In the wake of a disappointing jobs report from last Friday, investors hoped that Steve Jobs might deliver some great news about new products, but the reaction to his unveiling of a new iPhone this week was mixed.
In front of an enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Apple(AAPL) Worldwide Developers Conference Apple, a black-turtle necked Steve Jobs unveiled the fourth generation iPhone. Although previously leaked photos and details about the new phone took some of the surprise out of the event, the announcement was still surrounded by a great deal of hype.
During the heavily blogged event, Jobs highlighted the product's newly designed shape, the upgraded camera on both the front and back of the phone, enhanced motion control and a number of other tweaks. Then came the highly anticipated "one more thing."
This staple of Jobs' presentation has been known for leading to the introduction of a number of groundbreaking products including the iPod Touch and the MacBook Air. Leading into this year's event, hopes were high with many speculators forecasting the possibility that Jobs would, at last, unveil a Verizon(VZ) iPhone. Apple fans were instead presented with "FaceTime" a video-chat program allowing iPhone users to talk to other iPhone users over WiFi.
I would consider myself an Apple fan. However, following up the groundbreaking iPad with a new iPhone, where the biggest new feature is an Apple version of Skype, leaves me a little disappointed.
The iPhone, since its introduction on the heels of the extremely successful iPod, has helped to move the company beyond selling computers and has turned it into the consumer electronics giant it is today, with a market capitalization larger than Microsoft (MSFT).
Apple plans on releasing the next generation iPhone in more countries than before and hopes are high that the phone will help to further increase revenue and push up share value for the company. But the gap between the iPhone and the phones using the Android operating system from Google(GOOG) is closing. I think many Verizon customers would choose an iPhone over an Android phone if given the choice right now, but that once they have an Android phone, they will find that switching to an iPhone doesn't offer a great leap in terms of features.
Source: The Street
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