Most Apple product launches are highly anticipated events and there was a lot of speculation surrounding today’s unveiling of the new iPhone.

But the iPhone 4S has been greeted with yawns from potential consumers and a share sell-off by traders.

Casey Fung reports.

TRANSCRIPT

Many fans were feeling disappointed when Apple showed off the newest version of the iPhone at their headquarters in California today.

Instead of a brand new iPhone 5 a revised version, which technology experts have labelled the “iphone 4 and a bit”, was announced instead.

Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson, Courier-Mail Technology Editor: “A lot of people had their hopes up because there was a bit of a design flaw in the last iPhone and maybe this time we’d see something with a larger screen, thinner body. There’s a lot of competition out there but unfortunately we’ve seen an incremental change, an evolution rather than a revolution.”

This was the first major announcement for new CEO Tim Cook, who replaced Steve Jobs in August.

Apple stocks fell sharply on the dashed expectations with share prices dropping 2.7 per cent.

The iPhone 4S will feature the same new software as the iPad 2, but it will probably not be compatible with Australia’s new 4G network.

With Australian prices expected to exceed $800, it’s a question of whether consumers are willing to pay for something technology experts are calling a marginal upgrade from this.

The phone will also feature an 8 megapixel camera as well as advanced voice recognition software called Siri, which enables users to simply ask questions to the phone.

Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson, Courier-Mail Technology Editor: “They’re definitely the biggest advantages to this phone so the software could be amazing, and it’s going to be interesting to see whether Siri voice recognition commands are actually going to recognise the Australian accent.”

The big question is whether all that’s enough to tempt buyers to upgrade from the iphone 4 to the iphone 4S?

Casey Fung, QUT News.