iPhone 4S buyers: if there wasn't an iPhone, we'd get a ... BlackBerry

Survey outside London's Regent Street store shows would-be buyers aren't that displeased by RIM's problems

Here's some cause for celebration at the headquarters of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, which suffered its worst-ever outage this week: if there had never been an iPhone, a third of the people who today bought Apple's new iPhone 4S at its Regent Street store in London say they would have bought a BlackBerry instead.
But RIM can't rest easy: 52% of those queried said they would have bought an HTC, Samsung or Sony Ericsson phone – all of which run Google's Android operating system. Nokia, which is in a battle with Samsung for the title of the world's biggest seller of handsets, only won the approval of 11%.
However the iPhone 4S definitely does exist – and data collected by ProtectYourBubble.com, an insurance company, shows that it is drawing in both new users (35% of those buying were new to Apple's platform) and people upgrading from the iPhone 4 (44%). It surveyed 100 people in the queue for the new phone on Friday morning.
The most popular feature cited by people exiting the store with their new devices, and highlighted by Apple in its presentation of the 4S last week, is the 8MP camera, which makes it comparable with some of the best mobile phone cameras (although some such as the Nokia N8 boast a 12MP setting).
The next most cited was the Siri voice assistant – although early users have discovered that much of its functionality, including maps and restaurants, is not yet working outside the US. Apple has not given any timetable to implement that.
Half of those queueing said they were there because they had missed out on pre-orders through their mobile networks.
And 45% think that the iPhone will go down as the late Steve Jobs's greatest invention – well ahead of the Macintosh (20%), iPod (18%) or iPad (11%).
There's also clear worries about the safety of the phone: while 65% don't have their present phone insured, just over half (56%) say they will for their new one.

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Samsung may hit Apple with iPhone 4S ban

Apple could face court injunctions to halt sale of new iPhone 4S as Samsung says it breaches patents it owns

Apple's new iPhone 4S faces the prospect of court injunctions in France and Italy from the Korean electronics firm Samsung, which says the phones breach patents it owns on wireless communications.
It is a new escalation in the struggle between Samsung and Apple, who are fighting a number of increasingly bitter court battles in various territories around the world. Samsung, which is challenging Apple for the title of the world's biggest maker of smartphones, says it plans to file preliminary injunctions in Paris and Milan on the basis that the iPhone 4S, announced in California on Tuesday night and expected in a number of countries including the UK from 14 October, infringes its patents on WCDMA technology.
The iPhone 4S combines both GSM and CDMA systems, the two principal methods of connecting to mobile networks, in a single phone, so that it can be used on almost any mobile network in the world without modification. Apple has been selling a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 since January, initially for use on the US Verizon network, though it is not sold in either France or Italy, which use GSM networks. Samsung filed a suit against Apple in the US in April claiming infringement of its WCDMA patents.
"Apple has continued to flagrantly violate our intellectual property rights and free ride on our technology, and we will steadfastly protect our intellectual property," Samsung said in a statement.
The South Korean company did not say when the French and Italian filings would take place, but did say it plans similar moves in other countries "after further review". Under the laws of France and Italy, companies can seek and courts can order a ban on sales of a product even before the product reaches markets, Samsung spokesman James Chung told the Reuters news agency.
Apple did not have any comment at the time of publication.
Samsung is set to report sharply lower quarterly earnings on Friday on persistent declines in chip prices, while investors look for signs its telecom business can sustain its booming growth. Samsung has been a supplier to Apple of parts including touchscreens and memory chips, but the two companies have also been at odds through the courts since April, when Apple took legal actions claiming Samsung's Galaxy line of smartphones and tablet computers, claiming that they copy its iPhone and iPad.
Samsung has responded by taking Apple to court over what it alleges are violations of its patents covering wireless communications.
Samsung said the technology it claims Apple infringes "is essential to the reliable functioning of telecom networks and devices" and that it sees the alleged violations as "too severe and that (the) iPhone 4S should be barred from sales".
Apple has won sales injunctions against Samsung products in the Netherlands and Germany and is seeking one in Australia. Samsung has asked a court in the Netherlands to stop Apple from selling iPhones and iPad tablets in that country.

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iPhone 5 'on sale on 14 October'

Networks poised to announce pricing of two new models on Thursday, with first phones available just over a week later

Mobile phone networks have been told to expect two new iPhones and announce prices on Thursday, with the first phones available only in-store on Friday 14 October.
Negotiations with Apple over pricing will begin at 6pm this evening, when Tim Cook takes the stage for his first product launch as chief executive.
"All we know is, there will be two devices, we will put our pricing in to Apple as soon as Tim Cook goes on stage, and we hope to get agreement to announce prices on Thursday," said a source at one UK operator, who also confirmed the 14 October shipping date.
Secrecy surrounding the launch has been such that none of the five UK networks has any details of the handsets to be released. Apple is thought to be ready to reveal two: an all-new iPhone 5, and an "iPhone 4S", an updated iPhone 4 where the base model will be priced to take on cheaper Android phones in the mass market.
All five UK networks will have access to the new phones on day one, and it is understood that independent retailers Carphone Warehouse and Phones4u will also be stocking the handsets. Carphone is understood to have done a deal directly with Apple for the first time, which means it will be able to sell phones "unlocked" – free from contracts with particular networks. The company declined to comment.
Outside Apple stores, supplies of the new handsets are likely to be so restricted that carriers and retailers will only sell them in-store, rather than via their websites. Apple's flagship stores are understood to be preparing to welcome shoppers at 7am on 14 October, with a number staying open until midnight.
According to pages accidentally released early on Vodafone's German website, the 4S will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models, compared with the iPhone 4 which comes in 16GB and 32GB versions.
According to Apple fan blog 9to5Mac, the price of an unlocked 4S will replace the price of the current 32GB iPhone 4, which retails from Apple at £612. The 32GB model will retail at about £510, the current price of the 16GB iPhone 4.
In the US, it is expected that prices with subsidies from mobile carriers on a two-year contract could range from $99 for the cheapest iPhone 4S to $199 and $299, putting it in competition with a number of Android phones.

