Apple’s “Let’s Talk iPhone” keynote: the iPhone 4S cures insomnia

Ryan Wilsey 4 Oct, 2011 at 11:42pm ET Article published in Tech

Unless you’ve been living under a technological rock or otherwise wore your trusty tin foil hat today, Apple announced their new iPhone lineup during their “Let’s Talk iPhone” keynote talk today. As fans swarmed excitedly about the intertubes, searching frantically for live streams that actually worked or confirmation of the mythical iPhone 5, there was indeed quite a lot of hype and elevated expectations. So much elation, in fact, that several tech sites were experienced difficulties staying afloat, including Engadget, CNET, Ustream—even CNN had a hiccup or two.

Tim Cook—newly appointed CEO of Apple after Steve Jobs says “iQuit“—made his product launch debut today. And unsurprisingly, a Steve Jobs he was not. While I cannot fault him for not keeping up with the charisma that Jobs emanated (love him or hate him), today’s keynote was so anti-climatic that I literally almost fell asleep several times while watching CNN’s near-exclusive live video broadcast.

Why’s that, you may ask? For starters, spoiler alert: there is no iPhone 5. Yep, that’s right, Apple elected to give the iPhone 4 a few software and hardware upgrades, and call it the “iPhone 4S”, or 4.5 if you will. Color me unimpressed. Besides discussing the changes and new features, the rest of the keynote was Apple execs gratuitously patting themselves on the back, practically slathering on the smugness regarding iPhone, iPad, and iTunes sales numbers.

The iPhone 4S includes the "Siri" voice command system.

Is the iPhone 4S a bad phone? No. It’s actually pretty neat, and if I were in the market for a new phone I would consider one. The biggest improvements to the 4S are the following: faster A5 processor to match the iPad 2’s, a new camera that fares better in low light, dual antennas that also allow service with both CDMA (Verizon and Sprint) and GSM (AT&T, and the rest of the world), and a new voice command system Siri that talks to you and interprets verbal dictations.

Regardless, this is still a major disappointment (see how the iPhone 4S compares with other current-gen smartphones in Icrontic’s smartphone discussion). It’s a serious case of “too little, too late.” As our own Thrax so brilliantly stated earlier today, “Apple had an awesome chance to smash it out of the park with an iPhone 5. Instead they gave iOS a bunch of shit Android has had for 18 months, and just brought the hardware up to par with Android as of April.” If this had shipped back in June, then all would have been fine. But the 4S is pitiful compared to what should have released after a year and a half has passed since the iPhone 4’s coming.

I used to be an iPhone user, starting with the 3GS nearly three years ago. I was planning on upgrading to the iPhone 5 that was surely to release June of 2011. As June and the rest of summer flew by in a blur, I got tired of staring up at the empty sky and wondering when something would come my way. I jumped ship from AT&T to Verizon, snapped up a used HTC Droid Incredible from a fellow Icrontian, and haven’t looked back since. I don’t miss the iPhone in the least, and now I have zero regrets that I didn’t hold out. Had I have, I wouldn’t have just felt disappointed as I do today, but enraged.

Congratulations, Apple, you have settled for mediocrity. “Don’t fix what isn’t broken” is a wise man’s slogan, but not when it comes to innovation. Sure, it will still sell off the shelves the moment the shipping boxes are cut open at outlet stores. But I for one am not content to mindlessly don the silver Apple hat—of which I am convinced that if such a hat would exist, it would be comprised entirely of tin foil.

Comments

4 Oct 2011 ~ 11:57pm Chooch I still want one trollololol
5 Oct 2011 ~ 12:11am Bandrik

Church4252 wrote:

I still want one trollololol

You would, wouldn't you?! Ya damn punk!

You know what, though? I want one too. The first thing I would do is use Apple's Time Machine, go back in time, and give it to my past self back in June. Since nobody would believe me that I was holding the new-for-2011 iPhone, I would just quietly keep it to myself.

Except Apple's Time Machine doesn't work for that purpose. Or any purpose I suppose, for that matter. Zing!
5 Oct 2011 ~ 12:13am Chooch I want to use Siri to have it use Facebook timeline to find John Connor
5 Oct 2011 ~ 12:55am ryan A single core and a large screen would have gone over much better then this.
5 Oct 2011 ~ 4:39am Sonorous This is the point in time where Apple will realize that just the name 'iPhone' is not going to be enough to draw the attention of mass amounts of consumers. Adding another core isn't really going to be enough to make the consumer need to have this phone. People want 2 cores AND 4g AND larger screens these days. I really feel that Apple is banking on the "WELL IT'S AND IPHONE SO PEOPLE WILL WANT A SHINY NEW ONE" factor. Just seems like a lack luster attempt at pushing a device just to do it. If it were up to me, I would have held off and waited to develop a more feature rich upgrade early next year just to keep the buzz going and make people want the phone more. Then again I know nothing about what the consumer wants...:rolleyes2

Herp Derp Apple.
5 Oct 2011 ~ 8:46am kanezfan They will fly off the shelves, for no other reason than it's Apple. The people who are disappointed are techies like us. I have an iphone 4 and if they don't come up with a 4.3 inch screen next time, I'm going android, but you know what? Soccer mom Sally, she doesn't care. She'll get this iphone because it's a status symbol. That's what Apple sells, status symbols and style. Starbucks makes shitty coffee, but that's not really the main draw. The main draw is their atmosphere. That's what really drawn people in, the atmosphere.

