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Apple Introduces iPhone 4S with A5 Chip, Faster Graphics, Siri Voice Assistant
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That is not the point. It's not about having a new design just to have an exciting, different case -- it's about making improvements on all counts. Especially when it's been 16 months since the last one, and remember, we're in the tech-express smartphone market here, more competative than ever.
People want innovations or improvements to the iPhone. The only improvements are a better camera and a faster chip. That's all. The rest is software.
The new iPhone could have been thinner, but was not. Since it's the same thickness, it could have had better battery life, but specs so far indicates it's the same; slightly better in some configurations, sligthly worse in others.
Being the same design, it could have had a bigger screen that took use of the huge wasted real estate of the phone better; or it could have made the dimensions of the phone smaller. Apple did neither.
iPhone 4s could have been lighter, but it's actually heavier (by just a few grams).
Add to that no innovations whatsoever on the home button, no new gestures or touch sensitivity.
The problem is, you gotta look very hard to find significant improvements to this new iPhone. I think it speaks volumes that people are mentioning the A5 -- a chip that's half a year old -- as the new phones' major improvement.
Sorry Apple, but it's just not good enough.
3G to 3GS worked because Apple was still the leader. 3GS then, turned slightly dated in its last months. Remember that, folks? But then Apple released iPhone 4, and was on top again.
Now, the iPhone 4 was getting dated, but Apple releases a device that's behind the competition before it's even in the stores.
I can totally see why people are disappointed.
Hardware: A5, Lens, Camera, updated antenna
What should they have done?
Thinner: Why is it too thick? Maybe they should have gone the way of the Bionic to get better battery life.
Bigger screen: fragmentation would loose consistency.
Weight: a few grams...really?
Home button: guess your one of the capacitive guys.
Processor: what does a phone need to process that the A5 won't be able to handle for the next few years?
The iPhone is about usability not CPU freq and more memory. If the hardware that is in it can handle every task you throw at it well, why beef it up? What good is horsepower under the hood when you will never use it's full potential anyway?
Its not the fact the iPhone 4s is less than a wonderful phone its just we were waiting to be wowed. I think sometimes we are a bit spoiled and over excited to let apple have our wallets for pure excess products. This announcement should have been done in june and it would have not been so bad.
We have a whole year of getting trolled (BAD!) by Android Fan Boys (Which are worse than Apple ones) But even if you see the spec sheets we are not lacking much at all. Read below to feel better about the keynote. Software is the real driver is in this war and CrapCream Sandwich is not going to be anything that great.
PROCESSOR:
The A5 has no true equal the Graphics lightyears ahead of what goes in the droids.
SCREEN:
The Screen is awesome with the best PPI to date (even if small) IPS is superior to SAMOLED. Yes ASMOLED is brighter but its overstaturated, and non realistic.
CAMERA:
The Camera is 8MP which matches others but the quality and speed will make the droid look sad.
DESIGN:
The design is sexy and will get you laid...lol
OS:
Its IOS nuff said.
SUPPORT:
You can walk into an apple store with a problem get it fixed or walk out with a new phone within ten twenty minutes.
APPS:
500,000 of the best apps and we get the good ones first, IE netflix, instagram, and Any bad ass game.
ACCESSOIRES:
If you can think its out there or you can go on kickstarter and become a millionaire making your own lol
But alas, Next year we should get a bigger screen and LTE if not it will be a sad day for us users.
We have a whole year of getting trolled (BAD!) by Android Fan Boys (Which are worse than Apple ones) But even if you see the spec sheets we are not lacking much at all. Read below to feel better about the keynote. Software is the real driver is in this war and CrapCream Sandwich is not going to be anything that great.
PROCESSOR:
The A5 has no true equal the Graphics lightyears ahead of what goes in the droids.
SCREEN:
The Screen is awesome with the best PPI to date (even if small) IPS is superior to SAMOLED. Yes ASMOLED is brighter but its overstaturated, and non realistic.
CAMERA:
The Camera is 8MP which matches others but the quality and speed will make the droid look sad.
