Lets talk iPhone

[Behshad]

I can get the iPhone 4S: 32 GB for $249 or 16 GB for $149.

The old iPhone 4: 32 GB is $149 16 GB for $99

Decisions, decisions.

The one thing that might make me wait is having a rooted Droid that I tether my iPad to on the unlimited data plan (verizon).

Get the 64Gb 4S ( $349). Trust me with that 1080p camera you'll need the extra storage .
Or simply wait till spring for iPhone 6

[Saint John]

Apple and wireless carriers in the U.S. and a half-dozen other countries began taking Internet and telephone orders for the iPhone 4S in the pre-dawn hours.

AT&T Inc. said it had "more than 200,000 preorders in the first 12 hours alone" making the iPhone 4S "the most successful iPhone launch we've ever had."

A Verizon Wireless spokesman said "our systems were humming very strongly ...

Wait time overseas is already 3 weeks in some places.

[RedWingFan]

Hey Behshad. The Bionic's are $300 a piece. Is there anything that you know of that Verizon doesn't offer? I used to go in there and ask to buy an iphone, and they'd cut me a great deal on something they carry.

Well now they carry iphones. I need a new bargaining chip.

[Saint John]

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)

The release of the forthcoming iPhone 5, meanwhile, which presumably will be a more radical upgrade from the iPhone 4, will likely be timed to appeal directly to the ~70 million iPhone 4 owners who will just then be starting to come off their two-year contracts. The iPhone 4 was released in the early summer of 2010. So the two-year window for these contracts will begin to roll off in the summer of 2012 (next June).

As I previously noted, the number of reports about the "iPhone 5" leading up to last week, as well as the specifics about its design (bigger screen, etc.), suggest (to me) that Apple's work on this phone may already be quite advanced.

So it wouldn't be surprising to see Apple launch the phone next June, when the iPhone 4 folks begin to come off their contracts.

In short, Apple's thinking about the iPhone 4S may have been as follows:

It has to be good enough to get iPhone 3G and 3GS users drooling (check)
It has to be good enough to get non-smartphone users to want to upgrade to it or the free 3GS instead of an Android phone (check)
It has to be good enough to get some Android and Blackberry users to switch (check)

And, for good measure, it's possible that Apple even considered fourth and fifth factors about the iPhone 4S:

It has the same form-factor and supply chains as the 4, so it will be easier to ramp production to the desired levels (without having a huge gap in production capacity between the 4 and 4S).
It isn't such-an-amazing-upgrade that the ~70 million iPhone 4 owners stuck with their iPhone 4s for the next year will be pissed that they upgraded a year too soon.

So I shouldn't have considered the iPhone 4S launch disappointing, except for me and other 3GS owners—because we'll get locked into contracts on the 4S and miss the 5. Sure, relative to expectations it was a disappointment, but otherwise it appears to have been typically brilliant.

[Behshad]

Hey Behshad. The Bionic's are $300 a piece. Is there anything that you know of that Verizon doesn't offer? I used to go in there and ask to buy an iphone, and they'd cut me a great deal on something they carry.

Well now they carry iphones. I need a new bargaining chip.

Wait a bit as Samsung/Google are very close to announce somethnig huge, postponed due to Job's passing.

[Saint John]

“One million first-day iPhone 4S preorders was just the beginning,” John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD.

...Paczkowski reports, “According to analysts, demand for the 4S has essentially been unceasing since preorders began. ‘Our conversations with industry contacts suggest that demand has not waned following the initial surge of pre- orders,’ says J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz. ‘There has been no tail-off in order activity…’”

[Behshad]

“One million first-day iPhone 4S preorders was just the beginning,” John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD.

...Paczkowski reports, “According to analysts, demand for the 4S has essentially been unceasing since preorders began. ‘Our conversations with industry contacts suggest that demand has not waned following the initial surge of pre- orders,’ says J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz. ‘There has been no tail-off in order activity…’”

Hows you get that quote up there? pretty neat !

[Saint John]

Just to put this ass kicking in perspective, The Samsung Galaxy S 2 sold 10 million in its first 5 months.

Apple's iPhone 4S went on sale in brick-and-mortar stores on Friday after AT&T, Sprint and Verizon each sold out of their preorder allotments. More than 1 million iPhone 4S handsets were purchased in the first 24 hours the phone was made available for preorder.

The iPhone 4S, so far, is a success. But could the iPhone 4S have a blockbuster weekend? Analysts are now estimating that yes, the iPhone 4S could be a big hit, telling Bloomberg Businessweek that the iPhone 4S could hit 4 million devices sold across the nation's three largest carriers by the end of the weekend.

The previous generation iPhone 4, which has sold more units than the previous three versions of iPhones combined, sold more than 1.7 million units in its launch weekend almost a year and a half ago, Businessweek noted.

Most analysts surveyed by the publication are projecting about 2 million to 3 million iPhones will be sold this weekend, but Yankee Group analyst Carl Howe told Businessweek that he thinks sales could hit 4 million -- more than double the iPhone 4 debut weekend sales.

The iPhone 4S, which was criticized by many analysts when it was unveiled by Apple on Oct. 4, launched Friday in the U.S., Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan and the U.K., spawning lines outside of Apple stores, carrier stores and consumer electronics retailers around the globe, Businessweek reported.

Even Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with the late Steve Jobs, lined up outside of a Los Gatos, Calilf., Apple store on Friday to buy his wife a new iPhone 4S. Wozniak, often known by the nickname of "the Woz," was first in line.

The bolded part above is really fucking cool. That's out of respect for Steve Jobs.

[Arkansas]

Read and listen here -

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/13/141279061 ... oid-bionic


later~

[RedWingFan]

We ended up getting the DROID x2. The sales person said the battery life for the DROID Bionic
was about 7-8 hours. Not near long enough. Love it so far.

[Rick]

We ended up getting the DROID x2. The sales person said the battery life for the DROID
was about 7-8 hours. Not near long enough. Love it so far.

We have 3 Android phones here, so I bought 3 extra batteries and 2 battery chargers from eBay, shipped to my door for dirt cheap. That has worked very well.

[AR]

I'm still torn about giving up my rooted droid because of the free tethering for my laptop and iPad when I travel. (Verizon unlimited data plan).

However, I'm probably going to get iPhone 4S - the digital camera is highly rated and that is the one thing on my droid that really sucked. Pictures are horrible unless you have really good natural light.

[Rick]

I'm still torn about giving up my rooted droid because of the free tethering for my laptop and iPad when I travel. (Verizon unlimited data plan).

However, I'm probably going to get iPhone 4S - the digital camera is highly rated and that is the one thing on my droid that really sucked. Pictures are horrible unless you have really good natural light.

Lots of people at work tether their phones for internet access. That would be a tough one to give up.

[AR]

Finally ordered one. 64 GB in black. I took a look at the Droid Razr reviews before ordering, but there are concerns about Razr's battery life.