there isn't really any limitation, it's just a trick used by Mr Cook to lure people into buying this damp squib of an upgrade
Give me a break. The processing power needed to run Siri is only available on A5 devices like the new phone and the iPad 2. The same sorts of limitations on software existed for users of the original iPhone.
I think people who are disappointed in this new phone are crazy. For me, this will be as important a jump in performance as the original iPhone to the iPhone 3GS was (I skipped the iPhone 3G).
I think the biggest unknown is Siri. I was less than impressed with it as a stand alone app. If Apple can duplicate the user experience seen in the video or the demo today this will be huge for a lot of users.
someone explain why Siri wont be included for all ios devices running 5? seriously, what exactly is the hardware limitation that prevents it from running on the iphone 4? Android has voice capabilities on much slower devices with no problem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sarges
there isn't really any limitation, it's just a trick used by Mr Cook to lure people into buying this damp squib of an upgrade
I think that the requirement to run Siri well is based on the higher performance CPU and GPU cores. Siri is a form of artificial intelligence and requires a lot of compute power to provide acceptable performance.
Apple, likely, could run Siri on an A4 -- but the performance would be marginal and defeat the purpose.
The iPhone 3GS was a better iPhone 3G with some new hardware features, and all-around improvements to existing features. The iPhone 4S is that and more with the introduction of Siri. So much for your "That's a shame" theory.
Yeah, but the 3G was so slow that the speed increase in the 3GS was nothing to sneeze at.
The difference between the 4 and 4s is no where near that important.
HSPA+ is speeds from 21bps->. In reality though, full speed HSPA (up to 14.4Mbps) and basic HSPA+ (21Mbps) offer the same practical speed. MIMO or Dual Cell would improve from this, but require more from the networks to be really plausible. Maybe iPhone5?
I can't believe that people are getting so emotional about this! It's a PHONE people! And it's nearly entirely new where it matters the most which is INSIDE. Why should Apple redesign the outside every time they upgrade the phone? They don't do that with their computers do they? I think that the problem is that they have moved so quickly on both fronts that people simply expect it to always be that way. It was inevitable that they would slow down on changing the form factor. I'm typing this on a late 2008 15" MacBook Pro. It looks virtually identical to a 2011 15" MacBook Pro. Big deal! It's funny because this makes me think of how people are with cars. They think a car is so different/better if the sheet metal gets changed significantly, but the internals are all the same as there previous model. Car companies take advantage of this all the time! Apple most likely feels that the current design of the iPhone 4 is good enough to stick with for another year. And you know what? They'll sell MILLIONS of them! So stop crying like a bunch of babies that just got their lollipops stolen. The iPhone 4S is a serious upgrade where it really counts and that's in performance!
+1
Yeah, of course I'd have loved to have some spankin' new design to show off as I walk around or on CalTrain - ooh look, he's got the iPhone5! - but the fact remains that the 4S is a killer phone on any and all fronts and it will still perform and amaze beyond my expectations.
iPhone 4S = iPhone 5 with the name "4S" instead of "5"
It would have the same internals - don't deny it.
Why is everyone bitching in here? Its a good phone - the only thing I see missing from the rumoured 5 is the larger display and, to be honest, the iPhone already has a fantastic display (probably the best on the market), so I'm more than happy to give up the larger display panel to keep the high DPi count and not have apps break for one reason or another.
The 64GB storage, the 1080p video recording, higher quality photographs with faster shutter, far better graphics capabilities, improved antenna design - I'm pre ordering one!
BTW, I feel it necessary to point out that Apple never promised us anything. It was all the tech blogs and news outlets that hyped up a mythical iPhone 5. Apple didn't make those teardrop renderings after all. So really, Apple just did what they've done in the past, announced an incremental update. Was there this much whining and moaning when the 3GS was announced?
stock price is down now, but wait until they sell these new phones by the tens of millions. it looks like a great phone/camera/video recorder/and on and on.
By that standard, your 1999 Motorola flip phone was good enough. After all, why improve something that's good enough?
Why should Apple be restricted to fixing things that are broken? Other than the case and screen, almost every item in this phone is significantly better than its predecessor.
Now, you might say "that's fine, but I don't need it" and there's nothing wrong with that. But this endless lambasting of Apple for significantly improving only 98 of the 100 components in the phone is absurd.
What would you rather have, a corvette with a Corolla engine or a Corolla with a corvette engine?