DESIGN:
The design is sexy and will get you laid...lol
OS:
Its IOS nuff said.
SUPPORT:
You can walk into an apple store with a problem get it fixed or walk out with a new phone within ten twenty minutes.
APPS:
500,000 of the best apps and we get the good ones first, IE netflix, instagram, and Any bad ass game.
ACCESSOIRES:
If you can think its out there or you can go on kickstarter and become a millionaire making your own lol
But alas, Next year we should get a bigger screen and LTE if not it will be a sad day for us users.
Its not the fact the iPhone 4s is less than a wonderful phone its just we were waiting to be wowed. I think sometimes we are a bit spoiled and over excited to let apple have our wallets for pure excess products. This announcement should have been done in june and it would have not been so bad.
We have a whole year of getting trolled (BAD!) by Android Fan Boys (Which are worse than Apple ones) But even if you see the spec sheets we are not lacking much at all. Read below to feel better about the keynote. Software is the real driver is in this war and CrapCream Sandwich is not going to be anything that great.
PROCESSOR:
The A5 has no true equal the Graphics lightyears ahead of what goes in the droids.
SCREEN:
The Screen is awesome with the best PPI to date (even if small) IPS is superior to SAMOLED. Yes ASMOLED is brighter but its overstaturated, and non realistic.
CAMERA:
The Camera is 8MP which matches others but the quality and speed will make the droid look sad.
DESIGN:
The design is sexy and will get you laid...lol
OS:
Its IOS nuff said.
SUPPORT:
You can walk into an apple store with a problem get it fixed or walk out with a new phone within ten twenty minutes.
APPS:
500,000 of the best apps and we get the good ones first, IE netflix, instagram, and Any bad ass game.
ACCESSOIRES:
If you can think its out there or you can go on kickstarter and become a millionaire making your own lol
But alas, Next year we should get a bigger screen and LTE if not it will be a sad day for us users.
We have a whole year of getting trolled (BAD!) by Android Fan Boys (Which are worse than Apple ones) But even if you see the spec sheets we are not lacking much at all. Read below to feel better about the keynote. Software is the real driver is in this war and CrapCream Sandwich is not going to be anything that great.
PROCESSOR:
The A5 has no true equal the Graphics lightyears ahead of what goes in the droids.
SCREEN:
The Screen is awesome with the best PPI to date (even if small) IPS is superior to SAMOLED. Yes ASMOLED is brighter but its overstaturated, and non realistic.
CAMERA:
The Camera is 8MP which matches others but the quality and speed will make the droid look sad.
DESIGN:
The design is sexy and will get you laid...lol
OS:
Its IOS nuff said.
SUPPORT:
You can walk into an apple store with a problem get it fixed or walk out with a new phone within ten twenty minutes.
APPS:
500,000 of the best apps and we get the good ones first, IE netflix, instagram, and Any bad ass game.
ACCESSOIRES:
If you can think its out there or you can go on kickstarter and become a millionaire making your own lol
But alas, Next year we should get a bigger screen and LTE if not it will be a sad day for us users.
The delay wasn't the hardware. The delay was iOS 5, icloud, and Siri. The iPhone 6 (it will be called 6 not 5) will launch in the July-Sept 2012 timeframe. There will not be a standard Oct launch going forward, this is was a one off due to issues with software.
Whilst I do understand why some people are disappointed, in a way, I see the 4S as a good thing.
In all of the rumored new shapes / designs that have floated around the internet, none of them grabbed me in the same way as when the 'lost iPhone 4' surfaced. I personally like the 4/4S form factor, size and weight.
Yes, I would have liked to have seen a larger 'edge to edge' screen, maybe with an even higher DPI, the fact the form factor is constant means I don't need to buy new accessories / adapters such as the snap-in for my BMW, various cases I already have, etc.
I'm not sure I'll be upgrading to the 4S straight away, but if I do get a good upgrade offer from either my current carrier or one of the others, then I would consider it.
At least keeping the form factor the same also keeps the 2nd hand value of current 4's higher than if some ultra thin, super light, true 4G iphone had appeared.
