Apple takes wraps off 4G-ready iPhone 5

Apple Inc on Wednesday took the wraps off the iPhone 5, the thinnest-ever version of a smartphone that yields the majority of its profit and helped it become the world's most valuable corporation.

CEO Tim Cook, who took over from the company's late co-founder Steve Jobs last year, faces pressure to introduce a gadget that can help Apple remain at the forefront of the industry. The iPhone 5 sports a larger 4-inch "retina" display, ability to surf a high-speed 4G LTE network, and is 20 percent lighter than the previous iPhone 4S.

The latest iPhone comes as Apple tries to fend off competition that has reached fever-pitch. Google Inc's Android has become the most-used mobile operating system in the world, while key supplier and rival Samsung Electronics has taken the lead in smartphone sales.

Now, Microsoft Corp is pushing its Windows Phone 8 operating system as a third alternative to Apple and Google's.

Rivals have been first to market with phones that have bigger displays or run on faster wireless networks. Apple will try to close that gap with the unveiling of the newest iPhone, widely reported to offer 4G LTE for the first time and a 4-inch display, up from 3.5 inches.

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Cook began Wednesday's event by saying the company's notebooks now rank tops in U.S. sales, leading in market share in the past three months.

But it is the iPhone that carries the weight of Apple's future on its slim frame, especially with the company continuing to play its cards close to the vest about future growth drivers, including an oft-rumored TV device.

Apple has sold more than 243 million iPhones since its 2007 arrival, after which the device proceeded to upend the industry and helped usher in the current applications ecosystem.

Cook told the audience at the Yerba Buena Centre in San Francisco that its apps store now has more than 700,000 on tap the industry's largest library.

Apple also is making a lot of headway in a corporate market that has been dominated by struggling Canadian smartphone maker Research in Motion. Cook said almost every Fortune 500 companies was testing or using its iPhones and iPads.

Globally, Samsung leads the smartphone market with a 32.6 percent share followed by Apple with 17 percent, according to market research firm IDC. Both saw shipments rise compared to a year ago, with Samsung riding its flagship Galaxy S III phone.

Apple website search confirms 'iPhone 5' name

As Apple is getting ready to announce the next iPhone later today, a search on company's website has confirmed the name of the smartphone, reports 9To5Mac. As anticipated the next iPhone will indeed be known as iPhone 5.

It was earlier believed that company will simply dub the next iPhone as "new iPhone", similar to what it did with the latest generation iPad.

Apart from the iPhone 5 name, the Apple website search has also revealed the new "iPod Touch with Retina Display" and new iPod Nano devices. Both the iPod devices will be announced at today's press event.

According to rumours so far, Apple iPhone 5 will thinner and taller than the iPhone 4S and will go on sale starting September 21 in select markets.

Siri co-founder Adam Cheyer exits Apple

The man behind Apple's voice recognition software Siri, has left the company, reported Bloomberg. Little details are known about the circumstances in which Adam Cheyer, Siri co-founder and Apple's former vice president of engineering left the Cupertino-based company.

 

Cheyer joined Apple in 2010 when Siri was acquired by Apple in a deal that is rumoured to have cost Apple more than $200 million. Another of Siri's three co-founders, Dag Kittlaus, left Apple in 2011, in order to be closer to family and focus on developing new ideas. Tom Gruber, the third co-founder, remains at Apple working in product design.

 

Bloomberg refers to "three people familiar with the situation" as the source of the news, they choose to remain unidentified, as the matter is confidential.

 

Siri was integrated into the iPhone 4S last year and has received criticism from users owing to its performance. It is expected to be updated at Apple's event in San Francisco on Wednesday, where the company is likely to unveil a new iPhone. Apple's voice assistant is also likely to make its way to the new iPad as well, as the company releases its next software version, iOS 6.

 

Though Apple declined to comment on the situation, Cheyer has confirmed via an email to Xconomythat he has in fact left Apple, "some time ago" for "personal reasons." Cheyer further added that he has "no plans" regarding his professional life in the immediate future. 

New iPhone dock connector to be called 'Lightning': Report

Apple's iPhone launch event is just seven hours away, but leaks haven't stopped coming in. 9to5Macis now reporting that Apple is likely to name its new dock connector as "Lightning". This branding seems plausible because it will gel nicely with the company's Thunderbolt branding for connectors on Mac.

There is no word on whether the new connector will offer faster data transfer speed like the Thunderbolt connector.

In other news, 9to5Mac is also reporting that the new Apple in-ear headphones will be dubbed as Earpods. The Earpods were leaked in a set of images on a Vietnamese website recently. These headphones are expected to retail for $25 in the United States.

The blog is also reporting that Apple's new version of the iPod Shuffle will be released with 2GB storage only and there will be no storage upgrade.

Apple is hosting a press event in San Francisco later today and is expected to unveil the new iPhoneand iPod devices.

Will Apple's new iPhone see breakout sales?

It is no hidden secret that Apple is set to announce its next iPhone on Wednesday. In the past, Apple's smartphones have been a runaway success. So will this new smartphone match up to the success seen by its predecessor the iPhone 4S or will it be an even bigger success? The experts and analysts seem to have mixed thoughts in this regard.

NPD Group's Stephen Baker thinks that while iPhone 5 may be a huge success in markets across the world, it might not be the same case with sales in the United States. He points out that the new iPhone will launch in a market with very different dynamics than that of iPhone 4S launch window.

"The U.S. smartphone market appears to be an increasingly mature one. The iPhone, as well as Samsung's phones, have continued to gain brand share over the past year and their joint share now exceeds 50 percent, which is likely to make it more difficult for Apple to easily take share from weakened competitors, because many of the easy share gains have already been accomplished," Bakes shared through a blog post.

"Carrier dynamics will most certainly play into the growth potential for the new iPhone 5, as well. Last year's iPhone 4S launch could still take advantage of selling into what remained of the huge untapped base of potential subscribers at Verizon and Sprint who were not available to them previously. This year's introduction faces the specter of a much smaller base of previously unavailable consumers, based on their carrier preferences," he added.

Baker might be right, but worldwide sales have a significant part in iPhone sales number.

Fortune quizzed several analysts to find what their estimates are for the sales of the new iPhone in the first eight days and the numbers range all the way from 7 million to 12 million. These forecasts are in sharp contrast with Samsung's Galaxy S III sales, which reached the 10 million mark, in 50 days of its launch.

To provide more perspective, Apple sold more than 1 million iPhone 4S units within the first 24 hours and over 4 million in the first three days.

"Until they do something really unimpressive, which I don't see happening this time around, Apple has a serious hit on its hands," Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst at IDC told Bloomberg.

Topeka analyst Brian White too shares the same perspective about the iPhone 5 sales as he says onWSJ blog All Things Digital (ATD), "Given that the iPhone 4S received over 1 million pre-orders in the first 24 hours, we expect at least 1.3 million to 1.5 million pre-orders for the iPhone 5." He further adds, "Assuming supply chain constraints aren't a major issue and the seven country rollout ensues, we believe at least 5 million to 5.5 million iPhone 5's can be sold in the first three days."

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster seems to be even more bullish in his forecast and he is expecting Apple to sell 6 to 10 million new iPhones in the first three days. He told ATD that there is no question the iPhone 5 will be the largest consumer electronics launch in history.

So, most analysts have estimated an upward of 5 million sales in weekend and upward of 8-10 million sales in the first week . However, iPhone 5 is going to be the first big hardware design change since iPhone 4, which was introduced in 2010. Consumers are expecting a lot from this new smartphone so anything below that is going to disappoint a lot of people, especially the ones who have postponed their smartphone purchase plans and are eagerly awaiting the launch of the new iPhone.

So all eyes are now set on Apple and the iPhone 5 announcement later in the day, not to mention the time when it actually goes on sale.