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Apple executives say that does not matter. They care more about building
the best phone, they say, and combining technologies into the most
attractive package, not being first with the latest bells and whistles.
“I feel the need to be the best,” said Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief
executive, in a conversation after the event announcing the new device,
the iPhone 5.
“We don’t view our products as a checklist of features,” he added.
The new iPhone has a larger, four-inch screen, faster wireless Internet
speeds and a more powerful chip than the previous version of the
company’s smartphone. It is 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter.
This is the first time Apple has altered the dimensions of the iPhone’s
display, which has measured 3.5 inches diagonally since the original
iPhone was released in 2007. While the display at that time seemed
gigantic compared with the tiny screens on most cellphones, Apple’s
competitors have been far more aggressive in pushing bigger displays on
their smartphones, with some screens approaching five inches.
Apple said the new display offered a bigger canvas for activities like
reading books, browsing Web sites and watching movies.
The device will also work on the latest variety of high-speed data
network with wireless carriers, known as LTE, which other companies have
included in their products for some time.
Even though the product is not as startling as the original iPhone — the
likes of which had not been seen before in the electronics industry —
analysts still expect the iPhone 5 to be a hot seller this holiday
season.
Investors seemed to agree, sending Apple’s shares up $9.20, or 1.4 percent, to close at $669.79 after the event.
The device, which will go on sale on Sept. 21, will start at $199 with a
two-year wireless contract, a price similar to that of previous
versions.
In what could be one of Apple’s more vexing moves with a new product,
though, the company got rid of the traditional 30-pin dock connector for
attaching the iPhone to power cables, stereo docking stations and other
peripherals, replacing it with a smaller connector it calls Lightning.
The change means owners of existing iPhone accessories will have to buy
an adapter from Apple so they can plug the new phone into those devices.
The adapters are on sale at the Apple store for $30 for one version and
$40 for another.
Apple said it made the change because the new connector was more
durable, freed space for other technologies inside the iPhone and
enabled the iPhone 5’s thinner design. The company said many of the
functions of traditional iPhone cables, other than charging, were now
handled by wireless connections like Bluetooth.
In a brief interview after the event, Philip W. Schiller, Apple’s senior
vice president of worldwide marketing, said the company was offering
the adapter to try to make the shift to the new technology as painless
as possible for its users.
“At some point you have to move to the next generation,” he said
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner, said the iPhone 5 showed how
Apple approaches new technologies cautiously until it is sure it can
deliver the best experience possible.
The first phones that supported LTE, for example, were often criticized
for poor battery life, but Apple waited until it could offer a product
that could hold a charge long enough, he said.
In the new product, Apple also chose not to support near-field
communication wireless technology, which can be used to make wireless
payments but has been slow to take off.
Mr. Cook said the four-inch display was the perfect size because it
could be easily held in one hand. Apple made the screen taller, but not
wider, than the previous generation of iPhone for that very reason, he
said.
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