I see the 4S as a natural upgrade for those that still have the original 3GS (16/32 gig) or the value 3GS (8 gig).
Apple have also widened the range by keeping the 3GS (at a lower price point), bringing an 8 gig 4 in where the 3GS 8 gig left off and bringing the 4S in where the 4's where. In the future this will potentially lead to an even wider set of 3GS and 4 at 8 gig, and 4S at 16 and 32 gig, 5 at 64 and 128 gig catering for a wide market with a diverse set of price points.
There was actually a hint of what is happening when Tim Cook explained that they view the whole mobile phone market, which they have just 5%, and that they expect everyone to migrate to smartphones.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple have been developing the iPhone 5, but just couldn't get it to the price point they wanted with the cost base it currently has. There has been recent history of this with prototype iPod Touches with camera's a whole year before they appeared and the original iPad having the internals to house camera's without ending up with them at launch. If this is the case, then maybe a Feb / March launch for the iPhone 5 in time for Summer 2012.
Phil
In all of the rumored new shapes / designs that have floated around the internet, none of them grabbed me in the same way as when the 'lost iPhone 4' surfaced. I personally like the 4/4S form factor, size and weight.
Yes, I would have liked to have seen a larger 'edge to edge' screen, maybe with an even higher DPI, the fact the form factor is constant means I don't need to buy new accessories / adapters such as the snap-in for my BMW, various cases I already have, etc.
I'm not sure I'll be upgrading to the 4S straight away, but if I do get a good upgrade offer from either my current carrier or one of the others, then I would consider it.
At least keeping the form factor the same also keeps the 2nd hand value of current 4's higher than if some ultra thin, super light, true 4G iphone had appeared.
I see the 4S as a natural upgrade for those that still have the original 3GS (16/32 gig) or the value 3GS (8 gig).
Apple have also widened the range by keeping the 3GS (at a lower price point), bringing an 8 gig 4 in where the 3GS 8 gig left off and bringing the 4S in where the 4's where. In the future this will potentially lead to an even wider set of 3GS and 4 at 8 gig, and 4S at 16 and 32 gig, 5 at 64 and 128 gig catering for a wide market with a diverse set of price points.
There was actually a hint of what is happening when Tim Cook explained that they view the whole mobile phone market, which they have just 5%, and that they expect everyone to migrate to smartphones.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple have been developing the iPhone 5, but just couldn't get it to the price point they wanted with the cost base it currently has. There has been recent history of this with prototype iPod Touches with camera's a whole year before they appeared and the original iPad having the internals to house camera's without ending up with them at launch. If this is the case, then maybe a Feb / March launch for the iPhone 5 in time for Summer 2012.
Phil
Well there are a number of issues I have with most of the posts here.
I was disheartened by the press reaction and posts here too, people whining about how it didn't change enough. Unfortunately for some folks it has to LOOK really different to be worth upgrading to. Apple played a number of smart cards on Tuesday:
a) releasing an array of Apple iPhones at a range of price points.
b) adding Sprint as carriers
c) jumping the specs big time for the iPhone 4S.
d) brining in SIRI
e) what people can't see yet that will really make most of the iPhone range really great: iOS5 and iCloud.
Where did Apple go wrong ??
The only thing I can see they did wrong was they didn't use the best pitch man I've ever seen in my 65 years on this Earth to introduce it: Steve Jobs. Now if you could use the Wayback Machine to take us back 1 hour before yesterday's announcement and then put Steve up there selling it, with the zeal and gleam in his eyes then I think a lot of people would have reacted a lot differently.
I don't remember people whining so much when the iPhone 3GS came out ?? Did you ?? I'm upgrading, I think the new phone's features are worth it. Come on folks, you sell your old iPhone to NextWorth at a local Target store and you about break even financially and come out with a way better phone.
I was disheartened by the press reaction and posts here too, people whining about how it didn't change enough. Unfortunately for some folks it has to LOOK really different to be worth upgrading to. Apple played a number of smart cards on Tuesday:
a) releasing an array of Apple iPhones at a range of price points.
b) adding Sprint as carriers
c) jumping the specs big time for the iPhone 4S.
d) brining in SIRI
e) what people can't see yet that will really make most of the iPhone range really great: iOS5 and iCloud.
