Let’s talk iPhone.
In my last two articles, I have made a series of bets. First, as I had written last March, I suspect that the iPhone is coming to au/KDDI. Exclusive deals between Apple and carriers are gone and the rumors are very strong.
Yesterday, I went a bit further and imagined the new iPhone would released on October 21 in Japan. And on KDDI as well. This might turn out wrong. The handset might arrive on SoftBank only and on October 14. KDDI might have to wait.
As official Apple events are often US-centric, there’s not much we might learn there. I’m going to live blog it anyway here with my thoughts on the implications for Japan.
Note that you will also be able to follow these updates on the live account of Mobile in Japan: @MijLive.
All times are JST (Japan Standard Time).
Thanks for tuning in! @papadimitriou out. KDDI will go ahead with the release of the iPhone even if its mobile email service is not ready. Guess I’m up for another blog post. And as the event wraps up, KDDI formally announces the iPhone! I. Was. Right. No word about the international roll-out of the 4S. As expected, US-centric event. iPhone 4 remains in the line-up as a cheaper option. 3GS will be a free phone with US carriers. No word about Japan. Launch confirmed for October 14th in the US. iPhone 4S will have the same price as iPhone 4 in the US. Let’s see if SoftBank maintains its plans (and if KDDI enters the fray). May I ask Siri whether au/KDDI will get the iPhone 4S? (answer: 42) Siri is in beta. More languages will be coming. Betting Japanese must be high on Apple’s list. iPhone 4S demo video is on. Wondering if any other announcement will be made today. Siri works on 3G and Wi-Fi. No Japanese. Only English, French and German. Siri works wherever there’s a keyboard (even the “Send” key, though? — will have to test this). “I’m a humble personal assistant” answers Siri when you ask it. Here’s gdgt iPhone 4S page: http://gdgt.com/apple/iphone/4s/ Yeah right, 4 have it. Geofence reminders. We’re talking SkyNet stuff here. Here’s what @tamegoeswild just wrote: “Will be great to have Siri read tweets to me. But – can it read Japanese?” Yup. Will Siri be available to apps outside of the basic Apple ones? @tamegoeswild could sure do with voice-to-tweet. The voice assistant can set the alarm for you. Or tell you what time it is in Paris. The “Do I need a raincoat today?” blew my mind. Talking to a computer will ever remind me of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9kTVZiJ3Uc Honestly, this voice thing looks amazing. Not sure I will ever get used to talk to my phone though. Did Scott just ask if Greeks were awesome? Of course we are Will I be able to ask my iPhone “Where’s my iPhone”? #meta Talking about the weather with your phone is certainly the end of the road to technology. The big question: will Assistant (or whatever it will be called) be available in other languages than English? Japanese for instance? Why Siri? Just ask. (for those old school enough to remember the campaign). The dream that we can talk to technology. That’s the Siri acquisition coming to fruition for Apple. Voice. Voice. Voice. The iPhone 4S is about to talk like Darth Vader. Real-time image stabilization, temporal noise reduction. 1080p video (@tamegoeswild are you reading?!) And food can move fast, good they have that f2.4 camera now. Does the 4S recognize food with its face detection system? I can already see the updated food blogs. More yummy food with 73% more light. 1.1 seconds to the first photo. 0.5 sec to the second. 1.1 from when? From when we chose the Camera application? My biggest complaint: iPhone 4 takes too long to boot camera. Apparently much faster on 4S. I’ll wait and see. The camera is thus a wide f2.4. Not too bad, really. Eager to see that. Backside illumination. 73% more light thanks to new sensor. And something called Hybrid IR filter. 60% more pixels than on iPhone 4. 3264 x 2448. 8 megapixel for the 4S camera. Expected. iPhone 4 camera #1 on Flickr already. I know au/KDDI is technically not exactly on CDMA. Let’s see if Apple thought about that. I would guess it did. It’s a world phone: no more versions for CDMA or GSM. Means au/KDDI can have it. I predicted that right. Meaning: it’s just as fast as 4G. Also meaning Apple is not committing to 4G/LTE just yet. Download speeds better. In HSDPA, 14.4 Mbps download. Compared to 7.2 for the iPhone 4. The antenna is now intelligent. It switches along the sides of the phone to get best reception quality. 6 hours in 3G browsing. 9 hours in wi-fi browsing. 10 hours for video. The battery should get 8hrs talk time in 3G. That Infinity Blade 2 game will only be available for the iPhone 4S. It’s a spec game now. The iPhone 4S looks exactly the same as the 4. Like I —and many others— had thought. The iPhone 4S will be 7x faster in terms of graphics. 2x faster in CPU. Pretty good. Gamers will be happy with such specs, I’m sure (disclaimer: I’m not a gamer, besides a a few Angry Birds attempts). A5 chip inside, as strongly expected. Dual-core CPU, dual-core graphics. 7x faster graphics. Holy… wow. “How do you follow up with a hit product?” You add an S. Spec-bumps, I got that right. It’s the iPhone 4S. The iPod touch has now iOS5 and iCloud. Black and white. Low pricing. Basically an iPhone without the phone. iPod touch is the “most popular portable game player” in the world. Wow. 7 colors for the new iPod nano. Apple Ginza Store: you can now update that part of your website. 16 new clock faces. People really must like wearing the nano as a watch There doesn’t seem to be iPod UI changes. Bigger icons for easier touch experience. Phil Shiller on stage. Talking iPod. Apple Japan revealed there was a new nano in stores. http://mobileinjapan.com/2011/10/05/apple-japan-spills-the-beans-iphone-4s-out-on-october-14/ iTunes Match: scanning and matching users’ songs with iTunes 20m tracks library. We know it already, I know. Is it called Find My Friends? Think so. The simple privacy controls Apple is touting on Family and Friends could be a selling point for the Japanese audience. Let’s see how users will receive it. Family and Friends. That’s some Foursquare competition here. Interesting. Photo Stream, iTunes in iCloud, docs in the cloud. All stuff we already know. Good that we’ll get them soon though. To follow the Japan iPhone live chat on Twitter, see #LetstalkiPhoneJP Eddie Cue is talking about iCloud now. With 2 iPhones and 1 iPad, I’m expecting better sync indeed. iOS5 will be available October 12th! 67m users have signed up to Game Center. What about active users? Twitter integration. We also knew about this one. Wondering if any deep integration with Japanese services like Mixi or Gree will happen one day. The well-known announcement: iOS 5. 200 new user features. Hope it comes sooner than later. Pilots replacing flight bags with iPad. I’ve seen it first hand. There were rumors about ANA going there. I should check if that’s the case. Some incredible numbers. 80% of hospitals in the US testing the iPad? Wow. Anyone knows if Japan’s hospitals have tried such tech? Tim now talks iPad. My estimate: 1m iPads sold in Japan. Again no official number. And as he’s pointing out “the market is an enormous opportunity”. Adding a second carrier in Japan would clearly boost sales a lot. Softbank was the #1 gainer in subscriptions for a very long time just because of the iPhone. Tim Cook mentions that the iPhone has a 5% market share worldwide. Such numbers are harder to get by for Japan. I’d say 7.5m iPhones have been sold here. Tim Cook is on stage. “It is a pleasure to host you today. I love Apple.” You can follow these lives updates on Twitter: @MijLive Reason I’m late? Apple Japan already has leaked it: it’s called iPhone 4S and will be out on October 14. http://mobileinjapan.com/2011/10/05/apple-japan-spills-the-beans-iphone-4s-out-on-october-14/ Well, I’m late to the live blogging. No announcement yet. Whew.
(@papadimitriou here)
