Apple fans will never admit it, but following the long awaited unveiling of the iPhone 5, it’s pretty obvious that the company is missing Steve Jobs’ innovative thinking more than ever. Sure, the look and feel of the iPhone 5 is as beautiful as ever, but what with so many expectations of something revolutionary, it’s hard not to feel a little disappointed with what Apple has come up with.

There’s no denying the latest incarnation of the iPhone compares well with any of the competition out there, but by Apple’s standards, this just simply isn’t good enough. For the first time, there’s a distinct feeling that Apple are no longer innovating, but instead playing catch-up – bringing to the table nothing that its high-end Android competitors don’t already offer. As Forbes stated yesterday, it’s as if Apple is now just a ‘normal’ technology company like everyone else.

Sure the new iPhone has some impressive new features, but for the first time since Steve Job’s passing, there’s nothing that can be truly classed as ‘revolutionary’ like previous iPhones. Watching the unveiling yesterday, I was more struck by what the iPhone is lacking than by any of its new features:

–          No Near Field Communication

–          Lack of Biometric Security Features

–          Marginal improvement in battery life

–          Unoriginal design

–          No increase in storage space

–          NO SURPRISES

The lack of surprise is the biggest disappointment. Whereas before, when Steve Jobs was around, we always had something completely new to drool over, be it Retina Technology with the iPhone 4, or Siri with the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5 offers nothing that makes it stand out from its rivals.

I’m not alone in my disappointment with the iPhone. Reactions have been largely mixed, but a number of notable commentators have also expressed similar feelings to mine.

The iPhone 5 has generated more hype and more excitement in the run up to its launch than any of its previous incarnations, but looking at it now, it’s hard to see how it will live up to all that hype.

What made Apple so special, and so different from its rivals, was its ability to spring surprises and truly make us go “Wow!”

This time, sadly, there’s nothing that makes us do that. Apple didn’t even try to revolutionize the design of the device, to at least make it look different from the others out there.

The new iPhone has lots of new and better features – its thinner, its faster, it’s bigger, but so what? There’s nothing – nothing at all – that leaves me buzzing with excitement. And as far as Apple is concerned, that can only mean one thing – failure.

Steve Jobs must be turning in his grave…