Where did Apple go wrong ??
The only thing I can see they did wrong was they didn't use the best pitch man I've ever seen in my 65 years on this Earth to introduce it: Steve Jobs. Now if you could use the Wayback Machine to take us back 1 hour before yesterday's announcement and then put Steve up there selling it, with the zeal and gleam in his eyes then I think a lot of people would have reacted a lot differently.
I don't remember people whining so much when the iPhone 3GS came out ?? Did you ?? I'm upgrading, I think the new phone's features are worth it. Come on folks, you sell your old iPhone to NextWorth at a local Target store and you about break even financially and come out with a way better phone.
So just in case Apple are reading this, this is what I'd like to see in the next iPhone;
1. Better front camera, current one is quite noisy in medium to low light conditions making Facetime less attractive to use.
2. Yes, your new camera is good, but if you really want to take on point and shoots, you need to think about even better ways of zooming (any chance of optical zoom in a compact space, now that would be a BIG deal). Also need to improve the Flash, maybe dual Xenon flashes. Glad you didn't jump on the 3D bandwagon now but in the future, it would be cool.
3. stereo speakers! and higher quality. Casual listening is too often required when a docking hifi is not around!
4. Better bluetooth functionality with A2DP, BIP/BPP, HCRP, HID.
5. Full DLNA support, to supplement AirPlay.
6. Improved home button. Mine is already wearing out and the phone is only 15 months old!
7. Even better battery life. Processor intensive apps still kill the current battery technology too fast. Need at least 30% more power!
Requests for iOS;
1. be to able to resize icons and increase the number of icons on the screen / dock. especially on the iPad.
2. Genius auto icon arrange - you know how your users access their apps, so add a setting to automatically arrange icons in a way which improves efficiency!
3. Status Bar Settings! I want to be able to switch bluetooth on / off by pressing the icon in the status bar, change time zones by pressing the time, maybe even switch users / profiles (e.g. home / work).
4. Radical integration with OS X. e.g. be able to use the iPhone/iPad as an external display or additional display on common apps such as iMovie (iPhone could be the preview window!).
Request for iCloud
1. Bring back all of the MobileMe features that are disappearing!
2. True streaming of any content a user has purchased.
3. iCloud on Apple TV!
1. Better front camera, current one is quite noisy in medium to low light conditions making Facetime less attractive to use.
2. Yes, your new camera is good, but if you really want to take on point and shoots, you need to think about even better ways of zooming (any chance of optical zoom in a compact space, now that would be a BIG deal). Also need to improve the Flash, maybe dual Xenon flashes. Glad you didn't jump on the 3D bandwagon now but in the future, it would be cool.
3. stereo speakers! and higher quality. Casual listening is too often required when a docking hifi is not around!
4. Better bluetooth functionality with A2DP, BIP/BPP, HCRP, HID.
5. Full DLNA support, to supplement AirPlay.
6. Improved home button. Mine is already wearing out and the phone is only 15 months old!
7. Even better battery life. Processor intensive apps still kill the current battery technology too fast. Need at least 30% more power!
Requests for iOS;
1. be to able to resize icons and increase the number of icons on the screen / dock. especially on the iPad.
2. Genius auto icon arrange - you know how your users access their apps, so add a setting to automatically arrange icons in a way which improves efficiency!
3. Status Bar Settings! I want to be able to switch bluetooth on / off by pressing the icon in the status bar, change time zones by pressing the time, maybe even switch users / profiles (e.g. home / work).
4. Radical integration with OS X. e.g. be able to use the iPhone/iPad as an external display or additional display on common apps such as iMovie (iPhone could be the preview window!).
Request for iCloud
1. Bring back all of the MobileMe features that are disappearing!
2. True streaming of any content a user has purchased.
3. iCloud on Apple TV!
I think you mean to say, "I want a bigger screen!" I only want a bigger screen if my phone stays the same size. I think those android phones are huge and ugly. I am not sure I meet whatever requirement you have for a smartphone, but you might want to consider some people don't want what you want.
