The iPhone 5S and 5C launch has been the most successful iPhone launch yet for Apple with over 9 million units sold in the first weekend. You could attribute this success to the fact that the iPhone 5S launched in more countries and on more carriers than any other previous iPhone. Despite its far reaching launch, there are still some smaller carriers that don’t have Apple’s latest flagship device.
Boost Mobile announced today that its customers will no longer have to look upon their Verizon or T-Mobile subscriber neighbors in envy as it will start carrying the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C on November 8. As is the case with all other devices on Boost Mobile, the iPhone 5S and 5C will enjoy unlimited talk, text and data for $55 a month.
Unfortunately, Boost Mobile has not revealed the prices for either the iPhone 5S or 5C yet, but it’s not going to be cheap. The carrier doesn’t subsidize its phone prices so you’re probably going to be stuck paying the full price of the phone upfront. For the iPhone 5S, that will be $649 for the 16GB model. As for the iPhone 5C, you’ll be paying a not so affordable $549 for the 16GB model. If either of those options are a bit too pricey for you, you can opt to buy the more affordable iPhone 4S at $450.
In more iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C news, Apple announced earlier this month that its latest mobile devices will be making their way to more countries on October 25 and November 1. On October 25, the device will land in a number of countries in Eastern Europe as well as South Korea. On November 1, it will make its way to more countries in South America, the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
Not only did T-Mobile announce the availability of the iPhone 5 today, but it announced that consumers can put $99 down on the device, with monthly payments to make up the difference ($20 per month for 24 months). And that’s with no annual service contract plus unlimited talk, text and Web and 4G.
The device will be available from Friday, April 12.
In addition, T-Mobile is offering the iPhone 4S for $69.99 down and $20 per month for 24 months and the iPhone 4 for $14.99 down and $15 per month for 24 months.
While the 4S and 4 will be available in select markets, the iPhone 5 will be available nationwide.
“This is an important day for people who love their iPhone but can’t stand the pain other carriers put them through to own one,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile USA. “We feel their pain. I’ve felt the pain. So we’re rewriting the rules of wireless to provide a radically simple, affordable iPhone 5 experience — on an extremely powerful network.”
T-Mobile also announced today a new simplified rate plan, and eliminated the need for customers to enter into contracts.
A recent analysis of the smartphone market in 2012 found that Android dominated with over two-thirds of total smartphone shipments. The wide variety of Android devices ensures that the mobile OS ends up in the hands of more people. Another analysis, however, has found that Apple is still king when you take individual smartphone model shipments into account.
According to numbers released by Strategy Analytics this morning, the firm estimates that the iPhone 5 was king of individual smartphone shipments and marketshare in the fourth quarter. The firm estimates that the iPhone 5 sold 27.4 million units in the fourth quarter for 12.6 percent of the market. The iPhone 4S came in second with 17.4 million units for 8 percent of the market.
It wasn’t just purely an Apple game as Samsung’s Galaxy S3 came in third place with 15.4 million units shipped in the fourth quarter for 7.1 percent of the market. What’s interesting is that the Galaxy S3 was beating out both the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5 in the third quarter, but lost out to both in the fourth quarter. In fact, both the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S saw growth while the Galaxy S3 saw a decline.
So, why is the Galaxy S3 starting to see decreased demand? Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, says that the S3’s global demand has peaked:
“Apple’s iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S together accounted for 1 in 5 of all smartphones shipped worldwide in Q4 2012. This was an impressive performance, given the iPhone portfolio’s premium pricing. We estimate Samsung’s Galaxy S3 was the world’s third best-selling smartphone model and it shipped 15.4 million units globally, capturing 7 percent share in the fourth quarter of 2012. Samsung’s Galaxy S3 has long proven wildly popular with consumers and operators across North America, Europe and Asia. However, global demand for the Galaxy S3 appears to have peaked and Samsung will surely be keen to introduce its rumored Galaxy S4 upgrade in the coming weeks to fight back against Apple’s popular iPhone range.”