That is my expert analysis. You can take that to the bank!
5 Oct 2011 ~ 9:09am MAGIC

kanezfan wrote:

They will fly off the shelves, for no other reason than it's Apple. The people who are disappointed are techies like us. I have an iphone 4 and if they don't come up with a 4.3 inch screen next time, I'm going android, but you know what? Soccer mom Sally, she doesn't care. She'll get this iphone because it's a status symbol. That's what Apple sells, status symbols and style. Starbucks makes shitty coffee, but that's not really the main draw. The main draw is their atmosphere. That's what really drawn people in, the atmosphere.

That is my expert analysis. You can take that to the bank!

Apple sells functionally great phones that are very elegantly designed. Our society makes them a status symbol. I love my iPhone because it does everything I need in a smartphone and the simple design appeals to my minimalist tendencies. Don't call me Sally.
5 Oct 2011 ~ 10:24am Linc Apple is 19% of the global smart phone market and Android is 48%, but 66% of Google mobile searches come from iOS and iOS accounts for 54.65% of mobile Web browsing (source). Yeah, I'm sure that's all Sally using it to impress her friends. Get off it.
5 Oct 2011 ~ 11:07am mertesn

Lincoln wrote:

Yeah, I'm sure that's all Sally using it to impress her friends. Get off it.

It's true though. Sally is just goofing off with her iPhone during class. All the hard working students have Android phones and are busy doing their homework. [/troll]
5 Oct 2011 ~ 11:13am Bandrik

kanezfan wrote:

They will fly off the shelves, for no other reason than it's Apple. The people who are disappointed are techies like us.

I wouldn't say it was just the techies like those here at Icrontic. There was quite a lot of groaning to be had. Hell, if you take a look at their stock value as Tuesday went on, the further the keynote went on, the lower their stock dipped.

Perhaps it was a coincidence, and the stock slid back up at the end of the day. But I will not believe for an instant that it was just the techies that were disappointed in Apple. After all, the only new iPhone product is a half-step upgrade with generally forgettable new features.
5 Oct 2011 ~ 11:22am Cliff_Forster You know where Apple beats Android, hands down, no contest? Apple offers a more controlled, less confusing platform for Joe consumer. The hardware is consistent and developed hand in hand with the software. There is less uncertainty, the platform is not revised every couple of months leading to further fragmentation and consumer confusion. It's all Apple, for better or worse, when people spend hard earned money they want to know exactly what they are getting for it. Joe Consumer wants a platform that is going to be supported for the life of the device, and not feel outdated in a few months. People are more comfortable with Apple because they do a better job at controlling and presenting product than anyone else.

When you buy the uber ultra cool whatever the top of the line Android phone is today, the only thing that is certain is that someone else will have a more uber ultra cool super duper Android phone a month from now. Tech enthusiasts see that as innovation while Joe Consumer sees uncertainty. You know the Best Buy commercial where the guy buys a 3D TV, and his neighbor gets a 4D TV delivered, it's kinda like that. Nobody wan't to feel like they have been one upped.

I'm not defending the consumer behavior, I'm just saying it's just the way people are. Apple knows this, they are brilliant at marketing and controlling their own product cycle. Joe Consumer can rest knowing that he/she will have something that will still be cool eighteen months from now. Android does not offer that.
5 Oct 2011 ~ 11:26am primesuspect I don't agree. The Android experience is just as refined as the iOS experience. My dad, my sister, and my girlfriend (not a techie among them) are all happy Android users. The phones "just work" and they don't know the first damned thing about CPUs, screen sizes, GPUs, or whatnot. They don't consider "what's going to be good next year", believe me. They just want a phone they can do apps with (what 95% of smartphone users want). Oh, I can Facebook? Check. Oh, I can Foursquare and Google Maps? Check.

If anything, the Android experience is MORE refined for people like that. The seamless integration with the other Google apps they're already using is a HUGE benefit of the Android platform.
5 Oct 2011 ~ 11:39am PirateNinja

Bandrik wrote:

I wouldn't say it was just the techies like those here at Icrontic. There was quite a lot of groaning to be had. Hell, if you take a look at their stock value as Tuesday went on, the further the keynote went on, the lower their stock dipped.

Perhaps it was a coincidence, and the stock slid back up at the end of the day. But I will not believe for an instant that it was just the techies that were disappointed in Apple. After all, the only new iPhone product is a half-step upgrade with generally forgettable new features.

