Iphone 4s coming in oct, will you buy one? [was "Iphone 5 coming in Sept"....}

[singveld]

iPhone 4S

Apple today officially introduced the iPhone 4S, the company's next-generation iPhone offering a completely redesigned interior with a number of new features.
Apple today announced iPhone 4S, the most amazing iPhone yet, packed with incredible new features including Apple’s dual-core A5 chip for blazing fast performance and stunning graphics; an all new camera with advanced optics; full 1080p HD resolution video recording; and Siri™, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking.
One of Apple's most highly-touted features for the iPhone 4S is its camera, which checks in at 8-megapixels and contains a host of improvements over the iPhone 4's camera.
iPhone 4S includes an all new camera with the most advanced optics of any phone. The 8 megapixel sensor has 60 percent more pixels so you can take amazing high quality photos with more detail than ever. iPhone 4S includes a new custom lens, a larger f/2.4 aperture and an advanced hybrid IR filter that produce sharper, brighter and more accurate images.
Apple also notes that it has completely redesigned the antenna system for the iPhone 4S, making the device the first phone to intelligently switch between antennas for sending and receiving. The iPhone 4S is a world phone supporting both GSM and CDMA technologies, and also supports HSDPA download speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps, twice that of the iPhone 4.

Talk time over 3G comes in at eight hours on the iPhone 4S, with the device also offering six hours of 3G browsing. The iPhone 4S also included Bluetooth 4.0 for improved short-range wireless interfacing.

The iPhone 4S will launch on Friday, October 14th in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, with pre-orders beginning this Friday, October 7th. The iPhone 4S is available in both black and white and comes in three difference capacities: 16 GB ($199), 32 GB ($299), and 64 GB ($399). All prices are for on-contract purchases.

The iPhone 4S will debut in an additional 22 countries by the end of October. Those countries include: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

 

[singveld]

Re: iPhone 4S

As one of the main features of the iPhone 4S, Apple today introduced Siri a personal assistant that can
answer questions and perform for tasks for users based on voice input.
Siri on iPhone 4S lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more. Ask Siri to do things just by talking the way you talk. Siri understands what you say, knows what you mean, and even talks back. Siri is so easy to use and does so much, you’ll keep finding more and more ways to use it.

Apple covers a number of examples of Siri's flexibility on the feature page and describes them in its iPhone 4S press release:
Siri understands context allowing you to speak naturally when you ask it questions, for example, if you ask “Will I need an umbrella this weekend?” it understands you are looking for a weather forecast. Siri is also smart about using the personal information you allow it to access, for example, if you tell Siri “Remind me to call Mom when I get home” it can find “Mom” in your address book, or ask Siri “What’s the traffic like around here?” and it can figure out where “here” is based on your current location. Siri helps you make calls, send text messages or email, schedule meetings and reminders, make notes, search the Internet, find local businesses, get directions and more. You can also get answers, find facts and even perform complex calculations just by asking.
Siri is launching as a beta with support for English (US, UK, and Australia), French, and German. Additional languages and features will be added in the future.

 

[singveld]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

Apple has built significant antenna upgrades into the iPhone 4S, saying in the press release announcing the phone that it is the first phone to intelligently switch between two antennas to send and receive. We spoke to Spencer Webb, owner of AntennaSys, about the antenna history of the iPhones. He wrote extensively about the AntennaGate issues with the original iPhone 4 last year.

"With the iPhone 4," Webb explained, around the steel band "we had one cell antenna at the bottom. On the top, we had another antenna for GPS and Wi-Fi." This turned into Antennagate.


With the Verizon/CDMA iPhone, Webb believes Apple's designers "moved the GPS and Wi-Fi antennas beneath the back glass and turned the top antenna into a second antenna for the cell phone." This brought spatial diversity to the iPhone. This design helps solve the Antennagate problem, because the phone can switch between the antennas depending on signal conditions.

"If you cover up an antenna, you're probably not covering up both antennas," Webb explains. "Spatial diversity on the receiving side is required for use with the Verizon network."

The Verizon iPhone had 'receive diversity' -- it used two antennas for receiving data, but may have only transmitted on the bottom antenna. With the iPhone 4S, Apple claims to have both 'send and receive diversity' for GSM and CDMA. They're using this diversity as the solution to the antenna problem.

"The iPhone 4S may indeed be the first phone to have diversity on both the send and receive sides, and that is a decently big deal. They still have the antenna around the rim, though, so it's evolutionary, not revolutionary."

