Your chance of getting an iPhone 4S on Friday, not good.
Posted Wednesday, October 12, 2011 at 5:41 pm by Jason Cartwright
With more than a million pre-orders worldwide and generally positive reviews being released, the iPhone 4S is in high demand. Despite a disappointing initial reaction to the details, it seems a new Apple device, is still a new Apple device and people are dead keen for it. With only two weeks since the phone’s announcement (confirmation), telco providers have had to act quick to throw together new plans. So short the timeline, it was only this week that we received confirmation of plans from Australia’s largest telco, Telstra.
So with deals announced and details revealed, all that’s left is to pick up an iPhone 4S. The device goes on sale this Friday 14th October, but what are your chances of actually securing a device at launch ? The reality is, not good.
The most dedicated Apple fan boys have already begun cueing for the phone at Apple Stores, two days early. While it may be a case of first in best dressed, the story gets worse if you don’t live near one of the 13 stores. Initial supplies of iPhone 4S will be extremely constrained, a combination of a short announcement to release timeframe and multiple country distribution to blame.
This afternoon at a regional Telstra store in Wodonga, I was told they would have ‘less than 20 devices’ available this Friday. Naturally I enquired when the cue would begin, however was informed they have already taken a list of names which numbered more than 50 and the chances of securing on that day is very slim.
Update
Fantastic timing Telstra.. minutes after this post went up, Telstra did email pre-order information to those who registered using the iPhone 4S EOI form on their site.
It’s disappointing that the thousands who registered using expression of interest forms on each carriers website, has no impact on your ability to get a phone. In fact those EOI forms have been a complete waste of time. After asking the collective mind of twitter, it seems that no-one has received information about the released plans or iPhone 4S availability. Admittedly, the form did say it did not secure you device, however an email with instructions on how you could would have been a good idea.
There’s going to be a lot of unhappy customers on launch day that used the EOI form the day it was posted, only to be told there’s no iPhone for them. Joining a long list and waiting weeks for supply to catch up would be enough to turn most off going through the expense and hassle of upgrading.
You should never make it hard for people to give you money.
Naturally for those that miss out, more devices will ship as manufacturing in Asia struggles to meet demand with supply. Apple had previously been selling iPads faster than they could be made, expect this to be the case for iPhone 4S as well. The wait could quickly turn from weeks to months if you don’t get in fast, so if you’ve decided you definitely want an iPhone 4S, talk your local store as soon as possible.
Stuff.tv goes hands-on with Siri on iPhone 4S. Impressive.
Posted Wednesday, October 12, 2011 at 12:01 am by Jason Cartwright
Since Siri was officially announced as an iPhone 4S feature last week, most of us have been keen to try see how well it really works. While still not as good as a personal hands-on, this video from Stuff.tv does point to the voice recognition being pretty good.
If Siri does work as advertised, it is potentially change the way we communicate and perform functions on our devices. Some also thought Facetime was a transformative development, proving that initial impressions aren’t always accurate. The optimist inside me wants this to work in same way I wish we were living like the Jetsons.
Consumers will know for sure just how Siri works, particularly with different accents, when the iPhone 4S goes on sale this Friday.
Pre-order Apple iPhone 4 S
Posted Saturday, October 8, 2011 at 12:39 am by Nick Ayre
You can now pre-order Apple’s latest phone, the iPhone 4 S unlocked from Apple’s online store which was announced during a press conference on the 5th.
The phone comes in black and white at three different price points:
- 16GB $799
- 32GB $899
- 64GB $999
As of writing this none of the carriers have released information about purchasing the iPhone 4 S on a contract, stay tuned to techAU.
Update
Optus tweeted out this morning that their pre-orders were ready to go, however the link provided http://optus.com.au/iphone4s is broken.
Update 2
Optus have released new plans for the iPhone 4S and surprisingly aren’t better than current plans.. TechGeek has a great run down of the details.
Learn more about the iPhone 4 S:
Apple iPhone announcement: the important bits.
Steve Jobs has died. The world loses one of its greatest minds.
Posted Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 9:44 am by Jason Cartwright
Very sad news has just broken, Steve Jobs has passed away. Co-founder of Apple, Jobs was one of the worlds greatest minds, creating products loved by millions, the world over. Whether you love or hate Apple, there is no denying that Jobs had a profound impact on the technology industry for the better.
Apple has confirmed this with a page http://www.apple.com/stevejobs/ with the following statement.
Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
Steve Jobs was 56 years old and was suffering from Pancreatic Cancer.
Apple just screwed Telstra. No LTE. No HD calls.
Posted Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 7:04 am by Jason Cartwright
This morning’s announcements from Cupertino is sure to upset Australia’s largest telecommunications provider, Telstra. While the iPhone 4S is a ‘World Phone’ packed with technology, unfortunately Telstra have spent millions on technology that won’t be accessible via the new device.
Going on sale next Friday, the iPhone does not have a new technology WB-AMR, which Telstra uses to achieve HD calls on their Next G Network. Given the extra clarity and noise cancellation available with the technology, this could be something that benefitted Siri.
The iPhone 4S will support 2G/3G, but not 4G as we know it here in Australia. Telstra has already begun rolling out 4G LTE in Australia which is capable of speeds up to 40 Mbps. The iPhone 4S will only support HSDPA, which can achieve a lowly 14.4 Mbps. Back in 2009 Telstra showed off Next G running at 21Mbps.. back in 09 !
Consumers will have the choice of a number of 4G phones in 2012, but the reality is millions of Apple iPhone users will be within 4G areas and not able to take advantage of the extra speed. The 4G situation in the US (where the iPhone is developed) is a complete mess. The 4G label has now become a generic marketing label for ‘better than 3G’ rather than a technical specification.
I never thought I’d see the day where America was holding Australia back in technology developments.
iPhone 4S page now live, just keep hitting F5
Posted Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 5:13 am by Jason Cartwright
Apple has apparently had even more demand than they were anticipating. The Apple Store was taken offline as usual prior to the iPhone 4S website update occurring. It’s been up and down, when it’s down, the message was pretty unflattering. In more than 5 years of covering Apple, I’ve never seen this kind of outage.
If you can get the page to load, the official details of the iPhone 4S are available. Initial reaction to this morning’s announcement has been disappointment. Reading between the lines, Apple tried to let us know this wasn’t going to be their biggest announcement. Held at the Apple Campus in Cupertino, most of the 1.5 hrs of the announcement was spent on rehashing things from WWDC.
Essentially Apple got the naming right, iPhone 4S, just like the 3GS is a very evolutionary step.
More @ Apple.
