Google Play Store For Iphone 4s

The all-geek jury has come dorsum with an early verdict: Demand for the iPhone 4S is sky high.

Just information technology wasn't supposed to be this way, given the tepid reviews at the iPhone 4S launch last week. The iPhone 4S doesn't support 4G networks nor did information technology flash a fancy redesign. Perhaps worst of all, the phone wasn't chosen the iPhone v.

Nevertheless, sales for the iPhone 4S began in hostage last Friday, with more than a million preorders taken inside 24 hours. The time it will have now for an iPhone 4S to be shipped to your house is in the order of weeks. Or you can dauntless the long lines almost certain to form at Apple tree Stores this Friday, when the iPhone 4S really ships.

So what'southward gotten customers in a frenzy over an iPhone upgrade that'southward minimal at best?

Maybe we're looking at a horde of iPhone newbies on the Sprint wireless network. Dart will be carrying the iPhone for the first fourth dimension, opening upwardly a new market. Dart customers will need to get up to speed on the ins and outs of the iPhone.

Then again, Verizon iPhone owners won't be upgrading to the iPhone 4S because they're in the early on one-half of a ii-yr contract; the iPhone 4 debuted on Verizon earlier this yr. Practise Dart newbies and Verizon non-upgraders cancel each other out? For sure, at that place'southward iPhone sales synergy in the form of option—AT&T, Verizon, Sprint— but I doubt that's the story backside pent up demand.

Let's exist clear: The iPhone 4S is not a bad upgrade. In that location is a lot in the iPhone 4S for business executives. Rather, the iPhone did not alive up to the marketing hype for consumers, many of whom anxiously anticipated an entirely new iPhone 5.

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"The press was disappointed and those that see the phone as a fashion item or a status symbol were disappointed," says Gartner annotator Van Bakery. "Those that actually desire to use the telephone are obviously pretty happy as it is pretty much completely new on the within."

The biggest consumer-facing upgrade is the artificial intelligence built into iOS and running on the powerful iPhone 4S' dual processor A5 chip, the aforementioned one in the iPad. The vocalisation-recognition engineering, called Siri, is supposed to be your virtual personal assistant, a high-tech twist on the imaginary friend who'll actually listen to you. That's right, you can ask all sorts of questions and perform an array of everyday tasks.

It'due south unlikely, though, that consumers are flocking to the iPhone 4S for Siri. Although Siri exists today as an iPhone app, the geek-filled jury is still out on whether or not Apple tin fulfill the lofty hope of voice-recognition that's on par with, or at least a leap towards, the famous Star Trek computer.

So how do yous justify shelling out a couple hundred dollars ($199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB, $399 for 64GB) for the iPhone 4S? Here are three reasons:

Grin, You lot're On the iPhone 4S Photographic camera!

Apple tree was very articulate near its much-improved iPhone 4S camera: It competes against standalone point-and-shoot cameras, not other smartphone cameras. The iPhone 4S photographic camera boasts 8 megapixels, compared to the iPhone 4 camera's five megapixels, and has a better lens, wider f/2.iv aperture, and amazingly shoots video at 1080p Hd—all resulting in sharper, brighter images.

In layman's terms, y'all could accident upwards a photograph taken with the iPhone 4S to the size of a sheet of paper (8.5-by-11 inches), and it volition still look groovy.

A typical consumer will spend more than $100 for a good betoken-and-shoot compact photographic camera, which is a little less than the starting price of the iPhone 4S with a 2-twelvemonth contract. Sure, the Catechism PowerShot ELPH 300 HS, which shoots images at an astounding 12.1 megapixels and retails for $160, is superior to the iPhone 4S camera, but it also means you'll accept to acquit ii devices—a smartphone and a camera. (The PowerShot ELPH 300 is virtually the same size every bit the iPhone.)

The few people I spoke to who pre-ordered an iPhone 4S said the camera was a big factor in their purchasing decision. Obviously, cameras are big for consumers. It's also i of the main reasons why I'm thinking almost upgrading my iPhone 3GS to the iPhone 4S.

iPhone 3GS Users: Time for an Upgrade

Speaking of the iPhone 3GS, one could contend that this model has been the best of the iPhone series. Many iPhone owners really bought into the Apple ecosystem with the iPhone 3GS. The phone'southward stability and reliability (read: connectivity and battery life) boasted the best in the smartphone business. Apps during the iPhone 3GS heyday reached a new level in quality and usefulness.

Simply put, the iPhone 3GS was the all-time iPhone at the correct fourth dimension. In that location are nevertheless millions of iPhone 3GS owners out in that location.

Early on iPhone 3GS owners were on the cusp of their 2-yr contracts when the iPhone four debuted (although AT&T offered an upgrade path for iPhone users still under contract). Many chose to take a await-and-see approach with the new iPhone 4 design, given that the blueprint was more than susceptible to breakage. During the infamous "antennagate," iPhone 3GS owners were no doubt glad they had waited.

Meanwhile, later iPhone 3GS buyers were out of the iPhone 4 market place, much like Verizon iPhone 4 users are today with the iPhone 4S, because of their contracts.

Now the timing of the matured iPhone 4S product is perfect for iPhone 3GS owners to upgrade.

iOS Reaches Critical Mass

Just how much the evolution of the iOS platform has contributed to iPhone 4S sales is anyone's judge. But the proficient bet is that iOS has reached critical mass, non necessarily in user numbers (although a case tin be made in that location) merely in the apps and services around it.

This week volition mark the debut of iCloud and the adjacent-generation iOS five. The iPad has been growing like gangbusters since its arrival 18 months agone. The Apple App Store makes rival smartphone and tablet app stores look like Quik Marts. Anyone with an iPad or iPhone is now pretty much entrenched with the apps and iTunes.

Then in that location'southward the much-talked virtually Apple halo result. Walk into an Apple tree Store for, say, an iPad 2 comprehend case, and walk out with a shiny new MacBook. Or an iPhone 4S, although y'all'll take to look in the long line exterior. You've just become office of the Apple family.

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That's not to say the iPhone 4S doesn't face heavy contest from other smartphones, namely Android devices. Android smartphones accept a fast-evolving app store and offer a cool user feel. They are collectively outselling iPhones, although the iPhone is the top selling smartphone compared to any single manufacturer.

The difference is that customers aren't just buying an iPhone 4S, they're buying into an ecosystem. And in a platform war, iOS is head and shoulders in a higher place Android, which has many flavors of the OS, leaky security, and an abysmal tablet offering (the contempo inflow of the Amazon Kindle Fire may change that).

With more a million pre-orders of iPhone 4S in the first 24 hours, the verdict is in: "Sales are up over sixty percentage from the iPhone 4 first twenty-four hours," says Gartner's Bakery. "As for who is buying it, I think information technology is selling to all segments. It would accept to [in order to] attain these numbers."

Tom Kaneshige covers Apple tree and Networking for CIO.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @kaneshige. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline and on Facebook. E-mail Tom at tkanshige@cio.com