“The iPhone 4S wasn’t exactly Apple’s brightest moment. Yet it will probably still outshine the competition this holiday season,” Sinead Carew and Poornima Gupta report for Reuters. “And people seeking to commemorate the legacy of Apple’s iconic co-founder Steve Jobs, who died on Wednesday, may scoop up the last iPhone to be unveiled in his lifetime.”
“‘Store traffic will increase and there’s going to be some sentiment-related purchases,'” said Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Bill Choi,” Carew and Gupta report. “Bill Kreher of Edward Jones, said Jobs place in pop culture will cause a sales boost. ‘But over the long run the products will stand on their merit,’ he said.”
Carew and Gupta report, “Apple’s iPhone — seen as the market’s gold standard — is its highest-margin product and accounts for 40 percent of its annual revenue. It is the world’s biggest selling smartphone… Analysts say Apple will have one of its best holiday quarters on record this year with brisk sales of a cheaper version of iPhone 4 and a free iPhone 3GS on top of iPhone 4S sales to customers who want the latest device.”
“The iPhone 4S remains among the fastest smartphones out there. It will be available on more than 100 carriers by year’s end, and a free-with-a-contract older-generation model will draw in new users, analysts say,” Carew and Gupta report. “Then there’s the ‘Siri’ voice-command software that has pundits gushing over its ease of use versus rivals’ offerings.”
“Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek said he received one phone call from a person who told him they would probably get an iPhone 4S to commemorate Jobs,” Carew and Gupta report. “But more importantly, he said, a large number of existing iPhone customers may be eligible for a discounted phone upgrade if they renew with their wireless provider, as their two-year contracts will expire in the next 12 months. ‘The bigger thing is that 50 million to 70 million people will be coming off contract in the next year,’ Misek said.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
As usual, the sales figures will blow all nay sayers away.
I think that most people are trained by the automotive industry to expect that a new car must have redesigned tail lights or new shaped fenders. That industry has progressed at a snail’s pace and shows little innovation.
Sales will likely be good but not as great as they should be for such a great phone. The iPhone 4S looks the same and people seem to need a visual cue that it is different. Too bad we are so stupid.
You are right, Robert. Many people tend to focus on the cosmetic changes, as they have been taught by the marketers. That way a car company can change a few body panels and lights and leave the internals alone during a “refresh.”
The iPhone 4 design is appealing to many people. The 4S upgrades the guts and the software. Apple fans are about form *and* function. This was the functional update. Nothing surprising, and nothing disappointing, either. Remember the 3G followed by the 3GS (originally 3G S)? This was the 4 followed by the 4S. The 5 will come in its own good time. Pay no attention to the naysayers. Watch the sales during Oct-Dec and then make your judgment.
Just order my black 65Bg iPhone 4S (4 Steve) this morning.
Just ordered mine, 32 gig 4S this morning as well
“The iPhone 4S wasn’t exactly Apple’s brightest moment. ”
Standard Anal….yst comment. Do not understand something, do not want to think,,,,, just blurb. Sad.
Side note. Said by a poster on MDN… I say lets pass it around.
iPhone 4s…… “iPhone for Steve. ”
While it does not have anti-gravity or teleportation apps ….. yet…. it does have Siri. I think we are going to find Siri may be the biggest improvement in iPhones for the next 4 years.
Just a thought,
en
I’m going to get an unlocked one next month.
Just ordered my white 16GB iPhone 4S this morning! Can’t wait!
The iphone 4S is a great refresh. I’m not sure what all the uproar is about. I love the design, and I’m glad they didn’t change the form. It has the A5 chip, Siri, and and awesome camera. iOS5 looks amazing. My white 32 gig, Iphone 4S is on the way.
Took about an hour with bogged down servers to order 2 x 64GB iPhone 4S this morning.
Ordered my within five minutes. Black 16GB 4S
tick tick tick
just a matter of time
I only switched to AT&T in 2007 for the iPhone, and have upgraded to each new version ever since, each time at the subsidized price, each time extending my contract (also prefer GSM). Tried to reserve a 4S and ATT has made some “adjustments” to their deal (“the better to serve you”). They say I don’t qualify for subsidized price until after Thanksgiving. So pay an extra $250 more now, or wait over six weeks ( Or wait a few months more for the iPh 5?). Just ATT’s way of saying thank you for faithfully sending them thousands of dollars over the years.
I believe I know why there is “disappointment” over the iPhone 4S. Ability to brag silently is missing. Just like the 3G and 3GS being identical, no one will know you have the newest one just by looking! They’ll have to ask you if it’s the 4 or 4S, or else check in Settings for the version.
Of course, the second you use Siri, people might figure it out, but otherwise, people are just mad because when there’s a new form factor everyone recognizes you as the top-o-the-line guy from afar, and that won’t be true for the latest model.
Now, I have the iPhone 4 16GB. I am eligible for upgrade. Should I or shouldn’t I…?
“I went to the airport today with my spanking new iPhone 4S … And nobody even knew! They all thought I had a ‘2-yr.-old’ iPhone 4. i feel ripped of! I had to use the Siri functions the whole time just to make sure everyone knew! I kept asking it, ‘Siri, what model iPhone am I using?’ And she said, ‘For the millionth time, Dave, yes, you do actually have an iPhone 4S. Now, can we do something productive?” To which I said, “No wait, I have to go stand over there, a few people couldn’t hear you.”
“Oh, and I changed the signature line for my email to ‘Sent from my iPhone 4S.'”
Funny stuff.
Pre ordered for wife an I as well. Gonna sell our ip4’s next week.
Waiting iPhone 5 with hopefully a larger screen. Nothing could get me to defect from iOS. ; ) but, dont want to lock new contract until a bigger screen is available. It’s allabout practicality dealing with the service provider….
Bigger Screen is a joke.
All my friends that have a droid with a bigger screen complain that the phone is just too big to put in their pockets.
Think about it. If we all start communicating with our iPhones using Siri, we won’t need a bigger screen to interact with it. Let the droids get bigger and the iPhone will continue to get smaller because there will be less screen interaction that will need to be done. I like Steve’s thinking ALOT!
I own the original iPhone, had the 3G, skipped the 3GS, own the 32GB black iPhone 4 and just ordered the white 64GB iPhone 4S (I love the “For Steve” reference)…I really think this is going to be one of the greatest phones ever – and I LOVE the current design – I’m happy it wasn’t changed!
Have a 3GS. Skipped the 4 because white wasn’t available and when it was, the end of my contract was near.
Just ordered a 32 MB, White 4S. This is going to be a long week of waiting.
I can’t upgrade until next June, so I was going to wait until October for a 5. Now? Not so sure any more. I love the 4’s form factor, and I’m glad it’s not changed, and the only possible reason I can think of for waiting now would be 128Gb of storage. The camera is possibly as good as a phone camera can get in the space available, perhaps a bigger screen might be nice, but 64gig, a dual-core A5 processor and a gig of RAM, in a PHONE! My old PowerBook only had a gig of RAM, with an 80gig HDD, and a 1.25 GHz processor. Damn, decisions, decisions.
Before anyone asks why I need so much space, I carry lots of music with me, streaming is NOT an option, and I have currently 11.2Gb of apps, mostly consisting of maps for navigation; CoPilot, and Ordnance Survey 1:50,000, 1:25,000, and 1:10,000 scale, for large areas of the UK. They take up lots of space, and take ages to download, so deleting, then having to wait for half an hour to download some maps after suddenly deciding to go out somewhere for a walk or ride is a pain. I want maps and music with me, not at home, or in the cloud with zero network available, which is 99% of the time outside of a city.