 

[singveld]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

With media members in attendance at Apple's iPhone 4S event having had the opportunity to spend some time with the new hardware following the presentation, hands-on reports and first impressions are beginning to come in.


Engadget highlights the improved internal specs of the iPhone 4S, noting that everything "just feels zippier".
We were able to spend a few quality moments with the refreshed iPhone 4 here at Apple's campus, the Sprint flavor no less, and as you might expect... it's an iPhone 4. But S-ier. Much in the same way that the 3GS improved the overall experience of the 3G, the 4S does likewise compared to the existing 4. The dual-core A5 chip is a laudatory improvement, and whisking about pages, loading the camera application and launching -- well, just about everything -- just feels zippier.
Engadget was also impressed with the Siri personal assistant feature, describing their attempts to "psych it out" without success, as Siri "never faltered" in bringing up the requested information and transcribed voice input perfectly.

The BBC has also posted a brief video hands-on with the iPhone 4S, showing off a demonstration of the Siri functionality.



Finally, SlashGear also spent some time with the iPhone 4S and similarly found it to be very quick, with webpages rendering "instantly" and pinch-to-zoom being "silky smooth". SlashGear was also impressed with Siri's performance.
Apple’s new voice-control assistant, Siri makes promises that we’ve learnt to be wary about over the years, but after a brief test we’re surprisingly impressed. Easily activated, with a new microphone icon on the regular on-screen keyboard, Siri managed just what it did on-stage during the keynote. We could ask it local information, such as the weather or to find nearby stores, while online searching and complex questions for Wolfram Alpha were handled with little delay. Speed can be the killer for services like this – people just won’t wait if their phone takes 30 seconds to look up an answer – but Siri delivered in just seconds.
Apple will begin taking pre-orders for the iPhone 4S this Friday, with the device going on sale in the first batch of countries on Friday, October 14th. Pricing comes in at $199 for 16 GB, $299 for 32 GB, and $399 for 64 GB on contract, with both black and white models available in all capacities.

 

[singveld]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/11piuhbvdlbkvoih10/event/index.html

iphone 4s video

 

[eatshitndie]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

for the first time in an iphone reveal event, attendees in cupertino actually yawned. boring.

 

[singveld]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

for the first time in an iphone reveal event, attendees in cupertino actually yawned. boring.

apple tricks backfire, they want to teach china cheat a lesson, i bet some cover makers in china just commit suicide. they leak those oversize cover for iphone 5 and they fall for it. it generate a high expectation for everyone.

and high expectation lead to big disappointment, i cannot imagine a single iphone 4 user out there who will upgrade to 4s, boo hoo, A5 dual processor my arse.

is this what we expect from apple now steve jobs is gone, i bet apple will be finished in a few years.

 

[eatshitndie]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

apple tricks backfire, they want to teach china cheat a lesson, i bet some cover makers in china just commit suicide. they leak those oversize cover for iphone 5 and they fall for it. it generate a high expectation for everyone.

and high expectation lead to big disappointment, i cannot imagine a single iphone 4 user out there who will upgrade to 4s, boo hoo, A5 dual processor my arse.

is this what we expect from apple now steve jobs is gone, i bet apple will be finished in a few years.

they will still sell like hot cakes, especially to those without an iphone and wanna jump on the bandwagon. because the 3s will be given away for free (albeit with a 2-year contract with a provider), there will be many kids, low lives, poor, lower income and ghetto gangbangers jumping on this bait. there will also be a bunch of budget conscious morons in this lousy economy who will jump on the usd99 bait for iphone 4. the fan base and those idiots who will buy anything "new" from apple will jump on this refresh. come 2012, and apple will start leaking snippets about iphone5. very sure that iphone5 will have new lte chipset from qualcomm which is smaller, all in one with cdma, gsm, edge, umts, hspa+ and lte, uses less power, offers longer battery life, "cheaper" production cost. sometime 3rd quarter 2012 for initial delivery of test then production units.

 

[Windsor]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

I have been hearing many people prefer the Samsung Galaxy S2 over the iPhone 4. Many are taking the contract with the iPhone and selling it immediately, get the cash and buy the Galaxy pocketing the difference of a few hundred dollars. It makes sense as the Galaxy can view Youtube and surf the internet much faster. This is what I heard, but I have no experience with either phones, so those who have can correct me.

