Que Siri Siri, Whatever Apple will be

 

All I hear the last few weeks is news about the eagerly awaited new upgraded Apple iPhone 4S (“S” giving devotion to the late Steve Jobs), following from the current iPhone handset version 4. Does it make a difference? Will it change my life? Will it do far more and give me more freedom that the older iPhone 4? To answer these questions, a total of 4 million handsets were sold in the first three days of its release. Before the release, Apple had preorders of 1 million handsets to deliver. Not only did the sales of iPhones rocket, but the downloading of the latest Apple OS for the iPhone version iOS 5 was downloaded by 25 million people and more than 20 million people signed up to iCloud. So far the iPhone has only been released in 7 countries so far; Australia, Japan, America, Germany, France, Canada and the UK. By the end of October, at least 70 countries will have the newest release. Apple tends to release the new iPhone to Irish customers on the 28^th October with a price of €499 for the 8GB version.

Those figures would let you believe that people are going mental to get their hands on the newest smart phone from Apple. It would be true to say that they are one of the most popular smartphones on the market. Strangely enough, a recent survey carried out by “comscore” in America have shown that only a third of mobile phone owners have smartphones, less than half of all consumers used any form of advanced data service beyond texting. Even more strange is the fact that the leading Smartphone OS sold in America is the Google based Android open source software with 42% ownership out of total of 234 million mobile phone owners. While Apple lag second with coverage of 27% with a small increase of 1% from the previous recording in April. The leading smartphone oem manufacturer is Samsung with Apple in fourth place. We do not hear as much about Android as we do Apple?

 

 

Apple spends millions on marketing their products to the public as “must have item”. Over the years, Steve Jobs has been the best marketer in any industry of the 20^th Century and so far the 21^st century. He understood how people’s minds worked more than most. He studied the process of what makes a person fall in love with a gadget that is not yet available. He grabs their attention and excitement with so much hype that people are preordering all the new Apple products even weeks before it’s available for sale. Are people happy with their iPhone’s and iPad’s? Well, just ask any iPhone owner? They will tell you, they do not know how they could survive a day without it? It is their right hand with a battery. Access to 500,000 apps, ability to record HD video, backup contacts and music online, dual core A5 processor for faster speed and an amazing 8MP camera to take crystal clear photos with, are some of the feature of the new iPhone that people “must have”.

 

So far, since the release of the iPhone on the 14^th October, all has not been happy in the Apple camp. Lots of people are having issues with the new SIRI function that allows the customer to speak into the phone and carry out many functions from creating a text message from voice and sending it to finding a restaurant within the person’s location that has great reviews. So far this function will only be in the America version. Some Apps are not working on the new handset and the battery is draining quicker. A review says that using Wi-Fi consistently and using the phone mainly for calls and Web browsing wears the battery out at roughly the same speed as the iPhone 4, while playing videos and music or using a 3G connection will drain it faster. The iPhone 4S was promised to have better battery life, but these processes are actually hindering the handset and not enabling its best features. The new 8MP camera shutter speed is giving problems just as the 5MP camera and the 3MP camera gave in previous versions.

With all these pros and cons, I know that there will be as much hype in Ireland on the 28^th Of October for the newest release. Personally, I do not see the lure to Apple products. There are always other products on the market that are more superior and work out cheaper for the same features that Apple holds high on their list. But as mentioned earlier, Jobs carried out the need for his products extremely well. I wonder if the iPhone came out with a logo of a Lada car, would people still buy them. For me, I cannot leave the Nokia handsets for reliability and endurance. I can make phone use emails, surf, take photos, play music and games, text and most of all, and have excellent reception always for making crystal clear phone calls. For me quality and reliability are the most important factors for gadgets. For people that listen to the George Hook show, he often advocates the Nokia 6310i handset as being the best phone ever created and he will not part with it. For this reason, his photo is on the front page of the mobile phone site, where you can still purchase it. Why does he talk so much about it? It does what it was meant to do and it does it well. Factors often overlooked when we purchase.

 

 

 

 

 

To catch up on any missed articles written by Niall Mulrine of Pc Clean, go to www.PcClean.ie