The iPhone 5 and 4S certainly benefitted from the holiday shopping season in quarter four, but Neil Shah, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics, thinks Apple’s success can be attributed to a few other factors as well. For one, he cites “generous operator subsidies” as one reason for the devices’ combined success, but also the fact that the iPhone is available in more places around the world compared to Samsung’s flagship product.
It’s worth nothing that Apple’s dominance is a phase and Samsung is poised to take back the lead when it introduces the Galaxy S4 in a few months. Some reports peg it for a March reveal and an April launch. Apple will then undoubtedly release the iPhone 5S later this year. The device will push Apple to the top yet again. It’s all part of the cyclical nature of popular consumer technology.
As smartphones become even more ubiquitous in our society, it’s becoming more likely that you’ll be walking down the street with your mobile device in your hand, rather than your keys. With this in mind, one company has decided to move personal protection from your keyring to your iPhone.
Pepper spray. Yes, that satanic blast of habanero pepper that will set anyone’s mucus membranes on fire is now available on your Apple device. Spraytect has developed the Pepper Spray Phone Case so you can fend off your assaulter without dropping that important call or botching a tweet.
The Spraytect case comes in black, white, turquoise, and pink, and will fit the iPhone 4 and 4S (more phones currently being worked on, according to the company). It employs a 3-step firing process which they say is “simple to use even in the most stressful situations,” but also includes safety mechanisms to avoid accidental deployment.
This spicy mobile protection will run you $39.95. Your order will include one real canister and test cartridges, so you can practice not shooting yourself in the face with it.
The news everyone was waiting for today was the iPhone 5. And though Apple put on a good show and will no doubt sell millions of iPhone 5’s, not everyone who wants one can afford the high up-front cost of a new iPhone.
Luckily for them, Apple also today announced price drops for both the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 4. Customers looking to upgrade from iPhones even older than these models, or customers looking to jump into the Apple ecosystem on a budget, will certainly appreciate the price: free.
The iPhone 4, specifically will soon be free for customers who sign up for a two-year contract with a wireless carrier. The iPhone 4S, which most die-hard Apple fans will still have in their pockets for at least 9 more days, will only cost $99 with a two-year contract. The lower prices are sure to lure in customers looking to get their first smartphone.
One of the side effects of these lower prices is that the iPhone 3GS will no loger be sold. The 3GS is now a big part of Apple’s legacy, and was the pinnacle of the original iPhone design. It was also one of the last smartphones Apple released while still fully on top of the smartphone market in terms of hardware, and has now been relegated to dustbin of history. Apple has made it clear iPhone 3GS owners that they are living in the past, and that their thinner phones are the future.
Just in time for the impending announcement of the iPhone 5, news has come that the iPhone 4S has been surpassed as the most-bought smartphone.
Boy Genius Report cites Michael Walkley, an analyst for Canaccord Genuity, as showing that the iPhone 4S is no longer the top smartphone. Walkley’s channel checks show, as seen in the chart above, that the iPhone 4S has been surpassed in sales at two of the three major U.S. wireless carriers that sell the phone. This is to Samsung’s benefit, as the phone that appears to have taken the top sales spot is that company’s flagship Android smartphone, the Galaxy S III.
Of course, part of the reason for the slowing sales of the iPhone 4S is the nearing release of the iPhone 5. Customers are undoubtedly putting off their smartphone purchase until the end of September, and the iPhone 5 will easily top this chart in the next quarter. In fact, Apple is expected to sell an unbelievable 250 million iPhone 5 devices.
One thing that could hamper the success of the iPhone 5 is the threat by Samsung to use its LTE patents to try and obtain an injunction against selling the iPhone 5 in the U.S. Apple has drawn blood with its recent victory in the Apple vs. Samsung patent trial in the U.S., and Samsung will no doubt be using all the tools at its disposal to retain its position as Apple’s number-one competitor in the smartphone market.
