What do you guys think of Apple’s new iPhone 4S? Worthy upgrade to the iPhone 4?
Faster processor, better camera and Siri! While they haven’t announced the exact release date, they did promise it would be in 100 countries by the end of the year, so I assume Taiwan will be on that list.
Well, everybody got high expectations regarding the Apple products …
They did what they had to do, basically Samsung did the same thing with its Galaxy2 upgrade.
I don’t think current model users will have much interest to upgrade and I doubt even 3GS users will do so.
The biggest upset in my opinion is, that they even could not make the screen bigger to 3,7 inch. Just
stretching it a bit, but maybe then they may loose this Retina advertisement thing …
There were so much rumors going on about an iphone5. I do still think, that it exists, but for some reasons,
Apple was unable to present it. A lot of people predicted a release in early 2012, which I think sounds reasonable.
At least I don’t think it will take another year to finally get a completely new designed device.
This 4S will be a looser, especially many current 4 users are still sitting on their contracts for at least another 6 months.
The oncoming 5 on the other side I expect to be the new frontrunner without a home-button …
Regarding iOS 5
Wait and see, I hope it make some things running more smooth
Why are they so into twitter? Why no facebook? If they don’t like facebook, why they connect it more with google+ ?
Regarding SIRI
Well, when do you have such a quiet enviroment. I watched the Keynote and I doubt that this is working while you are
running like it was shown. I think a nice idea, not that useable, it is more a gimmick than a practible application …
Also, if they ever introduce chinese, I can’t imagine it would work properly
Anyway, like most ppl think, for Apple standards a huge dissapointment, do you agree ?
Apple love people like you…go ahead, upgrade to the 4s…in a few months you’ll ‘have to’ switch to your iphone 5…Aren’t there more important things in life than switching your phone every 3 months?
I’m looking at picking up a cheaper iPhone 4 until iPhone 5 comes out. 4S probably won’t reach taiwan until next year.
Siri should work on iPhone 4 with the updated iOS 5.
Apple’s share price dropped almost 5% after the announcement. I think it disappointed a lot of people.
People were definitely hungry for a new body-style iPhone 5. The folks who are coming off their 3GS contracts from 2 years ago I feel will probably be the predominant customer for the iPhone 4S.
That said, the performance improvements are note worthy. The difference between the iPad 2 and iPad 1 in terms of speed is quite notable and this will be similar to the speedup from 4 to 4S. The difference is the fact that the 4S looks the same as the 4. I think will contribute to larger 3GS to 4S migration than people swapping their 4 for a 4S. iPhones after all are as much fashion statement as they are a piece of tech kit. It’s like people buying a smaller engine version of a BMW or Mercedes because they want the body style associated with the more expensive, larger engine version.
The interesting side effect of this is that Apple has taken the strategy of selling the older iPhones models, including the 3GS (which is now “free” in the US with a contract) as low-cost new iPhones. They’ve indubitably done their homework on this, so they must feel that the brand cache even of the older iPhones has held enough to get people to consider an older “free” 3GS versus a cheap Android. They’ve also given price sensitive, yet fashion aware consumers a middle product to that looks just like the bigger version.
Or in a way, the 4S is like having a 335is and then they release the same body-style M3.
It finished only down 0.56% at the end of the trading day.
I think that signifies what will happen. People will complain that it’s only a minor update. But these same people will still stand in line and get it. 
Anyone know if the 2x download speeds will be supported in Taiwan? Might be worth it for that. New camera also looks really nice…
Anyone who gets a 3GS for free on a 2 year contract will be getting ripped off in a big way. What is the difference in price between a 3GS and a 4S when you factor total cost of ownership? $200 out of $2000?
would be interesting to see how the price of the current models will develope over the next 2 months, until the realease of the 4GS, which looks like will be the end of this year.
Seriously, who is buying a “4” right now ??
Hopefully it is possible to buy a “4” 16GB or 32GB model for (maybe) 4-5.000 NT$ less - which if so, would be a great deal …
Apple is also clever, just offering basic 8 GB for the “4” once the new generation is out.
