a minor firestorm of complaints in social media and the blogosphere noting that the CDMA versions of the iPhone 5 for Verizon and Sprint don’t allow simultaneous use of voice and data. That’s true, but it’s been the case in the two previous CDMA iPhones (the 4 and 4S). At its core is how the carriers deployed CDMA, dedicating the whole LTE channel for either voice or data, not splitting it. That allows for better speeds, but limits flexibility. That’s why if you use the Find My Friends feature in iOS to track an iPhone user, he or she disappears from monitoring while talking on the phone.

It’s not an Apple design flaw, but it does reflect Apple’s choice not to use the workaround employed by many Android devices: They switch to a 3G channel for voice while LTE data is active, in essence using two simultaneous connections. That also means they need two active radios, but Apple has included just one in the iPhone.

It’s not a lost feature, but it could be considered a lost opportunity. It’s also a problem that Verizon and Sprint created, which they could solve by changing their LTE network setup — clearly what Apple thinks should happen.

The lost capabilities in the iPhone 5 are all ones that money and/or time will resolve. But if any are critical to you, be sure to time your upgrade with the availability of the solution — and your ability to pay for it.

One piece of good news: I can attest that Apple’s new EarPods earphones are really nice-fitting and sound very good — and they work with any iPhone, iPad, or iPod you already have!

A side note unrelated to the iPhone 5: Thanks to BizTech Magazine for naming my Mobile Edge blog as one of the 50 must-read IT blogs in 2012.

This article, “What you lose if you switch to the iPhone 5,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Galen Gruman’s Mobile Edge blog and follow the latest developments in mobile technology at InfoWorld.com. Follow Galen’s mobile musings on Twitter at MobileGalen. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.