Apple is supposedly is preparing to overhaul its key product trifecta: the iPhone, the iPad and iMac, as well as the MacBook Air in 2012. The report, based on the tech giant’s “upstream supply chain,” echos existing chatter the company will unveil new versions of its products in the coming year.
It appears the wave of early disappointment in the iPhone 4S that washed over U.S. consumers has now made it to the United Kingdom. A third of UK consumers were “disappointed” Apple’s new handset didn’t offer more features, according to an Internet survey.
A day after Apple failed to beat Wall Street revenue expectations for the first time since 2002, analysts are trying to explain what happened. The potential culprits range from iPhone 5 rumors to the tech giant just needed a breather.
During today’s Q4 earnings call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer talked about how “pervasive” iPhone rumors hurt Apple’s fiscal business. While nearly every product saw a significant increase in sales for the fourth fiscal quarter, the iPhone saw a lackluster 17.07 million iPhones sold. That’s 21% year over year growth. The iPad saw 166% year over year growth.
It’s typical for product sales to taper off right before a refresh, but this last fiscal quarter’s iPhone sales were even lower than what Apple expected. Oppenheimer blamed the rumor mill for hurting Apple’s fiscal business with regards to the iPhone.
The big question about the iPhone 4S is whether it’s worth the upgrade.
The answer is yes, and that’s because of Siri, the talking personal assistant.
Siri is unbelievable; a paradigm shift. It’s new way of interacting with computers that’s as big a breakthrough as the original Macintosh with its mouse, windows and icons. In fact, it’s bigger. It’s a much more natural way to interact with machines. It’s a glimpse of the future of computing.
Like the first Mac, it’s far from perfect. We’re at the very beginning of this revolution. But if you want to join the party, you need the 4S.
What a difference a week makes. Last week I went to the San Francisco downtown Apple store to take pictures of the sad Steve Jobs memorial. This week it was a different world at the iPhone 4s launch. Business as usual. There was only one reminder of Steve, a single bouquet of flowers stashed in the corner of a window.
Ahead of next week’s fourth quarter earnings report, Apple is expected to announce earning $30 billion, driven by iPhone sales, one analyst told investors Friday. Although Wall Street consensus is for $29.2 billion, the iPhone 4’s release at the end of Apple’s fourth quarter should result in a brighter financial outlook.
Obviously, the best way to make sure you got an iPhone 4S on launch day was to order one online, but that ship has sailed, and if you didn’t get your order in, braving launch day lines is your only option at this point. After four iPhone launches though, we’re now pros at the line-waiting game. Here are our killer tips and tricks for not just surviving the iPhone 4S line-waiting madness and walking away with the model you want.
So Apple didn’t announce that all-new iPhone 5 you were so desperately longing for, but the good news is, you can use your current stock of iPhone 4 cases with your new iPhone 4S, right? Wrong!
While Apple’s new iPhone looks the same as its predecessor, there’s a very subtly difference that may mean some cases won’t fit it.
Hardware researchers say Apple’s just-released iPhone 4S costs $203 to build, providing similar ‘evolutionary’ advances seen when the tech giant jumped from the iPhone 3G to 3GS. The 32GB iPhone 4S will cost $749 before customer subsidy.