OPINION: Hear that sound? That's the collective whine of millions of Apple fans around the world who had been primed for an iPhone 5, only to receive ... an iPhone 4S?
Apple has had around 16 months plotting its new iPhone but the new model is an evolution rather than a revolution of its predecessor, hence the name.
Shareholders weren't satisfied, sending Apple's stock spiralling downward.
"It's been 16 months and all you've got is an A5 processor in the existing iPhone 4," said one analyst, saying the phone was a mild disappointment but would still sell millions of units.
The disappointment is perhaps a measure of Apple's consumer cachet and marketing prowess as the new model certainly has a lot of great things going for it.
Sure, it doesn't have a bigger 4-inch screen or sleek new form factor as had been predicted in the press, but it does offer a faster dual-core processor, better graphics chip, 1GB of RAM and an upgraded 8-megapixel camera.
The software platform is also getting a revision with iOS5 bringing a new personal assistant feature and better cloud syncing with a new iCloud service.
The personal assistant feature, widely predicted in the lead up to the launch, is one of my favourite aspects of today's event. It will certainly be interesting to see how well it works in practice and whether it understands Australian accents.
Speech recognition on mobile devices looks set to be a new mobile battleground as Google has also been hard at work on similar features.
The search giant often talks about a future where phones will be able to better translate and understand language - where people will be able to have real-time conversations with someone who doesn't even speak their language, with voice recognition and translation occurring on the fly.
The new iPhone 4S couldn't come a moment too soon as the iPhone is under siege from a raft of offerings based on Google's Android platform.
I have been using the Samsung Galaxy S II for months and it is without doubt a better phone than the iPhone 4. It's got a much better 8-megapixel camera that can take better low-light shots, a sleeker form factor that is much lighter to hold than it appears and a larger, crisper screen.
The Galaxy S II is the first Android phone that I would say beats the iPhone 4 hands-down, which means today Apple was playing catch-up in the smartphone market for the first time since the iPhone's launch in 2007.
The iPhone 4S is a solid improvement that will bring Apple level with the best Android phones. The new camera, which can take 1080p high-definition video, is one of the strongest new features.
But it's no iPhone 5.
Apple was rumoured to be working on both an iPhone 4S and an iPhone 5 and the fact that it held back on the latter suggests a new model could be coming within six months.
- Sydney Morning Herald
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