 

[Leongsam]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

I have been hearing many people prefer the Samsung Galaxy S2 over the iPhone 4. Many are taking the contract with the iPhone and selling it immediately, get the cash and buy the Galaxy pocketing the difference of a few hundred dollars. It makes sense as the Galaxy can view Youtube and surf the internet much faster. This is what I heard, but I have no experience with either phones, so those who have can correct me.

Why on earth would any twit want to view videos or surf the net on ANY stupid cellphone. The screen is tiny. The sound sucks. 3G is too slow.

Phones are for TALKING into. That's why it's called a PHONE.

If I want to watch videos, I wait till I get home and I'll watch them on my 27" monitor complete with stereo sound and a proper broadband connection.

 

[vamjok]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

Why on earth would any twit want to view videos or surf the net on ANY stupid cellphone. The screen is tiny. The sound sucks. 3G is too slow.

when you are bored in train

 

[singveld]

iphone4s

iPhone 4S disappointment a blow to tech journalism credibility
Jan Vermeulen October 5, 2011 3 comments


Knowledgeable sources reveal Apple rumours to be tech junkies’ drug of choice
Let’s open with the obvious: Apple’s latest iPhone announcement – the iPhone 4S – was disappointing, and it’s not just because of the hype.

Based on their previous iPhone release pattern, we expected that Apple would have launched the next generation of the device back in June.

When it became clear that Apple’s next iPhone launch would be some months after, it was only natural for people to start expecting big things from the company.

That said, the unfulfilled rumours are probably responsible for the lion’s share of of the disappointment expressed by fans and media around the world.

What did Apple think was going to happen, though? With no announcement and no launch for several months, the rumour mill was bound to go berserk.

This wasn’t helped when credible publications started reporting that Apple was set to launch an iPhone 5, instead of saying that it could be an iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, both or neither.

One publication pegged the iPhone 5 to be a completely redesigned device with a much larger edge-to-edge display and a teardrop shape, while others simply said “radically redesigned”.


In short, much of the disappointment in yesterday’s announcement from Apple is because of stories based on leaks from “industry sources”, “a reliable source”, “people familiar with the situation”, and “two people familiar with the product.”

While there is nothing wrong with anonymous sources in this situation, the loose reporting around the latest iPhone release has all but destroyed any chance of future articles citing anonymous sources being taken seriously.

Among the rumours that proved to be incorrect were those published by Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal which said that the next iPhone would look a lot like the iPhone 4 (correct), be thinner and lighter (wrong), and will launch in September (wrong).

Such stories are quickly picked up by blogs and other technology media who publish them with authoritative phrases like “Bloomberg reports that,” or “according to Wall Street Journal.”

MyBroadband also published reports from Bloomberg and the WSJ, but if you can no longer trust the sources Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal choose to believe, then whom can you trust?


You, dear reader, are also not entirely blameless in this. We are often asked by readers to run Apple rumour articles.

Whether this is through direct correspondence or by being rewarded with clicks, the signal we’re getting is to run Apple news whenever we can.

So while it’s certainly fun to blame “the media” for setting a bar Apple could never live up to, it’s only half of the story.

Apple’s refusal to manage expectation by not commenting on the rumours and the high demand for any news of their upcoming devices is the other half.

Of course, those of us writing naval gazing pieces like these could be forced to eat (most of) our words if Apple pushes out a “One more thing” press release in the coming weeks to announce a “radically redesigned” LTE-capable iPhone 5.

A risk I’m willing to take to implore you to resist clicking on the next iPhone 5 rumour article that gets republished on your favourite site or tweeted at you.

Show us you don’t care for all this rumour-mongering by denying us the one thing all writers crave: your attention.

 

[singveld]

Re: iphone4s

iPhone 4S: Big Disappointment, Will Still Be The World's Best Selling Phone

Here's Everything Apple Announced At Its Huge iPhone Event Today

The Normals: "No iPhone 5? The F--- Is This?"