I mean, dual core in a phone, what the heck are people doing with their phones? We learned 5 years ago that any PC does the internet and email just fine, hence now we have tablets, why are they boosting the internals on frickin' phones?
You know how phones multi task?
You know how multiple tasks means more threads to run?
You know how a dual core can handle two threads instead of one?
You know how games play an important part in portable media?
You know how much faster multi-threaded applications will run with a dual core?
I can't believe that people are getting so emotional about this! It's a PHONE people! And it's nearly entirely new where it matters the most which is INSIDE. Why should Apple redesign the outside every time they upgrade the phone? They don't do that with their computers do they? I think that the problem is that they have moved so quickly on both fronts that people simply expect it to always be that way. It was inevitable that they would slow down on changing the form factor. I'm typing this on a late 2008 15" MacBook Pro. It looks virtually identical to a 2011 15" MacBook Pro. Big deal! It's funny because this makes me think of how people are with cars. They think a car is so different/better if the sheet metal gets changed significantly, but the internals are all the same as there previous model. Car companies take advantage of this all the time! Apple most likely feels that the current design of the iPhone 4 is good enough to stick with for another year. And you know what? They'll sell MILLIONS of them! So stop crying like a bunch of babies that just got their lollipops stolen. The iPhone 4S is a serious upgrade where it really counts and that's in performance!
Good points. A lot of people are bent out of shape because this product didn't meet some promise that Apple never made. Remember how in the months leading up to this event there were conflicting rumors about an iPhone 4 with a speed bump vs. rumors of a new design, etc.? You can't believe everything you hear. If your expectations were set by AppleInsider then you need to take everything reported here with a grain of salt.
This isn't comparable to the iPod. It's not revolutionary.
Fact is until the last week, or so, no one expected apple to release an update with the same form factor.
Totally false. Only a portion of the narrow slice of the market which obsesses over these announcements (AI users) actually "expected" Apple to have a new form factor, based on assumptions and rumors only. Many of us were hoping but there was no reason whatsoever to "expect" Apple would do anything other than what they assessed was the best thing they could do at this moment. Which pretty much describes Apple's behavior in the last 10 years.
I'm surprised at the reactions too. Why don't people realize that generally most Americans are locked into two year contracts. Why would Apple try and sell you a new phone every year if that is the case? DUH
New Camera, chip, etc etc.... everything but the body is new and SIRI looks amazing. Anyone who says "my droid had it first" is not understanding the depth of voice commands in SIRI. It's bordering on AI, not simple voice recognition.
Relax people. Don't cry all you who have 4's are generally supposed to upgrade to 5's next year anyway.
You just got to love all the excuses on here for such a lame day. This iPhone could have been released as is in June with an IOS and Siri upgrade now just like the iPad 2 will get. Instead Appje bitchslappwd y'all waiters for 4 months and now your new contracts won't begin until October when they could have in June.
Yeah, but the 3G was so slow that the speed increase in the 3GS was nothing to sneeze at.
The difference between the 4 and 4s is no where near that important.
The difference between the 3G and the 3GS, in terms of user experience, is huge, but did we know that before anyone had the 3GS in their hands? Do you have a 4S in your hands?
1) Yeah, a processor, GPU and its interconnects that can do more in less time is a good thing for many reasons. If you don't understand that then it would be pointless for me to explain.
2) You honestly don't how faster internet speeds could help with anything other than torrenting? Perhaps battery usage efficiency being able to use the cellular chips less often. Or perhaps being able to render webpages and data in apps faster, like streaming of video. You really think waiting is a good thing here?
3) It wasn't a problem, but neither was it a problem with any other iPhone before it. Apple makes their stuff better. Why does this seem so alien to you?
4) It's improved in several good ways according to event data. I'm not one to use a camera but I can certainly see why better quality photos, that are better stability and especially in low light settings are a good thing of those that use it.
5) It has been seen. What part of the Siri/Nuance Assistant do you think won't be as good as the voice recognition in iOS 4.x?
6) Again, why pooh-pooh improved software because Apple is offering it to other devices. I'm sure you'd complain if Apple oddly didn't give the iPhone 4S new SW features so why complain when they do. You should at least leave it as a null value.
7) For the most part you are right; this won't affect many users right away. This also could be the reason for this extra long delay since getting a world mode chip in a smartphone with this many bands has never before been done, especially in such a small smartphone. However, this does open the door for the US finally being to get legislation to get carriers to unlock devices after your contract is fulfilled. Why is that a bad thing?