AAaaawwwwww...
----------
Dumb. "The Phone looks the same so it must be!" says the technologically challenged.
Actually I see this as the new time frame for Apple, it is now March for iPads, June/July for dev sneak peek at iOS, and October for iPhones and iPods.
I really think this is the new yearly upades for products, they get to milk every product for a year doing this, for a business point of view makes perfect sense.
There's no doubt that there's a big downside to how much hype gets built up around iPhone releases
I woke up this morning (I live down under, so any news wasn't going to happen until the morning here) to be massively underwhelmed (at first anyways) by the lack of a 4" screen and a genuine iPhone 5!
But then as I was watching the keynote earlier, I realised that Apple is just taking it's time with these phones... they're not rushing out the absolute latest and greatest, but taking time to make sure everything is perfect. This Siri tech should be proof of how good their approach is - it's looks like a very cool and distinguishing feature for the iPhone 4S
No doubt the iPhone 5 next year will have a 4" screen, but dammit i'm still sporting a ****** 3GS, so i'm definitely upgrading to the 4S!
It'll be interesting to here how much RAM the 4S has and whether the A5 has been underclocked compared to the iPad.
Also, the 8 MP camera looks a treat! The strong interest Apple shows in getting the camera right in their phone is good to see. You can just tell that having a chip like the A5 on hand inside the 'camera' gives it a fair advantage over regular point and shoot cameras in processing ability (for all the nifty on-the-fly auto-adjusts). I'm no expert, but i'm guessing even DSLRs don't have chips like the A5 inside? (someone please correct me here if i'm wrong).
Overall i'm still disappointed no 4" screen, but still gunna put my pre-order in ASAP!
I woke up this morning (I live down under, so any news wasn't going to happen until the morning here) to be massively underwhelmed (at first anyways) by the lack of a 4" screen and a genuine iPhone 5!
But then as I was watching the keynote earlier, I realised that Apple is just taking it's time with these phones... they're not rushing out the absolute latest and greatest, but taking time to make sure everything is perfect. This Siri tech should be proof of how good their approach is - it's looks like a very cool and distinguishing feature for the iPhone 4S
No doubt the iPhone 5 next year will have a 4" screen, but dammit i'm still sporting a ****** 3GS, so i'm definitely upgrading to the 4S!
It'll be interesting to here how much RAM the 4S has and whether the A5 has been underclocked compared to the iPad.
Also, the 8 MP camera looks a treat! The strong interest Apple shows in getting the camera right in their phone is good to see. You can just tell that having a chip like the A5 on hand inside the 'camera' gives it a fair advantage over regular point and shoot cameras in processing ability (for all the nifty on-the-fly auto-adjusts). I'm no expert, but i'm guessing even DSLRs don't have chips like the A5 inside? (someone please correct me here if i'm wrong).
Overall i'm still disappointed no 4" screen, but still gunna put my pre-order in ASAP!
I can't get a subsidised upgrade until Feb. 16. I will wait for next years model. I am excited about IOS5 though.
There's no doubt that there's a big downside to how much hype gets built up around iPhone releases
I woke up this morning (I live down under, so any news wasn't going to happen until the morning here) to be massively underwhelmed (at first anyways) by the lack of a 4" screen and a genuine iPhone 5!
But then as I was watching the keynote earlier, I realised that Apple is just taking it's time with these phones... they're not rushing out the absolute latest and greatest, but taking time to make sure everything is perfect. This Siri tech should be proof of how good their approach is - it's looks like a very cool and distinguishing feature for the iPhone 4S
No doubt the iPhone 5 next year will have a 4" screen, but dammit i'm still sporting a ****** 3GS, so i'm definitely upgrading to the 4S!
It'll be interesting to here how much RAM the 4S has and whether the A5 has been underclocked compared to the iPad.