THE FALLOUT: Analyzing The Impact Of Apple's Failure To Release An iPhone 5

Is Apple's decision to release just an iPhone 4S, not an iPhone 5, a huge disappointment, or just a regular sized disappointment?
Depends on who you are, but either way it's a disappointment.
Why? Because, after a year and a half of waiting, and countless rumors, consumers were expecting some sort of new design for the iPhone.
It's not just Apple blogs that cover every angle or rumor on Apple setting those expectations. Even the Wall Street Journal reported in July, "the new iPhone is expected to be similar to the current iPhone 4, but thinner and lighter with an improved eight-megapixel camera."
So, people are right to feel let down! They didn't get what they expected.
Now, once they get over the disappointment, people will still buy iPhone 4Ss. Millions, and millions of iPhone 4Ss. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster maintained his 25 million unit sales estimate for the fourth quarter, citing (in-part) pent up demand at Verizon and Sprint for the iPhone.
And those people are going to love their iPhone 4S. The new camera will look great. The faster processor will be great. The voice recognition software — which is exclusive to the iPhone 4S — appears to be the next great innovation in mobile, provided it works as well as the demo on stage showed.
Of course, in eight months when Apple reveals the iPhone 5, they're going to be kicking themselves. But, that's life! Especially in the world of technology. (Maybe this is the new release schedule, and the iPhone 5 doesn't appear until October 2012. In which case, no biggie!)
Now, all that said, we do have a lot of questions about this iPhone 4S.
Where did all the leaks and reports of a thinner, tear dropped iPhone 5 come from? Was Apple working on it, and then ran into manufacturing problems and had to shelve it? It feels like something is amiss, right? What took Apple so long, if this is just a speed bump upgrade in hardware? The software upgrades? The integration of voice recognition software?
Who knows? Maybe we'll get those answers, but it's likely we won't.
Either way, we doubt Apple is going to sweat it. The world's biggest smartphone maker just made its best selling phone even better.
And even if they're disappointed today, iPhone 4S owners will be thrilled when they break open an iPhone 4S on October 14.

 

[singveld]

Re: iphone4s

Apple iPhone 4S: Siri and better specs, yet a disappointment?

The Apple iPhone 4S was arguably the most anticipated new gadget of the year, but after its unveiling Tuesday, questions remained over whether the new handset lived up to the monumental hype that preceded it.

We'll know for sure whether the 4S can continue the blockbuster success of previous generations of the iPhone once the phone is released and consumers can choose between buying or passing on the 4S. The iPhone 4 is the bestselling iPhone so far, having sold more units than all other versions of the phone combined, but it's clear that the 4S is an upgrade -- an evolution, not a revolution.

Many seemed to be let down by the fact that the iPhone 4S wasn't a new device called the iPhone 5, complete with the rumored new form factor or larger screen, while others in the blogosphere seemed to be focused more on what's on the inside of the new iPhone than its name or looks.

Apple got a bit of a mixed reaction in the stock market as well, with shares falling as much as 5% during day trading but ultimately closing down just 0.6% to $372.50 per share.

The insides of the 4S are almost worthy of the hype, worthy of the made-up ideal iPhone 5 that was rumored but never mentioned officially by Apple.

The 4S has a dual-core A5 processor, similar to the chip found in the iPad 2. Apple said the A5 will boost graphics performance by about seven times and that overall performance should be twice as fast as before. The 4S will also feature an 8-megapixel camera capable of shooting 1080p video and a new antenna system that promises to offer 4G-like download speeds while maintaining a 3G-like battery life of about 8 hours of talk time.

Other features of the iPhone however were left unchanged, such as the front-facing VGA-quality (i.e. low-quality) camera. The prices, too were left alone (thankfully) at $199 for a 16-gigabyte 4S, $299 for a 32-gigabyte unit and $399 for a 64-gigabyte handset.

The biggest unchanged aspect of the iPhone 4S, however, was its exterior, which is identical to the iPhone 4 that was released about 16 months ago.

Of the new features on the 4S, the most important might end up being Siri, a new voice command personal assistant app that Apple says will be unlike anything else seen on a smartphone thus far.

"It's your intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking," said Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president in charge of all iOS software.

Demostrating Siri on Tuesday, Forstall launched the Siri application and spoke into an iPhone, asking "What is the weather like today?"

The Siri app replied, "Here's today's weather," and up popped the weather forecast.

Forstall then asked "What is the hourly forecast?," to demonstrate that the Siri could understand different versions of the same question, taking speech detection in a more conversational direction than what most phones today have.

He also asked "Do I need a raincoat today?" Siri's response: "It sure looks like rain today."

Siri can find restaurants, movie times, concerts, sporting events, read text messages and calender events.

Forstall called the software "blowaway."

What do you think? Does the iPhone 4S live up to the anticipation or does it fall below expectation? Sound off in the comments below.

 

[singveld]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

The iPhone 4S is hugely disappointing.

