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Posted on 10/10/2011 8:34:50 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When Apple launched the iPhone 4S instead of the iPhone 5 last week, I initially thought it was a disappointment and a mistake.
If Apple had launched the actual iPhone 5, I thought, they'd have sold more of them.
And that's probably right.
If Apple had launched a radically new iPhone 5, more of the folks who currently own iPhone 4s would have upgraded, so Apple would have sold some more 4S units. As it is, the iPhone 4S is likely to appeal primarily to iPhone 3G and 3GS owners, non-smartphone owners, and non-iPhone owners, most of whom (like me) are presumably stoked to buy the iPhone 4S.
But viewing the 4S as disappointing ignores Apple's likely thinking behind it, which Asymco analyst Horace Dediu explains very clearly here.
The thinking is that most iPhone 4 owners are still bound by the 2-year contracts they had to enter into when they bought the iPhone 4, so they'll be less likely to now upgrade anyway (barring carriers waving those contracts, which they might have if Apple had released the "5").
So the 4S isn't aimed at these folks. It's aimed at the other three categories of iPhone 4S buyers:
* Pre-iPhone 4 iPhone users (~70 million of them)
* Non-smartphone users (1+ billion, who can now get a 3GS for free, if price is an issue)
* Non-iPhone smartphone users (Blackberry, Android, Nokia)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
no, actually, i’ve never been an apple fan.
i grew up with pc’s and like their feel better.
i think i will, like you, wait and see the newest samsung in late spring.
so many choices!
thank you.
If you are a current AT&T customer with an iPhone, you bought a subsidized phone with a two-year contract. You can get another subsidized phone with the same number when about a year and a half of your current two-year contract has expired.
If you current contract with AT&T has not expired, then you can probably sell your iPhone 4 for about $200 if it's in good condition. That would wash out to about the same price as a fully subsidized phone.
Yes, you can get an iPhone for $200 with a completely new contract with a different phone number with AT&T, or with Verizon or Sprint. Do you need a second phone?
I didn’t hear about the release. I have a 7 year old phone and was looking for a new one. Hubby and I finally decided it would be worth another 2 year contract to get a good phone since we aren’t likely to switch carriers. So after a couple hours of looking at phones, I went to Verizon’s site and saw the iPhone. I’ll be pre-ordering as soon as I find out if my daughter wants a new phone. She’s not a Mac fan and resistant to change. Works for me :)
During the last month we used 7 minutes on our cell phones. We don’t text. I want something I can pull up a map on or find stores close to my location when I’m out and maybe entertain myself for 5 minutes while waiting to pick up my daughter at school. This is a great option for me.
The iPhone 4S is the biggest, most successful iPhone product launch ever.
The 4S sold over a million on launch day. More than the previous record holder, the iPhone 4 with 600,000 on launch.
Why are people griping?
Apple did it again!
I've got a Sprint 3g/4g mifi device that delivers (on 4G) anywhere from 5 to 7Gb, and ~70ms latency. Seems to me, it rocks pretty good. Am I supposed to hate it because they don't conform to some standard?
But why don’t they wait until the I5 which I understand would be a world wide phone?
I was never so happy as to turn in my BB, no more trouble calls, no more priority emails, no more project folders to spoil my weekends! I did get a cellphone, but a different number I didn't give out. Ahhhh! Sweet silence.
I have a Verizon MiFi LTE device, too. I get similar latency, and as much as 12 megabit/sec download (albeit practically in the shadow of the cell phone tower). But, that doesn't make it 4G.
But now that you mention it that you mention it, your MiFi uses WiMax for what it calls "4G", rather than LTE -- at least for now. Sprint is switching to LTE over the next couple of years. The current WiMax deployed in the US is '3G+++', too. I've also heard both schemes called "3.9G".
The next evolutions of LTE and WiMax (LTE advanced and 801.16m, respectively) are expected to meet the requirements of "4G", as defined by the ITU. They will be a significant step up from current capabilities:
That last one is interesting: the wireless carriers will be reduced to charging for moving bits. No more separate features like "voice minutes" or "SMS messages" to extract more dollars from you. They will have to charge a few cents a minute for calls to a land-line phone, but those fees are currently being renegotiated.
The marketeers will have to come up with a new name when true 4G is finally deployed. I wonder what they will call it?
Not my world.
I will never own a 'smart phone'. I have an LG VX8300 'flip' phone that is built like a tank, does all I need and more...and has no extra software that tracks me or anything of the sort.
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