iPhone 5 bigger, faster but lacks 'wow'

SAN FRANCISCO : Apple Inc's new iPhone goes on sale on Friday with a
bigger screen and 4G wireless technology, as the company seeks to
safeguard its edge over rivals like Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and
Google Inc.

The iPhone 5 fulfilled many of the expectations laid
out by gadget geeks and technology analysts ahead of its Wednesday
unveiling but offered few surprises to give Apple shares -- already
near record highs -- another major kick.

"There is not a wow
factor because everything you saw today is evolutionary. I do think
they did enough to satisfy," said Michael Yoshikami, chief executive of
wealth management company Destination Wealth Management.

Other
industry analysts speculated about what else was in Apple's product
pipeline ahead of the crucial year-end holiday season, especially since
the company stayed mum about an oft-rumored TV device or a smaller iPad.

The
consumer electronics giant that in 2010 popularized tablet computing
with the iPad has given no hints on whether it plans a smaller version
to match cheaper tablets from the likes of Google or Amazon.com Inc.

"We
would really like to see the iPad Mini in the product offering for the
all-important holiday quarter. They still have time," said Channing
Smith, co-manager of the Capital Advisors Growth Fund. "As soon as we
see that, we will have more conviction about the stock heading into the
final quarter."

Apple shares ended the day up 1.4 percent at US$669.79.

The
latest iPhone comes as Apple faces competition beyond current key
competitors Samsung and Google. Late entrant Microsoft Corp is now
trying to push its Windows Phone 8 operating system as an alternative
to Apple and Android, the most-used smartphone operating system in the
world.

Analysts have forecast sales of 10 million to 12 million of the new iPhones in this month alone.

Apple
Chief Executive Tim Cook kicked off the event in San Francisco's Yerba
Buena Centre but it was marketing chief Phil Schiller who introduced
the iPhone 5 and took the audience through the new phone's features.

The
iPhone 5 sports a 4-inch "retina" display, can surf a high-speed 4G LTE
wireless network, and is 20 percent lighter than the previous iPhone 4S.

CEDING A LEAD

It
ships September 21 in the United States, Australia, Canada, France,
Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Britain. It will hit 100
countries by year's end in the fastest international rollout for an
iPhone so far.

The stakes are high with the iPhone, Apple's
marque product, accounting for nearly half its revenue. The California
company has sold more than 243 million iPhones since 2007, when the
device ushered in the current applications ecosystem model.

But
Samsung now leads the smartphone market with a 32.6 percent share
followed by Apple with 17 percent, according to market research firm
IDC. Both saw shipments rise compared to a year ago, with Samsung
riding its flagship Galaxy S III phone.

Available for pre-order
on Friday starting from US$199 with a data plan, the iPhone 5 comes
with Apple's newest "A6" processor, which executives said runs twice as
fast as the previous generation. It will pack three microphones --
enhancing built-in voice assistant Siri -- and an 8 megapixel camera
that can take panoramic views.

It will hitch a ride on the three largest U.S. carriers: Verizon Wireless, ATandT Inc, and Sprint.

One
popular enhancement was improved battery endurance -- the iPhone 5 can
support eight hours of 4G Web browsing, the company said.

While
Apple played catch-up on many of the new phone's features -- Samsung
and Google's Motorola already have larger and 4G-ready phones --
analysts say the device's attraction is the way its software and
hardware work in tandem.

"Where they are pushing the envelope,
and where they remain the one to beat, is on the experience those
features bring to the consumer," said Carolina Milanesi, Gartner
Research analyst. "While other vendors continue to focus just on the
hardware -- delivering the speeds and feeds and bigger batteries --
Apple focuses on pulling the operating system, the hardware and what
you can consume on the hardware." -- Reuters