8) Prove to me they could have put these 64GB chips in the number of iPhones sold in the last 16 months. What were the yields of these chips then compared to the assumed upper-tier iPhone 4 sales? What were its cost per unit? How much power did they use? How fast were the chips? How was the reliability of these chips? Last I had read a year ago was they weren't as fast and had a significantly lower number of read/write sessions that made them unlikely to find their way into the iPhone until 2011. Reading about a new tech on Engadget doesn't mean it's ready for mass production in the most popular devices on the planet.
Had the same TV, same stereo system, but got the newest AppleTV and new TiVo HD. Made the experience considerably better because core devices made accessing my media better, faster and more enjoyable. Buying a new TV just because the black plastic border is a little difference would not have made a difference.
It is a great upgrade on paper, which is why I can't understand the colossal mistake of calling it the "iPhone 4S" which just makes it sound like crap and like it *isn't* a whole new phone when in fact it kind of is.
I think the mistake Apple has made here (if they have made a mistake at all), is in one of their well-known historical weaknesses, which is in handling perceptions and talking nice to the regular humans, which most folks who work at Apple don't understand at all.
The huge extra wait for this phone gave off the impression that we were waiting for something amazing, so when it isn't ultimately delivered, it leaves a sour taste no matter how great the upgrade is (on paper). Not only that, but they haven't explained *why* the wait was longer this time or if it's going to stay that way. This means it's very difficult to convince oneself to plunk down another 800 bucks or so for a new phone when you aren't even sure if they are going to come out with an iPhone 5 in the Spring less than 6 months later.
As is usual with Apple, it's all the things they don't say and all the things they don't communicate which are screwing up the perceptions that they want to sell. And they don't even see that (also as usual).
The other factor that people (and especially Apple), aren't considering is that there isn't a lot on a phone that *can* be improved, year to year. This one is faster and has extra bands, but the average user doesn't need a faster phone or extra bands on the one they have. These are improvements on paper, but almost entirely unnecessary to the actual functioning of the phone.
The faster speeds and graphics will be great for gamers, but gamers are also already satisfied with the iPod touch. If you don't play games (and by "games" I mean something that stresses the GPU, not angry birds or sudoku), what's the point of a faster GPU?
The extra bands are great for business types who are rich enough to go fly somewhere each month, but it doesn't help the average user at all. They don't have any of those extra bands in my country, and the ones we do have, the new iPhone doesn't cover. So how is that really a "world phone"? And even if it is, again, it doesn't actually help the average user at all.
This is why the new iPhone is such a let-down. Yes, on paper, it's a whole new phone and way better than the original one, but in reality it doesn't do anything for the average user that the old one didn't do.
I don't play Infinity Blade. I don't go to Europe or Japan. There is no CDMA in my country.
For me, and for many other average phone users, it's a lame, thin, almost irrelevant upgrade.
Hallie Berry is "fatter" than Scarlett Johansen so yea, whale.
That made me laugh.
Quote:
Originally Posted by woolie
Feel sorry for Cook... Having to keep a straight face during a non event... Stock is now down $60 from its high... Obviously a lot of insiders knew about this pathetic very late iPhone update...
Apple has fallen asleep... No one wonder they are suing Samsung... It's a diversion tactic...
Apple is unable compete anymore in the phone business...
Sad, sad, sad, I miss the days when they way in the lead... Now they are just followers, last place no less...
You worry too much. If you're a long term investor you're still fine and their earnings are still strong. The stock might actually be held back somewhat simply because people are very tense about the economy right now, but Apple has the cash in hand to back up the value of their stock along with strong overall growth. Right now I'm more curious if Amazon's tablet will take them by surprise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slurpy
Apple is 'unable to compete in the phone business' and 'in last place' , while having the best selling phone, by a massive margin, in the industry? Are you insane, or just fucking stupid? Sure, I'm also disappointed we didn't get a new form factor and larger screen, but there's no point spouting factually untrue and sensationalistic statements with no basis in reality, as you just did. iOS5, iCloud, and Siri look amazing, and as far as I can tell more polished and better implemented than anything else in the industry. Whether you like it or no, Apple is still in the lead- by a wide margin.
That's not nice Anyway yeah they're doing well, and contracts last two years anyway so if this release is considered weak, there will probably be a lot of pent up demand with the next.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer
Stock is down due to the upcoming Quarterly report and the concerns of Global Austerity. By the way the stock is back up to $372.50.
By the time the iPhone 4S, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, iOS 5 and the Quarterly Report comes out it will be well over $400.
Don't worry for Mr. Tim Cook. He's not.
