Uh, hello? Apple’s iPhone 4S just made smartphones much, much smarter

“Apple’s iPhone 4 provides the most silky smooth user experience on the planet with the firm’s A4 processor running the show. The more powerful dual-core A5 chipset from Apple’s iPad 2 should somehow improve on that already-phenomenal experience, and it will empower Apple’s new golden child, Siri,” Zach Epstein writes for BGR. “It should be noted that I was hugely skeptical of Siri’s significance ahead of Apple’s event on Tuesday, but I’m now singing a different tune. I think the concept and technology behind Apple’s new personal assistant service are phenomenal, and while Siri might not be a huge draw for consumers in the near term, the long-term implications are tremendous. Apple just made smartphones much, much smarter.”

“On the outside, there is no question that the iPhone 4S is the same device as its predecessor,” Epstein writes. “It might have a revised antenna system, but the similarities are so great that Apple had to include the Newsstand icon in marketing images depicting the phone’s home screen as no distinction would be made otherwise. But is that such a bad thing? The iPhone 4 is still an engineering feat, and I’m not sure a more attractive smartphone exists to this day.”

Epstein writes, “The numbers will do the talking over the next few quarters, and I expect Apple’s iPhone sales to continue on the same skyward path right up to next year’s iPhone 5 launch and beyond.”

Read more in the full article here.

Related articles:
Apple’s new iPhone 4S puts amazing Siri personal assistant at user’s beck and call (with video) – October 4, 2011
Apple unveils new iPhone 4S with dual-core A5 and Siri intelligent assistant; launches iOS 5 and iCloud – October 4, 2011

30 Comments

    1. I’m going to buy one Friday (or whenever I can get online) and pass my old iPhone 4 to my wife and her 3GS to some other family member.

      My boss will buy one Friday (I am so desperate to get her off of her 3G). I think Siri will be amazing for her needs.

      I watched the demo yesterday, I don’t know what any of these naysayers are complaining about (I’m looking at you Ballmer’s Left Nut). The iPhone 4S meets all of my expectations, then again maybe because that’s because I read all the rumors that the phone would be called “iPhone 4S”.

      In the iPhone 5, the one feature I am anxious to see is inductive charging, so I don’t have to carry a cable around with me and maybe a small integrated solar charger (if my damned TI calculator in the 80s could have one why not my phone in 2011?).

      An NFC chip so my iPhone could substitute for a credit card would be nice, but I see so many security holes with it that I’d rather it were done right than soon.

      An edge-to-edge screen is okay, if more pixels don’t mean less battery life, but if I need more real estate I have a MacBook Pro, a Mac Pro, and two iPads.

      And LTE is available in my city, so why do I care a single whit about LTE and it’s battery hogginess (if I wanna drain my battery I’ll play Words with Friends).

      The one announcement that Apple made yesterday that was a real game changer was the iPhone 3GS for free. I am utterly surprised that no one picked that up. Why bother to get a feature phone if a real iPhone can be had for free? That is the nail in the coffin for Nokia and it will leave Motorola gasping.

      1. I agree. When I read one of Balmers posts I knew for sure Apple had a winner. BLN is alway wrong as I am sure you have noticed. I am ordering mine 12:01 Friday. I am really Siri-us to get my hands on one. Like you, the wife gets my 4 and grandson gets her 3GS.

      2. As voice becomes the more useful way to get things done then screen size become less important. Thumbs and fingers aren’t what the device was designed for. Perhaps Apple sees this already.

  1. I just hope that in the future apple can let you customize Siri commands to do things such as launch applications…for example “Siri, launch the flashlight…” Siri:” launching flashlight” all from the lock screen…

  2. If you believe to bloggers/media, Apple always falls from grace. Media/bloggers also said they were disappointed at iPad, since it was just a giant iPod touch.

    The fact is, however, it is not bloggers/media who buy Apple’s products, it is mass of people who do not even know or care that “iPhone 5” “had to” be released.

  3. 4S Is a disaster and a horrible start for Cook! No 4G support? No larger screen? No external changes? What’s the point? Complete letdown as 99% bad reviews confirm! What a joke!!!

    1. Unfortunately this is not baseball so they don’t strike out. On the contrary, they’ll go back to lying in the weeds, waiting for the slightest excuse to leap up in outrage yet again

  4. “I was hugely skeptical of Siri’s significance ahead of Apple’s event on Tuesday, but I’m now singing a different tune.”

    That seems to be the refrain with every major Apple product release – hardware or software.

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