As I wrote in Tech on ‘Fire’ earlier in the week, Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Apple is such a major part of the value of the US (even world) exchanges, that they only had to stumble with the iPhone 5 launch today, and the world stock markets could crumble. The problem was that the expectation was at such a high level – one report put it as ‘the most important product launch EVER’.
As it turned out, Apple did more than enough to save the markets from meltdown. Apple shares closed up 1.4% at $670 - close to their all-time high. The iPhone 5 looks gorgeous. The iPhone 5 is thinner (18% thinner than the iPhone4), lighter by 20%, has a bigger screen with 44% more colour saturation and a 16.9 ratio, taller but not wider, faster (the A6 chip is 2x faster than the A5), has longer battery life and a better camera, new maps and navigation, LTE/4G for faster access, better mics and sound…Oh, and it costs the same as the old model. Short of a cure for all known diseases and the second coming, it is difficult to know what more they could have done.
IDC is forecasting 51m iPhones sold this year – compared to 37m last year. One suspects that the iPhone cash-cow is safe for now.
Apple also introduced a new iPod Touch (with an FM tuner allowing you to pause radio), iPad nano and a new iTunes service.
But, that still leaves time this year for other Apple announcements like an iPad mini – now even more vital given the reception given to the new Amazon Fire – and iTV.
My pension is still safe…for now anyway.
