So what happened?..... Just in case you haven’t heard it yet here’s the short(ish) version...
So they started off with Tim Cook taking the stage and talking about two new Chinese Apple Stores and the new one over in Hong Kong too. They like to big up the numbers first. He ran a video and got his first proper round of applause.
Then the new CEO went on to discuss their products. Starting with the desktop OS (OSX Lion) and comparing it to Windows 7. Lion has been downloaded 6 million times. It took Windows 7 20 weeks to reach the same point that Lion reached in 2 weeks.
Mac: The MacBook Air - the best macbook ever. Mac has outgrown the PC market by almost six times and Mac has outgrown the PC every quarter for the last 5 years.
iTunes and iPods: In 10 years the iPod has become the number one music player in the world. More than 70% of the US market belongs to the iPod and they’ve sold over 300 million iPods worldwide. Sony sold 230,000 walkman cassette players in 30 years. iTunes launched 8 years ago with 200,000 tracks available, and now it holds 20 million. It’s the number one music store in the world.
iPhone: The iPhone 4 accounts for 50% of the iPhones ever sold. The number 1 smartphone in the world. 93% of the Fortune 500 companies are deploying the iPhone in their businesses. The iPhone has 5% of the mobile phone market worldwide - not smartphones - but mobile phones. That is one hell of a lot of phones.
iPad: The iPad has a 95% customer satisfaction rating. They’re everywhere. Schools, Pilots and Medicine. 3 out of 4 tablets sold in the US are iPads. As AllThingsD said “People want iPads, not Tablets”, And this morning, the passed 250 million iOS devices sold.
iOS: iOS accounts for 43% of the mobile OS installed base. There are over 500,000 apps in the Apps Store and just over 140,000 of these are specifically designed for the iPad. There have been over 18billion apps downloaded - over a billion a month. There’s also now a “cards” app, in which you send your photo and it’s then delivered via the postal service.
iOS5: There’s over 200 new features as we already know. They include notifications and iMessage (like BlackBerry Messenger) which will run on all the iOS devices. There will also be Twitter integration (not Facebook) and ....
- NewsStand: NewsStand will download new publications in the background so they’re ready and waiting for you when you want to read them.
- Camera: My favourite feature - The volume buttons as a trigger for the camera, but there’s also autofocus and autoexposure along with grid line to align your shot.
- Game Center: which is the place where iOS gamers get together. There’s 67 million users on there now.
- Safari: has had a refresh, and includes the reader feature which exists on the desktop version already.
It’ll run on the iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad 1 & 2, iPod touch (3rd & 4th Gen) and will arrive on October the 12th... bit annoying because I wanted it before I jet off - but so be it.
“iCloud” obviously is the next big thing to be discussed. iCloud is all about syncronising your iOS devices. iTunes will be in the cloud, Photo Stream, puts your photos in the cloud. You can store your Pages & Numbers documents up there and your iOS device will be automatically backed up every day. It will finally be available to all on October the 12th.
“Family and Friends” is a new app to help keep track of your family and friends. There are location sharing blocks of time and simple privacy controls to enable switching the service on and off. Of course your family and friends will need to be carrying an iOS device.
“iTunes Match” will scan your library and match it to the tracks that exist in iTunes to save you uploading them onto iCloud. Not sure what happens if you haven’t bought your tracks (ie: They’re pirated) but I’m sure that’ll become clear. To sign up for it, you pay $25 per year but not until the end of October. And the rub here?? It’s only available in the US due to copyright law. Pah!
just going back to the iPods...
iPod Nano: new built in sensors for tracking your walking and running. 16 New clock faces for everyone who uses their iPod Nano as a watch. (8Gb = $129 and 16Gb = $149)
iPod Touch: Most popular iPod and the most popular gaming device. iMessage and GameCenter are both appearing here. There’s now going to be a white version. (8Gb = $199, 32Gb = $299 and 64Gb = $399)
And so... onto the iPhone....
The iPhone 4S!!! (I hate to say I told you so).
It’s the same externally as an iPhone 4, but internally there’s lots of changes. The A5 chip (Apple designed Dual Core ARM chip), 7x faster graphics (dual core graphics processor), Increased battery life, Improved antennas for call quality and download speeds up to almost 14.4Mbps and it’s a Worldphone!... The camera has been upgraded to an 8 megapixel sensor.
If you’re really into your camera gear - you’d be interested to know it has the following: “CMOS backside illuminated sensor — gets 73% more light than the iPhone 4 sensor, and 1/3rd faster. On top of that, we place a high-end IR filter for greater accuracy and uniformity.” - They’re complex gizmos and they’re very highly rated. HD 1080p video recording with real-time stabilisation and noise reduction.
And finally..... Voice. This is really the new innovation. Now you can talk to your device. It’s marketed as an “Intelligent Assistant” known as Siri.
So you say, “What’s the weather like today?” and it simply tells you..... now, I’m happy to look up at the sky, but I get where this is going. “What time is it in Paris?” for example is far more useful.
You can set your alarm by saying “Wake me up tomorrow at 6am” These are the sort of clever tricks your iPhone 4S will doing for you.
Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha searches by voice.
Basically - you ask it and it speaks back the response. Good stuff if it works as well as the demos. Other wise, http://www.DamnYouAutoCorrect.com was the tip of the iceberg. Works in English, French and German.
And so a worldwide launch on October the 14th... with pre-orders from the 7th October in the US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany and Japan. Oh, and the price ?
16Gb = $199
32Gb = $299
64Gb = $399
The iPhone 4 will drop to $99 and the remaining 3GS’ will be free on contract.
That’s it. What do you think?
This post originally appeared here: Posterous
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