Another day, another iPhone 5 rumor. Though, as the launch of Apple’s new smartphone and its inevitable success draws near, the rumors are beginning to look more like leaks. Take, for example, the pictures leaked yesterday showing the larger display and new circuit board of the iPhone 5. The French website nowhereelse.fr leaked those pics, which show the new iPhone as clearly having an all-new aspect ratio from the iPhone 4.
Today, the same website has published new photos of a completely assembled iPhone 5 right beside an iPhone 4 for comparison. An iPhone 3G is even thrown in to show how Apple’s smartphones have evolved over the past few years:
As you can see, the iPhone 5 does indeed sport a lengthened design, though many of its other design features resemble the iPhone 4. In the pictures below, it can also be seen just how much thinner the iPhone 5 is than the iPhone 4. All of the buttons, including the ever-present iPhone home button, are seen as being in the exact places they were on the iPhone 4.
So, while the iPhone 5 might not look as revolutionary as the iPhone 4 did at its launch, it does represent a steady iteration on Apple’s designs and will be a slick addition to the iPhone family.
The new iPhone, which may or may not be called the iPhone 5 (probably not) is expected to be unveiled on September 12. That leaves retailers about a month to start selling more of the older models before people drop to their knees in excitement over Apple’s newest product.
Rumors of the next iPhone have already put a dent in Apple’s iPhone sales. “We’re reading the same speculation about a new iPhone as you are, and we think this has caused some delay in purchasing,” CFO Peter Oppenheimer is quoted as saying on the company most recent earnings call.
People want that new iPhone, so lower prices on the older iPhones should help move some of them off the shelves. We recently reported that Best Buy was selling the iPhone 4 for $50, but there are other price drops from other stores, as well.
Ina Fried at All Things D reports that Target is offering the Verizon and AT&T versions of the iPhone 4S for $179, and that Sprint is selling the 4S for $159.
Of course, if your’e in the market for a new iPhone, you may just want to wait a month, and see what the latest one has to offer. For an idea of what to expect, check out the latest rumors.
We just wrote about a new iPhone case from Yellow Jacket, which doubles as a stun gun, in order to help you avoid being burglarized, raped or murdered. Otterbox also just released some new cases for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, which may not be as useful in an attack situation, but at least conjure up more pleasant imagery.
The company has unveiled its new Studio Collection, featuring designs from artists Monique Maloney and Evan Mann (via 9to5Mac). Maloney’s can be seen above. Here’s a look at Mann’s designs:
“The Eternality designs were inspired by my fondness for the flowers, flourishes and repeating patterns that I see in daily life,” says Maloney. “Whether in textiles, nature or other artists’ illustrations, the beauty in small details brightens my day.”
“The work on the Surreal OtterBox cases are my imaginings of metaphysical spaces – the imagery depicts the manifestation of invisible worlds and phenomena beyond the limitations of our physical senses,” Mann says. “My hope is for these spatial landscapes to act as imaginative nourishment that feed the mystery of reality.”
Yellow Jacket has created an iPhone case that doubles as a stun gun. According to a promo video for the product, you may use this to avoid: robbery, assault, rape and murder.
Sounds like a solid idea.
“Here at Yellow Jacket, we know from first-hand experience what is needed in a violent situation to escape danger,” the company says on its site. “We have designed our iPhone 4 stun gun case to be easily deployable with one hand. In less than two seconds, both safety mechanisms can be deactivated and the Yellow Jacket stun gun is ready for action. Compare this to a regular stun gun which can take five to ten seconds to find and deploy.”
“Our iPhone stun gun case is capable of stopping an aggressive attacker,” Yellow Jacket says. “The 650K volt of electricity flows from the electrodes and into the assailant upon contact providing a potential victim with the opportunity to escape danger. Unlike other phone cases, the Yellow Jacket iPhone 4 case gives you the ability to defend yourself.”
