Tons of coverage of today’s Let’s Talk iPhone event out there, as usual for Apple events.
The smartest: Apple will continue to sell the iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4 at lower prices, free with contract for the 3GS and $99 with contract for the 4. This is a great move against pressure from middle and low-end Android phones.
Rather than build something new and deprecate the old phones (and all their accessories, which is an unsung revenue stream for Apple and its partners), keep the manufacturing humming, same components, known processes, etc. Easier on the supply chain too.
Also smart, dropping a new iPhone that has the same physical specs, again to keep the accessory partners happy.
The middle: The iPhone 4S is all about specs, which didn’t used to matter, better processor, better camera, better resolution, better antennas, etc.
Update: I forgot Siri, which looks pretty awesome. Those of us with Android phones have had native voice capabilities for a long time, but Siri sources data from Wolfram Alpha and Wikipedia, which will be interesting to test. I expect voice input to mature more quickly under Apple than it has under Google, so I’m curious to know how people find the new Siri.
The WTF: Cards? I really thought this might be an Onion bit, especially since you get a push notification when the card is delivered (Update: printed and sent out, not delivered). How exactly will that work? Maybe someone can clue me in here, but I can’t understand why Apple would take on a printing enterprise. Are they bailing out the Post Office and equipping mail carriers with iPads?
What did you find interesting? Find the comments.
I think the market’s becoming confused, well, I am. iPhone 4S or iPhone5? iOS5 on iPhone 4S for a while more I guess: http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/05/8170141-buy-iphone-4s-or-wait-for-iphone-5
Not all confusing really. The 4S is a world phone, and it’s incrementally better than the 4, which was incrementally better than the 3GS, etc.
I expect iPhone 5 to follow this same pattern, more goodies, new form factor, incrementally better. So, why not upgrade? The 5 won’t be revolutionary.
Or wait a week to see what the Nexus Prime has in store. Sounds intriguing, possibly a tablet shell. Still, incrementally better.
There has been only one truly revolutionary smartphone in the last four years, the original iPhone.