Real estate pros have mixed reactions to iPhone 5 | Waccabuc NY Realtor

It’s thinner, lighter and larger than any version yet, but first reactions to Apple’s iPhone 5 — the latest iteration of the company’s signature iPhone smartphone — have been mixed.

Matt Case, a broker with Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors in Benzonia, Mich., says the new iPhone’s longer battery life, which Apple says allows for up to eight hours of Web browsing, and its svelte design — 20 percent lighter and 18 percent thinner than its predecessor, the iPhone 4S — will likely spur him to give up his Thunderbolt, an Android phone from HTC.

Though he doesn’t work in the field much anymore, Case anticipates the upgraded 8-megapixel camera, which can shoot sharper photos and video, will be very appealing to agents.

Stephanie Saum, a San Diego-area marketing consultant who has worked with real estate professionals and who is an iPhone 4S user, thinks the “coolest” features are found not in the larger, faster phone but in iOS 6, Apple’s new mobile operating system announced in conjunction with the iPhone 5 release.

IOS 6 features Facebook integration with photos, maps, calendar, contacts and Siri, the operating system’s voice-controlled “assistant.” It also features the ability to take panoramic photos (iPhone 4S, iPod 5 and iPhone 5 only) and share photo streams, presumably through social media.

Made of aluminum and glass, the new iPhone has an upgraded camera that works better in low light, and sports a screen that while retaining its iPhone 4 width is now 4 inches long, up from 3.5 inches, allowing a fifth row of apps to appear on the home screen.