“The effects of Yellow Jacket are loud, painful and disorienting,” says co-founder Seth Froom. “We developed the Yellow Jacket to be able to take down a fully grown, aggressive, adult male.”
For now, it’s just available for the iPhone 4 and 4S, but Android versions are on the way.
Earlier this month during their WWDC 2012 keynote, Apple unveiled iOS 6. With it came some significant improvements for Siri, including some general (and much needed) performance improvements and the ability to request sports scores, movie statistics, and more.
Not to be outdone, on Wednesday Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The newest version of Google’s mobile operating system is getting its own spate of awesome updates, including offline voice typing and much more. One of those new features in Jelly Bean is Google’s own answer to Siri: Google Voice Search. Much like Siri, Google Voice Search lets you speak a variety of requests and commands using natural language.
Now, full disclosure, I’m a bit of an Apple fanboy. I love my iPhone 4S. And my iPad, and my MacBook. And the ginormous iMac I get to use every day at work. I even love Siri, for all her flaws. That said, even I thought Jelly Bean and Voice Search looked pretty darn cool during the keynote. But the big question is, how does it compare? How does Jelly Bean compare to iOS 6? How does Voice Search do against Siri? Samsung’s S Voice did okay, but Siri generally performed better. Surely Voice Search can’t be that much better than S Voice, so at best it will be a tie, right?
Well, the good folks over at TechnoBuffalo Got their hands on an iPhone 4S running iOS 6 beta 2 and a Galaxy Nexus running the developer preview of Jelly Bean and did what any self-respecting nerd would do: they put them in their own little Thunderdome to see which voice activated personal assistant is better. Even better, they filmed it:
So yeah, there you go. Apple fanboy that I am, I have to admit that Siri, bless her heart, pretty much got smoked. Siri did all the same things, and for the most part it did them well, but it also did them noticeably slower. When it came time to search the web Siri asked first, taking a lot of extra time, while Voice Search realized that the only place to get pictures of pygmy marmosets was the internet, and so launched a web search automatically. What’s more, it did it without leaving the voice interface and switching to a browser.
The bottom line is that while Samsung’s S Voice looks and feels a lot like a cheap Siri knock-off, Voice Search is a genuine competitor – and in this test, at least, performed a lot better. Much as I hate to say it, it’s your move, Apple.
If you’ve heard much about Samsung’s new Galaxy S III, you’ve probably heard about S Voice. In case you’re not familiar, S Voice is the new voice-activated personal assistant software that’s integrated into the Galaxy S III. Of course, in fine Samsung tradition, it totally doesn’t look anything at all like Siri, the voice-activated personal assistant software that’s integrated into the iPhone 4S. And by “totally doesn’t look anything at all like Siri,” I mean “looks an awful lot like Siri.”
Of course, in the great War of the Fanboys, there’s plenty of… discussion about whether Siri or S Voice is better, whether S Voice is a ripoff of Siri, and which smartphone is the fairest in the land (turns out neither phone gives the answer you’d expect).
Of course, the obvious answer to the debate is to put the two together in a head-to-head competition. And that’s just what you’ll find in the video below. As it turns out, Siri and S Voice are pretty evenly matched. While S Voice takes a little more time to perform certain tasks than Siri, it does them equally well. Of course, S Voice wins in one respect. The last test is finding a particular restaurant. While Siri balks (being as this is in Australia, where Siri doesn’t do local business searches), S Voice pulls up Google Maps and displays a route to the requested destination.
While that might seem to give S Voice a bit of a lead, iOS 6 will fix that when it launches this fall. Apple announced during their WWDC 2012 keynote on Monday that the iOS Maps app would be getting turn-by-turn navigation and local business search in a variety of new countries when it launches this fall.