Just a correlation, you can make the same correlation with nasdaq as a whole.
5 Oct 2011 ~ 11:39am Kwitko I agree, Brian. My brother isn't a techie, and he had no problems when he went from the iPhone to the G1. He was showing me how everything was tightly integrated, and this was on Cupcake, no less. When his company migrated everyone to Verizon, he had a choice between the iPhone and the Thunderbolt. He chose the Thunderbolt.
5 Oct 2011 ~ 11:45am primesuspect I think a lot of iPhone users think that Android is some scary thing without ever having touched it. Let's be frank: The user experience for a vast majority of smartphone users involves a home screen with a bunch of squares on it. They press the square they want and do the thing and go back to the home screen. It's basically the same UX for both platforms.
5 Oct 2011 ~ 12:14pm Cliff_Forster

primesuspect wrote:

I think a lot of iPhone users think that Android is some scary thing without ever having touched it. Let's be frank: The user experience for a vast majority of smartphone users involves a home screen with a bunch of squares on it. They press the square they want and do the thing and go back to the home screen. It's basically the same UX for both platforms.

I agree, I'm not making a comparison on what platform is better. They are similar, excpet Android has Google Apps, and the Iphone has Itunes. At the end of the day, your touching squares to do the same things.

Its about how they go to market. I think it is reasonable that some people are at least somewhat confused about the Galaxy, vs. the Droid, vs. the Nexus, vs. the Incredible, or whatever else.... Ice Cream Sandwich or Froyo? It's all may seem really odd in comparison to Apple who has consistant in house hardware that is only occasionally re vamped for a few new features here and there.

I'm not saying the platform is more or less confusing once you use it, but from the outside looking in, you at least know what you are getting with the Iphone. When you shop for Andorid, there might be fifty different phones at your local Radio Shack, some of them running different versions of the software, all running disimilar hardware in some spec or another. You could spend a month educating yourself on all the variations and once you knew it all it would change again. I'm just saying, some folks need to know exactly what they are getting, and that takes allot more work when you shop for an Android phone vs. the Iphone.
5 Oct 2011 ~ 12:26pm Bandrik I somewhat agree with what Cliff is saying. iOS and Android are both very easy to just pick up and use, and their UI design principles almost completely overlap. I transitioned from iPhone to Android without looking anything up. Even moving icons on the home screen works the same (touch and hold, then move).

The thing that does give the iPhone a marginal advantage is that Android devices are a bit fragmented. The various handsets, features, and version names (Froyo, etc) are a bit daunting to the uninitiated when a mobile phone sales rep starts spouting them off to bedazzle the technically disinclined. Also, some apps just don't work on all devices (several apps I love don't work on my mom's Samsung Droid Charge, or any other Samsung device). They may be the fault of the developer, but it's still not quite as seamless.

But at the end of the day, this is a VERY marginal edge that iOS has over Android. For 99% of the rest of the phone's usage, they're equivalent and just as easy to use. And because of Android's more flexible nature, it may be even easier to get whatever you want accomplished.

Thankfully, it really just comes down to an individual consumer's personal tastes. There is no clear "best" phone, only what works best for any one person.

For now, Android works for me, but I may get an iPhone again someday. It just all depends on what features it may or may not bring. I just might have to hold out for the iPhone 5, 5S, 5-4G, or 5-4GS when they come out in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018 respectively, (see what I did there trololol).
5 Oct 2011 ~ 12:35pm Linc

primesuspect wrote:

It's basically the same UX for both platforms.

We're talking UX on a vBulletin forum that 90% of the world can't figure out how to use. Our opinions may be skewed.

The fact remains that iOS users make up a staggeringly disproportionate amount of people who USE their devices the most (as measured by web browsing & search).
5 Oct 2011 ~ 12:58pm primesuspect And it could be argued that "web browsing and search" are the bare minimum of "use" for a hand-held supercomputer. You can do that shit on anything nowadays.
5 Oct 2011 ~ 2:39pm MiracleManS

Lincoln wrote:

Apple is 19% of the global smart phone market and Android is 48%, but 66% of Google mobile searches come from iOS and iOS accounts for 54.65% of mobile Web browsing (source). Yeah, I'm sure that's all Sally using it to impress her friends. Get off it.

I don't mean to be nit-picky, but I almost never search on my mobile device. 95% of my web browsing traffic is directly clicking links from Facebook/Twitter/G+/etc. I can imagine that it's similar for other people. Couple that with the return on investment of bookmarking your most used mobile sites (and having seen everyone here on campus, people bookmark everything) I can't imagine a ton of searching is done with a mobile device. Especially considering the wild number of apps available to do just about everything you want.
5 Oct 2011 ~ 3:10pm QCH I do a far amount of web searching on my phone. Specially at work... of course it COULD be WHAT I am searching for that dictates why on the phone and not use my work.