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Apple Introduces a New iPhone, With a Personal Assistant | AppzDev iPhone Development

Apple Introduces a New iPhone, With a Personal Assistant | AppzDev iPhone Development.

CUPERTINO, Calif. — For its next act, Apple is turning the iPhone into a personal assistant.
The company on Tuesday unveiled an eagerly awaited new version of the device, the iPhone 4S, that comes with a “virtual assistant,” Siri, that recognizes voice commands by users to schedule appointments, dictate text messages and conduct Web searches.

Although the new phone is virtually indistinguishable on the outside from its predecessor, the iPhone 4, the company says it is packed with better technical innards, including a more advanced camera. The phone also includes a more powerful chip known as the A5, the same microprocessor that acts as the brains inside the iPad.

The company also said the new phone would run on two kinds of cellphone networks, GSM and CDMA, allowing its operation worldwide.

“When you think about it, only Apple could make such amazing software, hardware and services and bring them together into such a powerful, yet integrated experience,” said Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive officer, who introduced the new phone at an event here at the company’s headquarters.

Despite the new features and the improved technology, Apple fans expressed disappointment on Twitter about the lack of a design change. Investors reacted as well, sending the stock down 5 percent.
Preorders for the iPhone 4S start on Friday; the phone goes on sale on Oct. 14. Prices start at $199 for a model with 16 gigabytes of storage.

Apple will continue to sell its older iPhone 4 through its wireless carrier partners, which will drop the price to $99 from $199 when customers commit to a two-year contract. An even older model of the device, the iPhone 3GS, will be free, instead of $99, with a two-year contract.

The new phone will be available on the AT&T, Verizon and Sprint networks.

Mr. Cook’s appearance was his first at an event introducing a new Apple product since he took over as chief executive from Steven P. Jobs in August. Mr. Jobs was a master pitchman for Apple’s new products, captivating audiences with introductions that seemed off the cuff but were always meticulously rehearsed.

Mr. Jobs, founder of the company, left the top job for health reasons, and became chairman of Apple’s board.

Since the first iPhone was unveiled in 2007, Apple has come out with a new version each year, usually with an eye-catching new design, speedier technical performance and a fresh operating system packed with new features. While Apple generally has released the new versions in June, this one is coming out much closer to the crucial holiday selling season.

With every new iPhone, Apple faces the challenge of how to entice its legions of fans to upgrade to the new device and to convert the much larger pool of people who don’t yet own one. The second task is the more difficult one, as mobile phones running the Android operating system by rival Google have flooded the market, with wider distribution from wireless carriers, more hardware choices and often cheaper price tags.
When the previous iPhone update was released, in June 2010, Apple and Google each accounted for about the same share of new smartphone sales. Since then the market has shifted dramatically in Google’s favor. During the second quarter of this year, Android devices accounted for 43.4 percent of new smartphone sales to Apple’s 18.2 percent, according to the research firm Gartner.

Both companies’ mobile businesses are growing swiftly as they steal share from rivals like the maker of the BlackBerry, Research in Motion, that have fallen behind their technical innovations.

The iPhone is the most critical product in Apple’s line-up and the largest source of its revenue, accounting for more than $13.3 billion — almost half of total company sales — in the most recent quarter.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 4, 2011

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly said Apple introduced the phone on Wednesday. It was Tuesday.

iPhone 5 and AT&T, Sprint, Verizon

Even as Verizon discounts its iPhone 4 in order to draw down inventory ahead of the iPhone 5 and Sprint can barely manage to bite its lip with excitement regarding its impending iPhone 5 addition, original iPhone carrier AT&T remains publicly indifferent. Most notable is that even as AT&T serves up discounts this week on dozens of smartphones from rivals like Samsung and HTC, not a penny has been shaved off the price of its iPhone 4. This kind of indifference has come to be expected from AT&T customers, who watched the carrier respond to its impending loss of iPhone exclusivity by eliminating popular unlimited data plans and not lifting a finger to compete with the Verizon iPhone 4 which arrived in the spring. That leaves AT&T iPhone customers in the position of going carrier-shopping with the launch of the iPhone 5 (but not to T-Mobile, which admits it won’t have the iPhone this year), with various factors marking the pros and cons of doing so. For those iPhone 5 buyers who are looking at marking the occasion by moving to Verizon or Sprint, here’s a look the ups and downs of it…