Check out the video for yourself and decide who wins:
If there’s one thing Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak knows how to do, it’s speak his mind, even if the Apple fanboys hate him for it. Good ol’ Woz is well known for his nasty habit of pointing out the areas where Apple’s products may not quite measure up to the competition. Whether it’s that Android does some stuff better than the iPhone, or that Windows Phone is prettier than both, Wozniak has developed a reputation for blunt honesty in his assessment of products made by the company he helped build.
Well, the Woz is at it again. In an impromptu interview with The Times Union in upstate New York, Wozniak discussed his early fascination with Siri back when it was an App Store app and not a baked-in feature of the iPhone. Back then, Wozniak says, Siri was nothing short of amazing. With the app, he could ask about the five largest lakes in California, or which prime numbers are greater than 87, and Siri would return the correct answers. He told all his friends about it, saying that it was the future of how people interacted with mobile devices.
Then Apple got ahold of it and, it was all downhill from there. Now when Wozniak asked about the five largest lakes in California, Siri started returning results for lakefront property. When asked about prime numbers over 87, she looked for restaurants that offered prime rib. The problem, Wozniak says, is the way Siri handles queries. While Siri is able to use Wolfram Alpha for searches, she doesn’t do a good job of distinguishing what should be a Wolfram Alpha search and what should be a Google search (though when she does default to Wolfram Alpha, the results are sometimes hilarious).
This, Wozniak thinks, is Siri’s big problem. The way Siri is now, certain kinds of queries, like asking what flights are overhead right now, require a Wolfram Alpha search. For most of those, you have to actually preface the query with “Wolfram” (you even have to be careful how you say it: “wolfrum” as opposed to “wolf-ram”). Wozniak believes it should be “smart enough” to process a user’s query and determine on its own whether to use Wolfram Alpha, Google, or something else.
Nevertheless, Wozniak called Siri “a mark of where the future is headed,” and that he expects voice interface systems on all platforms to improve in the next few years. Eventually, he says, it will be able to understand when we correct ourselves mid-sentence, i.e., “5, I mean, 6.”
Without a doubt, one of the biggest highlights of yesterday’s WWDC 2012 keynote was iOS 6. Apple’s latest mobile operating system packs in over 200 new features, some of which we heard about at yesterday’s keynote, some of which have come to light as developers have gotten their hands on the new iOS 6 beta.
Of course, every update – be it iOS or OS X – has casualties. There is always a list of devices that aren’t supported. With OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, if your computer was made before about the middle of 2009, you’re out of luck. With iOS, the compatibility list is actually pretty impressive. Most of Apple’s iOS device lineup will support iOS 6. Unfortunately “most” doesn’t mean “all,” and “support” doesn’t mean “run every new feature.” Fortunately, Apple has published a list of compatible devices and which features will be supported on each.
So, let’s start with the devices that won’t run iOS 6 at all. If you’re still rocking a first-generation iPad (like yours truly), then you’re out; iOS 6 only supports the iPad 2 and new iPad. On the iPhone front, only the first generation iPhone and the iPhone 3G are left out (in point of fact, the original iPhone lost support for new iOS versions quite some time ago). The list of compatible iPod Touch models is much smaller: anything older than the 4th generation iPod Touch (which came out in 2010) is out of luck.
Okay, so now you know your device is will support iOS 6, the big question is which features your device will run. Some of these are pretty obvious (like Siri), while others are less obvious. Here’s the list below:
Siri: On the iPhone, Siri remains an iPhone 4S exclusive. On the iPad, it will be available only on the new iPad (not the iPad 2).
FaceTime: To use FaceTime over a 3G connection, you have to have the iPhone 4S or the new iPad only (the cellular data model, naturally).
Mail VIP: Curiously, this requires the iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S, and the iPad 2 or new iPad.
Offline Reading List: Once again, the iPhone 3GS is left out. This feature is compatible with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, and the second and third generation iPads.