Also, the 8 MP camera looks a treat! The strong interest Apple shows in getting the camera right in their phone is good to see. You can just tell that having a chip like the A5 on hand inside the 'camera' gives it a fair advantage over regular point and shoot cameras in processing ability (for all the nifty on-the-fly auto-adjusts). I'm no expert, but i'm guessing even DSLRs don't have chips like the A5 inside? (someone please correct me here if i'm wrong).
Overall i'm still disappointed no 4" screen, but still gunna put my pre-order in ASAP!
apple could've come out at any point and said "there will be no low cost iphone and no iphone 5 yet" before tuesday..
i understand what you're saying but i really think that apple needs to do away with the viral marketing campaign... they ended up wasting months of our time to release a phone they could've released (w/o siri) at the top of this year...
apple really needs to understand that itunes is carrying their products... seriously, if android had itunes support for music and movies and had airplay, i'd probably forget about the iphone.. (not saying that android has all the bases covered/mastered)
i dont think that apple realized that its not 2008 anymore... there is actually alot of competition out there.. and they're kicking apple's butt
and in my opinion, selling iOS to other hardware producers like google does, wouldnt be a really bad idea... i dont see how apple is going to overturn Android's market share with 1 high end phone and 1 low cost phone (that hasnt come out yet).. apple may need to flood the market with different hardware options. The tablet market doesnt have nearly as many options and doesnt need to, but apple needs to get their act together on the phone front and give customers more options and styles of phones
Do you see Apple being scared with Mac OSX ? they having barely 8% of market penetration against Microsoft with close to 88% of the market !
The answer is NO ... why you ask ... because even tho they have lower market penetration ... they still make the most profit out of all of the competition. And that makes the Shareholders happy. Has nothing to do with being number 1 OS, it has to do with the most Phones sold. !
Stop adding Adroid OS phones togeter ... START counting phones by themselfs e.g. Galaxy S2 phones ... how many of those did Samsung sell till now again iPhone 4 ??? HTC Incredible sold how many ?? and so on ... none come close to iPhone 4.
iPhone is nowhere near danger zone it sells big time.
each strategy has downsides...
apple gains more profit, sells a higher percentage of inventory than android by only putting out 1 phone per year/+
android, has a lower profit margin for each phone, but combined, sell more phones than apple does - after adding all the totals for each phone that year
Think about what apple could do if they beat android at their own game
lower their profit margins by a certain degree... hit the market with 4-5 phones a year instead of like 15-20 (like android) and not only bring in a high profit ratio, but win the overall market share as well
just look at some market share predictions
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1622614
im sorry, i didnt know that the point of competition was to give everybody an opportunity to dominate areas of the market...i thought the goal was to eliminate competition and or dominate them
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Oh well, if I end up waiting for iPhone 5 ... then the iPhone 6 will have better specs ... but wait ... maybe if I wait for iPhone 7 I hear its gonna be even thinner then the iPhone 6 and boost a better screen !!! :O
Do we have to wait for a redesign to buy a better phone ??
Everyone needs to stop
Everyone needs to stop whining. We have no control of what Apple does. I have been waiting to buy the iPhone for a long time as many of us have and most likely won't wait any longer. I figure, by the time my contract ends the iPhone out then will be incredibly better then this one already is. We have to remember one thing, Technology is always changing and it is only a matter of time before the LTE or iPhone 5 will be here. Everyone RELAX its just a phone!
Everyone needs to stop whining. We have no control of what Apple does. I have been waiting to buy the iPhone for a long time as many of us have and most likely won't wait any longer. I figure, by the time my contract ends the iPhone out then will be incredibly better then this one already is. We have to remember one thing, Technology is always changing and it is only a matter of time before the LTE or iPhone 5 will be here. Everyone RELAX its just a phone!
Tho I am disappointed about the screen size and the same case...I then thought about it. Did I buy a new computer for the case? Or the guts? I looked at all my CPU's and they are the same shape. I bought my first Mac (iMac) this year and that was the first "new" style CPU I have purchased since 1995.
The guts are what make this new. Sure, waiting till October messed me up a little, even tho I am a newbie, I think it is worth the wait.
The guts are what make this new. Sure, waiting till October messed me up a little, even tho I am a newbie, I think it is worth the wait.