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No iPhone 5, but Apple unveils 4S

New features revealed at Apple press conference include 8MP camera, dual-core A5 chip; will be on sale from 14 October

After months of speculation about the iPhone 5, Apple chief Tim Cook took his audience by surprise by announcing instead the iPhone 4S, an updated version of the iPhone 4 described as "entirely new from the inside".
Promoted in TV ads featuring British singer Adele, the iPhone 4S is more than a reissue. Univeiled on Tuesday night by Cook from Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California, the phone will be faster and have a longer-lasting battery life than the iPhone 4, which is already the world's best-selling smartphone.
It will contain the latest in voice activation technology, which Cook and his team took the risk of demonstrating live at the launch. Users will be able to speak requests for the time, a weather update, setting the alarm clock, or finding the nearest restaurant.
The new handsets will be available in black and white and in three price bands, depending on memory size. UK prices are expected to be revealed on Thursday, but Apple last night announced the US prices. With a two-year contract, a $199 upfront payment will buy a handset with 16GB of storage. For 32GB, the price will be $299, and for 64GB, $399.
The iPhone 4 and 3GS will remain, but only with 8GB of memory. The price has been lowered to £99 for the iPhone 4, bringing it into direct competition with cheaper and faster-selling Android models, while the 3GS will be available for free with a contract.
Described by Apple marketing boss Phil Schiller as "entirely new on the inside", the phones will run on iOS 5, the latest version of the iPhone operating system, which was also unveiled on Tuesday and will be available to download to existing iPhone 4 and 3GS handsets on 12 October.
The new phones will no longer need to be hooked up to a PC to be activated, but will work straight out of the box. They will also come with iCloud, a content hosting service which will let customers store music, films, TV shows and photographs on Apple's servers rather than on their hard drives, and download them to multiple Apple devices at no extra cost.
The phones will arrive in the shops on 14 October in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Japan. Apple will sell them out of contract from its own stores, while all five of the UK's mobile networks will offer the handsets under contract. It is also understood that Carphone Warehouse has struck a deal with Apple to sell the handsets out of contract. Phones4u is also hoping to stock the range and has opened pre-registration on its website.
By the end of the year, the 4S will be available in 70 countries on 100 carriers, in what Cook described as Apple's fastest ever rollout. In the US, it will be available on Sprint Nextel Corp, besides the existing carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
Described at the launch as a "world phone", the 4S will have two antennas to ensure that it works on both the world's dominant mobile phone technologies – CDMA, widely used in America, and GSM, which dominates in Europe.
Apple has used its specially designed A5 chip, developed for use in its iPad, in the new phones. The chip makes the new models two times faster at loading information than the iPhone 4, and allows a battery life of eight hours of talk time on a 3G network or 14 hours on a 2G network. It can browse the internet on Wi-Fi for up to nine hours, and 3G for six hours.
Rather than launching the handset himself, Cook took the opportunity to put his team to the fore. Schiller announced the name, while demonstrations of the voice activation technology were led by Scott Forstall, who heads the development of iOS. Named Siri after the startup company which developed it and was bought by Apple in April 2010, the voice activation also links through to a non-Google search engine, Wolfram Alpha, which offers a type of online encyclopedia database of facts and theories.
With the iPhone 4 now the most-used camera on Flickr, Cook highlighted new features such as the 8MP sensor, which has 60% more pixels than the iPhone 4.
"Only Apple could make such amazing hardware, software and services and bring them together into this experience," Cook said in his closing remarks. "I am so incredibly proud of this company."

iPhone 4S specs

Camera details
• The 8MP sensor has 60% more pixels than iPhone 4
• New custom lens, a larger f/2.4 aperture and an advanced hybrid IR filter
• 1080p HD resolution video recording
Processor details
• A dual-core A5 chip delivers twice the processing power of the iPhone 4 and crisp graphics
iOS 5 details
• More than 200 new features including Notification centre, a way to view and manage notifications in one place
• iMessage, a new messaging service that lets you send text messages, photos and videos between all iOS 5 users
• iCloud, lets users automatically and wirelessly store content in iCloud and push it to all devices
Models
• $199 (US) for the 16GB model
• $299 (US) for the 32GB model
• $399 (US) for the new 64GB model
• Available from 14 October
• UK and Ireland prices have not been announced
• iPhone 4 available for $99 (US)
• iPhone 3GS available for free with two-year contract

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