Maps: Flyover and turn-by-turn navigation are limited to the iPhone 4S, the iPad 2, and the new iPad.
Shared Photo Streams: Yet again, no love for the iPhone 3GS. Once again, only compatible with the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2, or new iPad.
It’s worth noting that this is not an exhaustive list. In fact, this list comes from the footnotes of Apple’s iOS 6 preview page. Which means that if you put iOS 6 on your iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, or iPad 2, you may still be in for some unwelcome surprises in terms of what your device will or won’t do with the new operating system.
Following rumors earlier this week that they would do so, Virgin Mobile has announced this morning that they will begin offering Apple’s iPhone 4S on their prepaid wireless network. The iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 will be available to Virgin Mobile customers on June 29. There will be a variety of rate plans available to Virgin Mobile iPhone customers, all with unlimited texting and unlimited data (though their “fair use policy” means that “unlimited” actually means 2.5GB). Plans start at $30 for 300 voice minutes per month, $40 for 1,200 minuutes, and $50 for unlimited minutes (though that price includes a discount that you get when you let Virgin bill your credit card monthly).
Virgin Mobile is the second prepaid wireless carrier to announce that they would be offering the iPhone. Cricket Wireless announced last week that they would begin offering the iPhone on June 22. Rumors that Boost Mobile would do the same have not been confirmed.
Just like Cricket, Virgin Mobile will be offering the iPhone without contract or activations fees. That, of course, means no carrier subsidies, which means that an iPhone 4S will cost you $649 up front. Savings on the rate plan, though, more than make up for the heftier iPhone price tag.
The announcement that Apple’s iPhone 4S is coming Cricket Wireless slated for later this month has set off a storm of speculation about the possibility of other prepaid carriers getting the iPhone as well. Last week saw rumors that Boost Mobile would be next, though Boost all but denied it.
Now it looks like the other prepaid wireless carrier owned by Spring – Virgin Mobile – might actually be next to get the iPhone. Citing “people familiar with the company’s plans,” the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sprint will announce later this week that the iPhone is coming to Virgin Mobile on July 1. Details on plan pricing and whatnot are not clear at this point, but Virgin’s existing plans are comparable to those on Cricket and Boost. Odds are Virgin Mobile iPhone customers will be paying $55 per month for unlimited talk, text, and data. Like Cricket, though, Virgin is a prepaid-only carrier. That means no carrier subsidies for the iPhone itself, which means that you’ll be paying $499.99 for your phone, though the difference in handset cost is more than offset by the amount of savings on a monthly plan from one of the big three carriers – Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint.
Apple has been steadily increasing the iPhone’s presence on wireless carriers other than the big three. Over the last month they’ve brought the iPhone to several small, local carriers. Now they’re bringing the iPhone to Cricket and (presumably) Virgin (and maybe Boost). Bringing a high-end phone like the iPhone – the single best-selling smartphone in the world – to prepaid carriers is a big move. While it may not hurt the big carriers much, it definitely lends an air of legitimacy to the prepaid carriers.
A request for comment sent to Virgin Mobile has not yet been answered.
You may recall a couple weeks ago, when Apple started airing two new commercials for the iPhone 4S – Siri, specifically – starring John Malkovich. The two ads showcased Siri’s ability to handle very simple commands, as opposed to the conversational style of interaction most commercials demonstrate.
This is the second time in recent memory that Apple has used celebrities in its ads. Back in April they released a pair of ads showing Zooey Deschanel and Samuel L. Jackson interacting with Siri. As you might expect, each of those ads spawned its own parody – a Twitter account making fun of Deschanel’s silly question, and a video that put Siri into a famous scene from Pulp Fiction.