Do you think, after the new release it is still possible to purchase the “4” in 16 and/or 32 GB version ?
I remember it was next to impossible to get a “3GS 16/32 GB” once the “4” was out …
I really wonder what then happens to all these “older” 16+32 GB models ?
Do they get back to Foxconn and there just switching to 8 GB ?
Why they just don’t do a “4GS” with 32/64 GB (dropping the price each 100 US$) and keep the “4” with 16 GB, and low end the “3GS” with 8GB ???
I think we all know that no matter what the theoretical download speeds, we’re going to hit either carrier-imposed provisioned limits or the fact that there are too many people on the same cell. 
While it has been getting better, the last 6 months in Taipei have been painful in terms of having any data speed during peak hours.
Anyone who gets a 3GS for free on a 2 year contract will be getting ripped off in a big way. What is the difference in price between a 3GS and a 4S when you factor total cost of ownership? $200 out of $2000?[/quote]
Extremely true, but let’s consider that
I’ve bought all iPhones straight off the market with no contract and continue to use the same plan that I started with.
Either it needs the extra processing power of the 4S or they are purposely restricting it to add value to the 4S. Either way it seems that it only works on the 4S and not older phones.
That’s a fine approach if you want the freedom / flexibility of being able to change carriers / contracts / countries. If you’re on a higher priced plan to begin with though (>$1000 NT per month) and plan to stick around for a couple of years, then you might as well get the carrier to pay for your phone. Usually involves something like paying $20 000 NT up front (what you’d pay for the phone anyway) but then getting the first year or two of your phone bills already paid for.
My 3GS contract has long finished so… sign me up!
I’m very interested in the Sprint iPhone, which may or may not have a SIM slot that comes unlocked - conflicting reports going around. My family maintains a US account for me (I don’t know why either 
), and it would be very convenient for me to be able to get a discounted phone from Sprint, pop in a Taiwanese SIM, and still be able to use it whenever I go back.
The way it’s worked in the past with VZW “world phones” is they would give you a SIM card that could only roam on VZW partners. They would, however unlock the GSM part of the phone for customers with sufficient history. Sprint has shipped world phones in the past with an unlocked SIM slot. The rumors now are that the Sprint version will have an unlocked GSM section and the Verizon will not. I’d check with Sprint.
You could also wait and see what the devteam has in store for jailbreak/unlock. That said, while jail breaking has generally been OK, it seems the unlocks are getting more and more scarce and fragile.
Yeah, right now there’s an article on Macworld where it’s claimed that Sprint will come to you unlocked, and the author got this information directly from Apple. But people who have contacted Sprint seem to be getting negative answers. I guess we’ll know for sure soon once they start getting sent out, along with info on grey market unlocking.
Well, looks like that idea isn’t very workable:
macrumors.com/2011/10/13/spr … unlocking/
[quote]Indeed, the Sprint iPhone 4S will ship with its micro-SIM slot unlocked. However, Sprint now says that it will be locking that slot “shortly after launch” via an update pushed to those devices. After the slot has been locked, Sprint says that it will allow customers in good standing to unlock the SIM for international use in the future.
So far as I can tell, this means that after a short period of the phone shipping completely unlocked, Sprint will revert to a policy more or less in line with Verizon’s. If you are a good customer and pay your bills on time, you can call Sprint and ask the company to unlock your microSIM so you can slip in a foreign, pre-paid SIM.[/quote]
Strange setup.
Anyone know if the import limit on these is still two at a time?
Has anyone heard of a release date for the 4s in Taiwan? My 3Gs is on the fritz and doing all kinds of screwy things right now (like calling people at random, voice control turning on when the phone is not being used…)
[quote=“Adam_CLO”] If you’re on a higher priced plan to begin with though (>$1000 NT per month) and plan to stick around for a couple of years, then you might as well get the carrier to pay for your phone. Usually involves something like paying $20 000 NT up front (what you’d pay for the phone anyway) but then getting the first year or two of your phone bills already paid for.
My 3GS contract has long finished so… sign me up![/quote]
I want to buy this plan. Hopefully in the next few weeks. Do you think I will be able to get the 4S here?