The first factor is a financial one. Verizon’s plans cost roughly the same as that of AT&T, while Sprint offers pricing which is cheaper for most users in most instances. However, any AT&T customer who bought their last iPhone less than two years ago is looking at having to pay off the remaining portion of their early termination fee if they’re going to change carriers at the iPhone 5 launch. There are actually three groups here. The first are those whose current iPhone is more than two years old and are already post-contract: they can change carriers without regard for cost. The second are those who are eligible for upgrade pricing (typically twelve or eighteen months after purchase) but aren’t yet out of their contract: it’s cheaper for them to remain with AT&T because the iPhone 5 will cost the same no matter who they get it from, and leaving AT&T will require an ETF payment. The third group faces a different fate: those who aren’t yet upgrade-eligible will find themselves facing a $200 surcharge for an AT&T iPhone 5, and may come out ahead by buying a Verizon or Sprint iPhone 5 at standard pricing and using the savings to pay off their AT&T ETF…

Network quality is a significant factor but one which is tricky to quantify on a local level. For those who aren’t globe trotters, less important are national network quality rankings and more important are signal strength at ones home, place or work, favorite hangouts, and routes in between. A longtime AT&T iPhone user could be living in the middle of a Verizon dead spot and not know it; switching to a Verizon iPhone 5 could then become a nightmare. The way around this is to invite friends with Sprint and Verizon phones to come visit, and then check their reception while they’re over.
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Network speed is another beast entirely. Both Verizon and AT&T have embarked on 4G LTE nationwide networks, but Verizon is much further along in that regard; neither one is anywhere close to being nationwide as of yet. The iPhone 5 may or may not even support 4G LTE, which won’t be confirmed until the device launches. Sprint offers a 4G network which is nationwide, but it’s significantly slower than the 4G LTE being promised by the other two carriers. It’s not yet known whether the iPhone 5 will support Sprint’s 4G, either.

Neither Verizon nor AT&T is offering unlimited data plans to new customers. Sprint is doing so, but reserves the right to revoke it down the road. Longtime AT&T iPhone users are still on an unlimited data plan if they’ve so chosen, and would lose this plan if they move to a Verizon iPhone 5. Then again, they could eventually lose the plan if AT&T revokes it later. Unlimited data plans mean you can surf the web as much as you like; those on limited data plans are in store for sizable overage fees if they go past their monthly limit. Here’s more on the iPhone 5

 

Verizon Android Users Switching to iPhone

Six months after the introduction of the Verizon iPhone, Verizon’s customer base appears to be shifting away from Android devices towards the iPhone. The data comes via online advertising network Chitika, which monitors the OS and device breakdown across its ad network to spot trends in device usage. According to the firm, Verizon’s share of the Android market in the US has dropped nearly 10 full percentage points between March and August, while AT&T’s share of the Android market has gone up, indicating that more users are using iPhones through Verizon now that the option is available.
When Chitika looked at its numbers in March, it noted that Verizon’s share of the Android market sat at roughly 51.4 percent, with Sprint grabbing 25.3 percent, T-Mobile grabbing 16.8 percent, and AT&T a mere 3.6 percent. Since then, however, the numbers have changed dramatically. When analyzing the numbers again for this month, the only two networks to see significant changes were Verizon and AT&T—coincidentally, the only two networks in the US to offer the iPhone 4. Verizon’s share of the Android market dropped to just 41 percent while AT&T’s increased to 8.7 percent in August.
Since the other networks appear to be fairly consistent in their numbers and Verizon still offers some of the most popular Android devices, the best explanation is that a significant number of Verizon’s vast user base is switching to the iPhone 4 as many predicted before the launch. A survey conducted just before the Verizon iPhone’s public release revealed that more than half of Verizon’s Android and BlackBerry users were mulling a switch to the iPhone when it became available on their network, and it looks like those changes are now beginning to filter down.
Chikita seems to agree with that reasoning, too.
“While Verizon still has four of the top five Android smartphones (Droid X, HTC Droid Incredible, Samsung Fascinate, Droid), its market share is clearly down. In contrast, AT&T’s share of the Android phone market is increasing, with devices such at the HTC Inspire gaining significant popularity among smartphone users,” Chikita wrote on its website. “[…] Verizon’s share of iPhone traffic continues to increase, but it seems that Verizon is gaining market share in Apple’s prominent smartphone at the expense of its other, Android-running devices.”
It’s also worth noting that Chitika’s page showing the current iPhone balance between AT&T and Verizon has shifted quite a bit as well. When we wrote about the breakdown back in February immediately after the Verizon iPhone launch, AT&T held 97 percent of the US iPhone share while Verizon held three percent. Today’s numbers look quite different: AT&T is currently at 76.7 percent while Verizon is at 23.3 percent. It’s clear that Verizon’s customers are indeed buying the iPhone in increasing numbers, and at the expense of Android.