Unsurprisingly, Malkovich’s two commercials have inspired some parodies of their own. The Twitter account SiriAndJohn portrays Malkovich asking Siri a variety of questions. In keeping with the tone ads, the tweets are usually taciturn. Check out a sample below:
The Twitter account, of course, isn’t the only parody of Malkovich’s ads out there. In the second of the two ads, Malkovich has Siri tell him a joke. Siri responds with the only joke she knows: “Two iPhones walk into a bar… I forget the rest.” That wasn’t good enough for the folks at Slacktory, though. They thought Siri’s sense of humor needed a little boost, so they made their own version in which Siri tries a couple of (slightly) funnier jokes. When those don’t do the trick, she tells him “The iRistocrats,” an iPhone-centric (and astonishingly clean) version of the most offensive joke in the world: The Aristocrats. Check out the video below (but be aware that there’s some language at the very end of the video that isn’t suitable for work):
A Boost spokesperson declined to comment on the rumors, saying “We don’t comment on rumors or speculation on our product portfolio.”
ORIGINAL STORY:
Yesterday we brought you news that prepaid wireless carrier Cricket Wireless had announced that they would begin carrying the iPhone on June 22. Now it looks like Cricket might not be the only prepaid carrier that’s about to get in on the iPhone action. Recent reports say that Boost Mobile, which is owned by Sprint, will be getting the iPhone later this year as well.
Citing “a trusted source,” TechnoBuffalo is reporting that Boost will be getting the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 in early September. Details are few and far between, given the lack of an official announcement. Presumably, though, Boost iPhone customers will be getting the Boost’s $50 unlimited plan. It’s unclear whether they will include the Shrinkage reward system, which rewards customers who pay their bill on time by knocking off $5.
The addition of the iPhone to prepaid carriers like Cricket and Boost (assuming this information is accurate) has the potential to bring some pretty significant changes in the smartphone market. While prepaid phones are more expensive, lacking a carrier subsidy, they also bring a great deal of freedom, and the kind of unlimited plans like those offered by Cricket and Boost could provide a significant incentive to those who are frustrated with the more limited plans offered by larger carriers.
A request for comment sent to a representative of Boost Mobile has not yet been returned.
The Huffington Post is reporting a study that finds iPhone users comprise 80 percent of the top 10% of data users.
The report comes from consulting firm Analysys Mason, who revealed that among the smartphone users that fall in the 70th percentile for data use, three times as many of them are iPhones than HTC, which is the second biggest data consumer. So for top data users, iPhone beats out the next top competitor three to one.
The data was collected by tracking smartphone of over 1,000 users over a three month period. Users were taken from all over the world, including the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Spain and France. They were able to track the data using a monitoring app devised by research company Arbitron Mobile.
The reason for the excessive data use may be SIri. Studies have shown that iPhone 4S uses twice as much data as the iPhone 4, Siri being the primary source in these cases.
According to the Huffington Post, AT&T Cheif Executive Randall Stephen has stated that he regrets ever offering an unlimited data plan for the iPhone. This led to monthly data caps being introduced in March.
Other service providers have introduced similar cuts. Verizon no longer offers its $30-per-month unlimited data plan for upgrade. Prepay provider Cricket is capping its monthly data plan at 2.3GB. They will be offering the iPhone line next month.
Apple’s flagship product, the iPhone 4S, is about to make its way to another new carrier: Cricket Wireless. The company announced today that it will offer the 16GB iPhone 4S and the 8GB iPhone 4 beginning on June 22. Each will include Cricket’s $55 per month unlimited talk, text, and data plan.
While that’s an excellent deal any way you slice it, there is a bit of a catch. While most carriers subsidize the cost of the iPhone (and other smartphones), reducing the price of the handset when you sign a two-year contract, Cricket is a prepaid-only carrier. That means there are no contracts. That’s great for the customer in terms of flexibility – if you get an iPhone 4S through Cricket and then decide that you want the new iPhone when it launches in October, you can switch without any trouble. Unfortunately, though, no contract means no carrier subsidy, which means you’ll pay a lot more for your iPhone than you would by going through one of the other carriers. The iPhone 4S will set you back $499.99, while the iPhone 4 is only $100 cheaper.