If you're invested for the longer term, watching the stock rise and fall all day is pointless. You know Apple has the earnings to back up their stock price, so I wouldn't worry too much.
Comments
there isn't really any limitation, it's just a trick used by Mr Cook to lure people into buying this damp squib of an upgrade
Give me a break. The processing power needed to run Siri is only available on A5 devices like the new phone and the iPad 2. The same sorts of limitations on software existed for users of the original iPhone.
I think people who are disappointed in this new phone are crazy. For me, this will be as important a jump in performance as the original iPhone to the iPhone 3GS was (I skipped the iPhone 3G).
I think the biggest unknown is Siri. I was less than impressed with it as a stand alone app. If Apple can duplicate the user experience seen in the video or the demo today this will be huge for a lot of users.
someone explain why Siri wont be included for all ios devices running 5? seriously, what exactly is the hardware limitation that prevents it from running on the iphone 4? Android has voice capabilities on much slower devices with no problem.
there isn't really any limitation, it's just a trick used by Mr Cook to lure people into buying this damp squib of an upgrade
I think that the requirement to run Siri well is based on the higher performance CPU and GPU cores. Siri is a form of artificial intelligence and requires a lot of compute power to provide acceptable performance.
Apple, likely, could run Siri on an A4 -- but the performance would be marginal and defeat the purpose.
The iPhone 3GS was a better iPhone 3G with some new hardware features, and all-around improvements to existing features. The iPhone 4S is that and more with the introduction of Siri. So much for your "That's a shame" theory.
Yeah, but the 3G was so slow that the speed increase in the 3GS was nothing to sneeze at.
The difference between the 4 and 4s is no where near that important.
It is a little nicer than the iPhone 4, but not what I am looking for....
I want 4G and a bigger screen....
Still regular HSPA.
HSPA+ is speeds from 21bps->. In reality though, full speed HSPA (up to 14.4Mbps) and basic HSPA+ (21Mbps) offer the same practical speed. MIMO or Dual Cell would improve from this, but require more from the networks to be really plausible. Maybe iPhone5?
Regs, Jarkko
Check out the 2nd post by Brian Klug...
I can't believe that people are getting so emotional about this! It's a PHONE people! And it's nearly entirely new where it matters the most which is INSIDE. Why should Apple redesign the outside every time they upgrade the phone? They don't do that with their computers do they? I think that the problem is that they have moved so quickly on both fronts that people simply expect it to always be that way. It was inevitable that they would slow down on changing the form factor. I'm typing this on a late 2008 15" MacBook Pro. It looks virtually identical to a 2011 15" MacBook Pro. Big deal! It's funny because this makes me think of how people are with cars. They think a car is so different/better if the sheet metal gets changed significantly, but the internals are all the same as there previous model. Car companies take advantage of this all the time! Apple most likely feels that the current design of the iPhone 4 is good enough to stick with for another year. And you know what? They'll sell MILLIONS of them! So stop crying like a bunch of babies that just got their lollipops stolen. The iPhone 4S is a serious upgrade where it really counts and that's in performance!
+1
Yeah, of course I'd have loved to have some spankin' new design to show off as I walk around or on CalTrain - ooh look, he's got the iPhone5! - but the fact remains that the 4S is a killer phone on any and all fronts and it will still perform and amaze beyond my expectations.
It would have the same internals - don't deny it.
Why is everyone bitching in here? Its a good phone - the only thing I see missing from the rumoured 5 is the larger display and, to be honest, the iPhone already has a fantastic display (probably the best on the market), so I'm more than happy to give up the larger display panel to keep the high DPi count and not have apps break for one reason or another.
The 64GB storage, the 1080p video recording, higher quality photographs with faster shutter, far better graphics capabilities, improved antenna design - I'm pre ordering one!
BTW, I feel it necessary to point out that Apple never promised us anything. It was all the tech blogs and news outlets that hyped up a mythical iPhone 5. Apple didn't make those teardrop renderings after all. So really, Apple just did what they've done in the past, announced an incremental update. Was there this much whining and moaning when the 3GS was announced?
No, but how long did we wait for those?
By that standard, your 1999 Motorola flip phone was good enough. After all, why improve something that's good enough?
Why should Apple be restricted to fixing things that are broken? Other than the case and screen, almost every item in this phone is significantly better than its predecessor.
Now, you might say "that's fine, but I don't need it" and there's nothing wrong with that. But this endless lambasting of Apple for significantly improving only 98 of the 100 components in the phone is absurd.
What would you rather have, a corvette with a Corolla engine or a Corolla with a corvette engine?
Makes ya think...
I mean, dual core in a phone, what the heck are people doing with their phones? We learned 5 years ago that any PC does the internet and email just fine, hence now we have tablets, why are they boosting the internals on frickin' phones?
You know how phones multi task?
You know how multiple tasks means more threads to run?
You know how a dual core can handle two threads instead of one?
You know how games play an important part in portable media?
You know how much faster multi-threaded applications will run with a dual core?
I'll leave that food there for your thought.
I can't believe that people are getting so emotional about this! It's a PHONE people! And it's nearly entirely new where it matters the most which is INSIDE. Why should Apple redesign the outside every time they upgrade the phone? They don't do that with their computers do they? I think that the problem is that they have moved so quickly on both fronts that people simply expect it to always be that way. It was inevitable that they would slow down on changing the form factor. I'm typing this on a late 2008 15" MacBook Pro. It looks virtually identical to a 2011 15" MacBook Pro. Big deal! It's funny because this makes me think of how people are with cars. They think a car is so different/better if the sheet metal gets changed significantly, but the internals are all the same as there previous model. Car companies take advantage of this all the time! Apple most likely feels that the current design of the iPhone 4 is good enough to stick with for another year. And you know what? They'll sell MILLIONS of them! So stop crying like a bunch of babies that just got their lollipops stolen. The iPhone 4S is a serious upgrade where it really counts and that's in performance!
Good points. A lot of people are bent out of shape because this product didn't meet some promise that Apple never made. Remember how in the months leading up to this event there were conflicting rumors about an iPhone 4 with a speed bump vs. rumors of a new design, etc.? You can't believe everything you hear. If your expectations were set by AppleInsider then you need to take everything reported here with a grain of salt.
This isn't comparable to the iPod. It's not revolutionary.
Fact is until the last week, or so, no one expected apple to release an update with the same form factor.
Totally false. Only a portion of the narrow slice of the market which obsesses over these announcements (AI users) actually "expected" Apple to have a new form factor, based on assumptions and rumors only. Many of us were hoping but there was no reason whatsoever to "expect" Apple would do anything other than what they assessed was the best thing they could do at this moment. Which pretty much describes Apple's behavior in the last 10 years.
Looks like fixing the rough edges on the existing iPhone.
You can't have game-changing innovation with every release, kids. Don't get greedy.
Exactly. Thank you for reminding people.
New Camera, chip, etc etc.... everything but the body is new and SIRI looks amazing. Anyone who says "my droid had it first" is not understanding the depth of voice commands in SIRI. It's bordering on AI, not simple voice recognition.
Relax people. Don't cry all you who have 4's are generally supposed to upgrade to 5's next year anyway.
Pathetic.
Yeah, but the 3G was so slow that the speed increase in the 3GS was nothing to sneeze at.
The difference between the 4 and 4s is no where near that important.
The difference between the 3G and the 3GS, in terms of user experience, is huge, but did we know that before anyone had the 3GS in their hands? Do you have a 4S in your hands?
1) Yeah, a processor, GPU and its interconnects that can do more in less time is a good thing for many reasons. If you don't understand that then it would be pointless for me to explain.
2) You honestly don't how faster internet speeds could help with anything other than torrenting? Perhaps battery usage efficiency being able to use the cellular chips less often. Or perhaps being able to render webpages and data in apps faster, like streaming of video. You really think waiting is a good thing here?
3) It wasn't a problem, but neither was it a problem with any other iPhone before it. Apple makes their stuff better. Why does this seem so alien to you?
4) It's improved in several good ways according to event data. I'm not one to use a camera but I can certainly see why better quality photos, that are better stability and especially in low light settings are a good thing of those that use it.
5) It has been seen. What part of the Siri/Nuance Assistant do you think won't be as good as the voice recognition in iOS 4.x?
6) Again, why pooh-pooh improved software because Apple is offering it to other devices. I'm sure you'd complain if Apple oddly didn't give the iPhone 4S new SW features so why complain when they do. You should at least leave it as a null value.
7) For the most part you are right; this won't affect many users right away. This also could be the reason for this extra long delay since getting a world mode chip in a smartphone with this many bands has never before been done, especially in such a small smartphone. However, this does open the door for the US finally being to get legislation to get carriers to unlock devices after your contract is fulfilled. Why is that a bad thing?
8) Prove to me they could have put these 64GB chips in the number of iPhones sold in the last 16 months. What were the yields of these chips then compared to the assumed upper-tier iPhone 4 sales? What were its cost per unit? How much power did they use? How fast were the chips? How was the reliability of these chips? Last I had read a year ago was they weren't as fast and had a significantly lower number of read/write sessions that made them unlikely to find their way into the iPhone until 2011. Reading about a new tech on Engadget doesn't mean it's ready for mass production in the most popular devices on the planet.
Had the same TV, same stereo system, but got the newest AppleTV and new TiVo HD. Made the experience considerably better because core devices made accessing my media better, faster and more enjoyable. Buying a new TV just because the black plastic border is a little difference would not have made a difference.
It is a great upgrade on paper, which is why I can't understand the colossal mistake of calling it the "iPhone 4S" which just makes it sound like crap and like it *isn't* a whole new phone when in fact it kind of is.
I think the mistake Apple has made here (if they have made a mistake at all), is in one of their well-known historical weaknesses, which is in handling perceptions and talking nice to the regular humans, which most folks who work at Apple don't understand at all.
The huge extra wait for this phone gave off the impression that we were waiting for something amazing, so when it isn't ultimately delivered, it leaves a sour taste no matter how great the upgrade is (on paper). Not only that, but they haven't explained *why* the wait was longer this time or if it's going to stay that way. This means it's very difficult to convince oneself to plunk down another 800 bucks or so for a new phone when you aren't even sure if they are going to come out with an iPhone 5 in the Spring less than 6 months later.
As is usual with Apple, it's all the things they don't say and all the things they don't communicate which are screwing up the perceptions that they want to sell. And they don't even see that (also as usual).
The other factor that people (and especially Apple), aren't considering is that there isn't a lot on a phone that *can* be improved, year to year. This one is faster and has extra bands, but the average user doesn't need a faster phone or extra bands on the one they have. These are improvements on paper, but almost entirely unnecessary to the actual functioning of the phone.
The faster speeds and graphics will be great for gamers, but gamers are also already satisfied with the iPod touch. If you don't play games (and by "games" I mean something that stresses the GPU, not angry birds or sudoku), what's the point of a faster GPU?
The extra bands are great for business types who are rich enough to go fly somewhere each month, but it doesn't help the average user at all. They don't have any of those extra bands in my country, and the ones we do have, the new iPhone doesn't cover. So how is that really a "world phone"? And even if it is, again, it doesn't actually help the average user at all.
This is why the new iPhone is such a let-down. Yes, on paper, it's a whole new phone and way better than the original one, but in reality it doesn't do anything for the average user that the old one didn't do.
I don't play Infinity Blade. I don't go to Europe or Japan. There is no CDMA in my country.
For me, and for many other average phone users, it's a lame, thin, almost irrelevant upgrade.
lol...
Hallie Berry is "fatter" than Scarlett Johansen so yea, whale.
That made me laugh.
Feel sorry for Cook... Having to keep a straight face during a non event... Stock is now down $60 from its high... Obviously a lot of insiders knew about this pathetic very late iPhone update...
Apple has fallen asleep... No one wonder they are suing Samsung... It's a diversion tactic...
Apple is unable compete anymore in the phone business...
Sad, sad, sad, I miss the days when they way in the lead... Now they are just followers, last place no less...
You worry too much. If you're a long term investor you're still fine and their earnings are still strong. The stock might actually be held back somewhat simply because people are very tense about the economy right now, but Apple has the cash in hand to back up the value of their stock along with strong overall growth. Right now I'm more curious if Amazon's tablet will take them by surprise.
Apple is 'unable to compete in the phone business' and 'in last place' , while having the best selling phone, by a massive margin, in the industry? Are you insane, or just fucking stupid? Sure, I'm also disappointed we didn't get a new form factor and larger screen, but there's no point spouting factually untrue and sensationalistic statements with no basis in reality, as you just did. iOS5, iCloud, and Siri look amazing, and as far as I can tell more polished and better implemented than anything else in the industry. Whether you like it or no, Apple is still in the lead- by a wide margin.
That's not nice
Stock is down due to the upcoming Quarterly report and the concerns of Global Austerity. By the way the stock is back up to $372.50.
By the time the iPhone 4S, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, iOS 5 and the Quarterly Report comes out it will be well over $400.
Don't worry for Mr. Tim Cook. He's not.
If you're invested for the longer term, watching the stock rise and fall all day is pointless. You know Apple has the earnings to back up their stock price, so I wouldn't worry too much.