Let me repeat: Apple's new iPhone 4S -- with the fastest processor in a smartphone by miles, perhaps the most advanced and smartest voice command assistant on a piece of consumer technology ever, and the basic design and feel of the most wildly popular and beloved cell phone of all time -- is a big fat, tremendous letdown of a device, and the event where Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the new iPhone was the Al Capone's vault of product launches.

The soundtrack to the live stream should have been air being let slowly out of a balloon. What a downer. iCaramba.

It's not that the new iPhone won't be great. It will be one of, if not the, best smartphone available to consumers when it is released on October 14. After all, it is identical to the fantastic iPhone 4, except its antenna will be much-improved, the Internet and the apps will load and run faster and the camera and battery will put its predecessor's to shame.

And that -- exactly that! -- is the reason why everyone is so disappointed. It is exactly identical to the iPhone 4, except it got some nerd-friendly upgrades on its insides. Faster processors. Improved antennas. Increased camera pixels. Okay, okay, fine: But where is the improvement that I can see? And where is the improvement that my friends and co-workers and ex-lovers will be able to see and drool over and associate with me when I whip this shiny new Apple thing out?



This is where the groundswell of disappointment and feeling of anticlimax is coming from: Apple had 16 months since the release of the iPhone 4 to design something sexy or revolutionary or forward-thinking, and they ended up showcasing a product that we have all -- for all intents and purposes -- already seen before.


The great allure of Apple products is that, in both design and user experience, the owner of the device feels as though he or she possess a part of the cutting-edge. The iPhone 4S is the first major release in recent memory of a bread-and-butter Apple gadget -- among the phones, the tablets, the laptops and, before that, the mp3 players -- that does not seem like it will make strangers turn their heads when someone plays with it in public soon after release. It feels like a horizontal move rather than a bold leap forward, for a company that for the past decade has simply owned the bold leap forward in the personal tech space.

Where is the pizzazz? Where are the rocket jets, the fireworks, the impossible design flourishes or the software and features that all the other companies will be scrambling to catch up with in the coming months?

Absent. For the first time in a while, Apple seemed like it was playing catchup with its rivals and patching up its own weaknesses rather than blowing up a technological space and thinking 3 years ahead of its enemies.

Yeah, so Apple released "Find My Friends": Are they going to use those Boost Mobile "Where You At?" commercials to promote it?

So Apple added on an 8 megapixel camera: Is it really so much better than all of the other 8 megapixel smartphone cameras that already exist, OR any of the 12 megapixel cameras on smartphones? And is the front-facing FaceTime camera still of conspicuously low-quality compared to its competitors?

So Apple released a voice command feature: Is it so much better than Microsoft's Tellme? Is this really the major innovation of the year in MacWorld? And does anyone actually want to use voice commands to look up the weather when they can do the same thing on an app with a finger swipe and a screen touch without having to talk to themselves in public?

No. The most shocking and innovative thing Apple launched at its event was a Christmas card app.

The iPhone 4S, to repeat, will still one of the best smartphones available for buyers today; An already strong smartphone became even stronger. The iPhone, with Siri inside, also instantly becomes the best smartphone for anyone with weak eyesight or any visual impairment. It deserves kudos for that, and for maintaining its status quo atop the smartphone quality rankings.

However: This release otherwise does nothing for Apple except make it a lot of money in the short term and give its rivals more time to catch up with or out-innovate it. Unless Tim Cook's "One More Thing ..." announcement is coming much later than usual this time around, a holding pattern seems to be in Apple's near-term future.

Perhaps I am being nitpicky. Perhaps I cannot see the 4S for the trees (sorry). Perhaps, too, everyone whining about the new iPhone needs to realize that it is still an excellent device and accept the fact that grumbling that the advancements from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S were too incremental very definitely falls into both standup comedian's Louis CK's complaint that "Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy," and the popular Twitter hashtag #firstworldproblems.

And yet, still, there is the nagging sense that Apple held back or underperformed somehow at this media event. Now that the smoke has cleared, the balloons have deflated, the stock has dropped, the Internet has groaned and Apple has made all of its announcements and reveals and official pitches for its new technology, everything feels like a massive letdown, like post-Signs M. Night Shyamalan was directing the live stream.

It is, quite simply, a shock: The flair and forward-thinking that Apple seemed to once have a sixth sense for during these events seems to have dissolved just a tiny little bit; Apple, as a company and industry leader, no longer appears quite so -- another huge sigh on the day -- unbreakable.