The iPhone has come a long way since Apple’s exclusivity agreement with AT&T ended in 2010. Within two years, the iPhone had come to the other two largest carriers, Verizon and Sprint. In the last couple months, Apple has struck deals with several other carriers to offer the iPhone. In April the iPhone made its way to five new carriers. Early this month three more carriers announced that they would start offering the iPhone as well. All eight of these carriers are small, local carriers. Several of them primarily serve rural areas. Interestingly, all of them offer the iPhone for $50 less than the Big Three, with voice and data plans that often have distinct advantages (e.g., unlimited texting or unlimited data included).
With Cricket, the iPhone makes its way into the world of prepaid wireless plans as well. The iPhone will be available from Cricket on June 22. For more information you can check out Cricket’s iPhone page.
Even if you don’t have an iPhone 4S (or a jailbroken iOS device running Spire), you know what Siri is. It’s the voice-activated “killer app” for the iPhone 4S, introduced in October. It’s the focus of pretty much every ad for the iPhone 4S you’ve ever seen (including some recent ones with celebrities).
Whatever else Siri may be, though, there’s one thing that Apple has emphasized from the beginning: as cool as Siri can be when it’s working properly (like in Apple’s ads), the feature is still in beta. Unfortunately, that means that Siri won’t always work like it’s supposed to.
Speaking to Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher last night at AllThingsD’s D10 Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged Siri’s problems, and promised that the personal assistant software would be getting some big improvements in the future.
Mossberg pointed out that “when Siri works, it works really well, it’s kinda like magic.” He went on to say, though, that “a lot of times it actually doesn’t work, and that’s not what a lot of people have come to think about Apple products.” He wondered whether Siri was up to Apple’s standards. Cook replied by pointing out Siri’s popularity with users of the iPhone 4S, which is “the most popular selling phone in the world.” Nevertheless, he acknowledged that “there’s more that it can do.” He said that Apple has “a lot of people working on this,” that they had “some cool ideas about what Siri can do, and that “I think you’ll be really pleased with some of the things that you’ll see in the coming months on this.”
Swisher then asked Cook whether voice interaction would be critical to the phone industry moving forward. Cook replied that “Siri’s proven to us that people want to relate to the phone in a different way.” Siri, he said, represents the first real innovation in mobile technology interface since the touchscreen (which, of course, was brought into the mainstream by Apple with the original iPhone in 2007). Cook said that what makes Siri amazing is its ability to understand the context and intent of what’s being said, “not just voice recognition, voice recognition’s been around for a long time.” Siri’s best feature, Cook said, “is that she has a personality, she becomes many people’s best friend.” When Mossberg jokingly asked if that wasn’t actually kind of sad, Cook replied “hey, I’m not a judge.”
Getting more serious again, Cook said that Siri “is something that people dreamed of for years, and it’s here.” He went on to say that “yes, it can be broader and so forth, but we see unbelievable potential here.” He concluded that “you’re going to be really happy with where this is going, we’re doubling down on it.”
Later in the evening, Cook was asked about how Apple names new products, specifically the new iPad (as opposed to the iPad 3). He noted that the iPad naming represents a return to what Apple usually does with its products – e.g., the MacBook Air, iMac, and iPod. He also briefly touched on iPhone naming conventions, pointing out that the S in iPhone 3GS stood for “speed.” He then confirmed what most have long suspected: the S in the iPhone 4S name stands for “Siri.”
Just as with Facebook integration in iOS, Cook carefully avoided giving any hint of when we might expect the improvements to Siri that he’s talking about. With the WWDC 2012 conference – and the probable unveiling of iOS 6 during Apple’s keynote – just around the corner, though, it’s a fair bet that at least some of these improvements will be coming very soon.
You can see the video of Cook’s remarks about Siri below:
