SAN JOSE, Calif. — In a closely watched but
ultimately anticlimactic product launch, Apple Inc. on Tuesday unveiled
its latest iPhone, with a low-key Tim Cook emceeing his first event
since iconic CEO Steve Jobs resigned in August.
Disappointed
fans jumped all over Apple for releasing merely an upgrade to the
iPhone 4, dubbed iPhone 4S, instead of the widely expected iPhone 5. But
analysts reminded them that many cool features — faster operating
system, slicker camera and video — were hiding under the hood.
“The
improvements in software and the new camera, for example, are
impressive,” said analyst Roger Kay with Endpoint Technologies
Associates. “But if you don’t have a new look on the outside, people
tend not to get as excited.”
Cook seemed
comfortable on stage but was working a room clearly missing the energy
Jobs used to infuse into these events. The real star of the show was
Siri, the new voice-recognition feature billed as the user’s “personal
assistant,” a female voice that soon will be helping millions of Apple
fans answer emails, make dinner reservations and remember to pick up the
dry cleaning, all without a single key stroke.
“Sure,
it would have been cool to have some new curved-glass cover,” said
Frank Gillett with Forrester Research. “But the improvements to the user
experience are pretty compelling, especially Siri. And it’s not just
voice recognition. She’s truly an ‘assistant’ acting on the information
you give her. You are talking to an intelligent agent inside the phone
who understands the context of what you’re saying.”
During
a demo, Apple’s head of mobile software Scott Forstall showed how Siri
not only carries out an instruction like other voice-recognition
programs, but can actually learn over time through interaction with its
user. For example, once Siri has identified your wife’s name in your
contact list, it will automatically remember that information in future
requests.
Cook and members of his executive team
devoted nearly a third of the 90-minute event at their Cupertino,
Calif., campus to Siri. And it was clearly one of the two hottest topics
among analysts and journalists invited to the presentation. The other
was iCloud, Apple’s new digital sharing service that Jobs introduced at a
conference last summer. While bloggers immediately bashed Apple for not
giving them the thinner phone with a larger screen they’d been
expecting, Gillett says they may be missing the underlying significance
of Tuesday’s announcement.
“Siri and iCloud
transcend the hardware,” he said. “It’s easy to get caught up in the
debate over whether this was the best smartphone Apple could have come
up with. But this isn’t simply about smartphones. It’s about the entire
Apple ecosystem, and you need to understand how its engineers continue
to expand and deepen it.”
Even Siri didn’t excite
everyone. After all, voice recognition has increasingly become a
standard feature in mobile technology. Ken Dulaney, an analyst with
Gardner Research who’s on a business trip this week in Tasmania, said
“Technically, Siri looks a little underwhelming to me, even from halfway
(across) the world. I might use voice-recognition in my car, assuming
it works perfectly. But it’s not something I’ll use all the time. I’m
sure Siri is great, but how useful is it?”
Some
observers said Apple was simply repeating its tradition of upgrading the
software and internal features of a product before doing a major remake
of its exterior. Apple gave no indication of when the iPhone 5 will be
released.
“This phone is better than the iPhone 4
in many ways, even though it looks the same,” said Avi Greengart, an
analyst with Current Analysis on hand for the unveiling before several
hundred reporters, bloggers, analysts and other guests. “Sales will be
wildly successful, but Apple fanboys’ expectations probably were not met
today.”
The new phone, which will be available in
the United States Oct. 14 with pre-orders taken starting Oct. 7, will
cost $199 for a 16-gigabyte version, $299 for 32GB and $399 for new
largest-ever 64 GB.
(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)
The
device had been center stage in the tech blogosphere for months, as
pundits weighed in with what they saw as the most likely bells and
whistles Apple would unleash. On Tuesday, some were surprised by how
wrong that had been.
The phone, which everyone
thought would be thinner than the iPhone 4, pretty much resembled its
older sibling. But it’s much faster, thanks to the A5 chip inside it,
and has plenty of consumer-pleasing attributes. The new iPhone has an
improved camera with a higher-resolution sensor. And it’s a “world
phone,” meaning that it will work on the networks of domestic CDMA
carriers as well as GSM carriers worldwide. And for the first time, it
will available with two-year contracts not only through AT&T and
Verizon, but now through Sprint as well.
CEO Cook
and his fellow executives also unveiled new alert and text-messaging
features for Apple’s next version of iOS — iOS 5 — the operating system
that powers iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches.
(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)
“Look
at each of these features and they’re great in and of themselves,” said
Cook, looking relaxed on stage in black jeans and a black long-sleeved
shirt. “But what sets them apart and puts Apple way out front is how
they’re engineered to work together so well. Only Apple could make such
amazing software, hardware and services and bring them together in such a
powerful yet integrated experience.”
Cook seemed
at ease during his first major appearance on stage as Apple’s CEO,
sharing the presentation with several of his colleagues. He is, of
course, no Steve Jobs, who had a contagious and even mischievous sort of
enthusiasm during product rollouts. Nor did Cook try to be Jobs.
“There
are no bigger shoes to fill than Steve Jobs’, and it would be
unreasonable to expect Cook or anyone else to slide into that job
easily,” said analyst John Jackson with CCS Insight. “Today’s event
heralds a certain cultural change that at some level was unavoidable. I
think Cook did a good job, even if he didn’t set the world on fire.”
———
©2011 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)
Visit the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services