 

[singveld]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

Like cars, clothes, and watches, cellphones have now become a status symbol. Technology is now a means by which our society gauges each other’s inherent worth and intelligence. It’s not completely your fault for succumbing to this view. In fact, Apple has led the marketing charge, convincing us we are more desirable and cool if we have the newest iPhone or iPad. We’ve all bought into their system that forces us to wait in line on launch day so we can be the first of our friends to buy the new device. A new form factor makes it easier for us to distinguish who has the latest and greatest iDevice. Parading through our social circles, we use our new iPhones’ form factor as a designator to show how hip and up to date we are. We want Apple to come out with a redesigned iPhone 5, not because we care so much about the improved processors, memory, and camera, but because we will feel better about ourselves for having the newest gadget on the market while other people are still playing Angry Birds on their “boring,” “old” iPhone 4.

Tomorrow Apple will unveil the iPhone 4S with beefed specs wrapped in the same old iPhone 4 body. People will take the internet and deride Apple for the move. Some will even threaten to switch to Android, but in then end, we’ll all be waiting infront of the Apple Store on Launch Day hoping we will be one of the blessed ones to get a new device. I’ll probably be there with. And just like everyone else, I’ll probably correct people that call my new phone an iPhone 4, and say, “no, it’s the iPhone 4S.”

 

[Leongsam]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

when you are bored in train

The should read a book.. preferably a book on English grammar that explains the difference between a noun and a verb.

 

[singveld]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

The should read a book.. preferably a book on English grammar that explains the difference between a noun and a verb.

dun you want to talk to your phone?? siri.

 

[Leongsam]

Re: Iphone 5 is coming in sept, will you buy one?

dun you want to talk to your phone?? siri.

I doubt very much if siri will be of any use to sinkies. Singlish isn't in its vocabulary.

 

[singveld]

iphone4s

Post-jobs era brings iPhone 4s, disappointment

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Apple began its new era with a creation unlike anything it had produced in years: disappointment.
Instead of a major new product, the electronics giant unveiled an updated version of the iPhone 4 that it released 16 months ago. Even the name, iPhone 4S, resembled the old phone.
Most observers had expected that in its first unveiling without its co-founder Steve Jobs, Apple would try to show it was still capable of wowing crowds with stunning new devices.
Immediately after the company showed off its updated smartphone, shares of Apple stock plunged nearly 5 percent. Though they largely recovered by the time the market closed, investors agreed that Tuesday’s unveiling was not Apple’s best performance.
“It’s kind of unfortunate timing that the first post-Jobs product is not the most exciting in the world,” said Alex Spektor, a wireless analyst at Strategy Analytics, who called the new phone an “incremental” improvement over the iPhone 4. By choosing not to call the device the iPhone 5, he said, “Apple is admitting that it’s basically the same phone but with some souped-up specifications.”
Unlike Jobs, who tended to stay on the stage for most of a product unveiling, Apple’s new Chief Executive Tim Cook spoke for only a small part of the nearly two-hour presentation. The Alabama native spoke about Apple’s music, retail and computer business -- pausing to joke about all the buzz over the new iPhone -- but let his lieutenants introduce the new device and many of its features.
Without Jobs and his trademark ability to build excitement around a new product, some observers felt the presentation was missing some of Apple’s pizzazz. Some felt it even dragged on a bit too long.
“This was not a home run for Tim Cook,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners. “It was adequate. All he can do is be his own person -- he’ll get more chances.”
The company also seemed to disappoint consumers who were expecting Apple to announce that the iPhone would be available to customers at wireless providers besides AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
After the event, Apple’s website listed Sprint among the carriers that would sell the phones in the U.S. The carrier is listed on a Web page comparing iPhone models.
Apple did not return requests for comment, but a Sprint spokeswoman confirmed in an email that the carrier would join AT&T and Verizon in selling the new phone along with the $99 iPhone 4. The iPhone 3GS, however, will only be available from AT&T.
Still, some analysts felt that the launch -- if not sensational -- was a smart business move by Apple, which is locked in an intense battle with rival smartphone makers, chiefly companies like Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC that make Google Inc.-powered Android phones, some at low prices.
By offering its own series of lower-cost phones, Apple is aiming at the swelling segment of smartphone consumers in fast-growing markets in Asia and South America, where many first-time buyers can’t afford the higher-end phones.