iPhone 4S Sales Help Apple Shares Reach All-time High

... iPhone 4 [S][teve]...

this'll fund apple's patent war against the (noteaxctly)copycats and sell even more overpriced stuff.

I really can't understand this Apple phenomenon. I've been waiting for things to settle down after the initial bang, I always though (still think) iPhones and iPads are fads, but the phenomenon keeps getting bigger.
I really can't understand this. This is illogical, and insults any tech loving guy.

Most people don't care how something works. They just want it to work. Yes, the inner engineer in me is made sad by these products sometimes, but my inner minimalist appreciates (but won't so so far as to buy) the Apple iProducts. Sleek sells. Elegance (which means simplicity) is sexy.

Not to sound insensitive or anything, but Jobs' death was probably the best marketing device/hype engine that apple could ever get. EVERYONE talked and discussed his death, and there were also heaps of interweb debates as well on why he shouldn't be praised this much owing to the fact that his contributions weren't nearly as significant as other's, such as Newton or Einstein. The amount of articles and coverage generated on his death is massive.

The point is, I'm not surprised that iphone sales were so good. No one should be. Everyone was exposed to Jobs' death, and by extension, his products, and it would make sense that everyone would want to be a part of his legacy, no matter how expensive it was (and still is).

I think this is pretty similar to the case of all the POSTHUMOUS awards given out to Heath Ledger for his portrayal of the Joker. He was *fantastic*, don't get me wrong, but would he have clean-sweeped the Emmy's if not for his death? I don't think so.

Death is an excellent publicity tool.

You should seriously consider what the iPhone 4S has, instead of 'dismissing it' as a 'fad'. Right now, you simply can't get better graphics performance from any phone, it has THE fastest CPU/GPU. Siri is apparently excellent (from people who've been using it) and it has access to the biggest app library in the world. It may actually be a pleasant surprise for you to be able to use a phone without spending hours and hours of your time installing new ROM's to get it to do what you want.

It's popular for several, very good reasons - which all the reviews make very clear.

If you'd have invested £1000 into apple in april with a broker fee of £15 you'd have made yourself roughly £100. Just a bit of trivia!

funny how this article came out today but this morning Apple stock took a 5% dive.

Very well said and true but there really is no point arguing with Fandroids who always talk about choice but insult anyone who chooses anything else other then the weekly "This is the greatest Android phone". Android is a nice choice for many but I personally think WM7 is pretty dam awesome as well as IPhone. Choice is great. To each his own. (You wont ever hear Fandroids says that)

Apple does what it does well. It's not just the packaging, come on, as a phone yes it's missing things LTE, NFC, etc ... however, the overall , fit, finish, polish and OS are superb. And the fact is even as a power user you can ssh into that bad boy and start doing all kinds of things, jail break away. I'm not a fan boy, but the bottom line, is the overall package is very seductive, overpriced but seductive.

I mean it's like having the hot chick, you can take the time to get to know her inner her which might be quite intriguing, if you want to, but the reality is the packaging sure is sweet and interesting enough to get you going.

Power Overwhelming

for me the Iphone and the Ipod are the only distinguished technologies Apple has ever come up with. The Iphone is very easy to use and is good looking as well. The Ipod revolutionized what MP3 players can do and forced others to innovate to stay competitive.

I personally use an android but would never scoff at an Iphone user for their choice. Now Apple computers ... that is another topic I won't discuss here.

The post to which he replied didn't even mention Android. He could have a blackberry or windows phone.

Why are Apple products so popular?
Never underestimate the power of idiots in large numbers.

Never underestimate the power of the Majority.
Example, when the whole world is insane and you're the only sane person, then you might want to take a different perspective, maybe you're the insane one. The power of majority.

Dual core SoC, "retina" display, 512 of RAM... Hey Apple, welcome to 8 months ago!

Thank you! I am the original poster. And I have Windows on my phone, so no Apple bashing Fandroid here.

iPhone 4Shit

So I guess the Backstreet Boys were good!

I didnt know Steve had PC

What people are overlooking here and this seems to be a common them on this site is that just because something looks good and is popular by the masses does not mean that the product is not technically strong. You can not judge a phone the same way you judge regular computers especially given that the software is completely different between the devices. If the Samsung Galaxy S2 did not have software on it, it would effectively be worthless. The IPhone 4s is very strong device technically with a very efficient OS on it and a huge library of useful applications that can also interact with the other products that Apple makes. That is why they keep selling and will continue to do so.

Guy's here look at the 512 meg of ram vs other devices with more and bash the IPhone when the amount of ram is completely irrelevant. Storage is relevant but ram is not at all because more ram is only necessary when the applications demand it where is storage is relevant when user content demands it (which is why the phone comes with storage options). IOS has been developed to be extremely efficient so the ram requirements are there to meet the needs of the software on the device.

Hardware specs are easy, does not take much to look at that. Software integration and engineering is much more technically complex. I can write inefficient software and throw as much ram as I can find at it and it will eat every bit of it and still perform like crap.

Amazing how the article refers to Apple stock and it ends up being more ammo for the Apple/Android war. As a user of both, I can assure you that they both have their benefit. If only one company was able to reap the benefits of Android I am sure it would be making proffits through the roof as well. Unfortunately, the android cash gets spread around to many different companies.

As for wether or not one thing is better than another, who cares? As long as people buy something, that is all that matters to a company. Hey, I never in a million years would buy a Snuggie, but aparently other people are and they are making a killing in sales..... Go figure.

Too bad Sprint's network has come to screeching halt with the 4s..lol

"Share price has risen by more than 97 percent this year."

Huh? Share price of AAPL is +29% ytd. A fantastic yield, but a long way from +97%.

It is not all about the specs. Just like the recently unveiled Galaxy Nexus, the specs weren't too spectacular but the new software integration has probably taken it to new levels. It is not all about hardware people. I totally agree that it is the combination of Software/Hardware that makes the experience worthwhile. Having a 8 core BD will not do much when the software has not been optimized to utilize that power so again, don't forget the software aspect of technology!

I think what you are missing is not that I don't respect the hardware (while there have been previous iProducts that were just inferior in every way but software). I think the issue is that I want to love some of these products, but they are always missing 1 or 2 KEY features that make me shy away. And it perplexes me (and others) to the point of madness, that less technical users can't understand the simple, seemingly standard features, that are ALWAYS missing from an iProduct. Things like a place to put an SD card, or a replaceable/upgradeable battery, or early on COPY AND PASTE... Some are little things. Some are big things. But they are always enough to make me think twice before buying an iProduct or recommending one, unless I am absolutely sure the customer doesn't need a given feature...

Talking about their progress in last 10 years, most of the stuff they make do work. Never heard of them abandoning any platform or software because people stopped buying it.

Welcome to the powerderkeg. I would point out that so far the thread has been about Apple/Anti-Apple with no specific mention about android except by the apple zealots...

I think you need to read the dictionary old boy, majority means more than 50% of the people.
Even if you only include people who own smartphones apple still has just over a quarter. Now if my mathematics is bad let me know but i'm pretty sure that is less than a half, so not a majority.

The media love apple, so it may appear they are selling to everyone on the planet (not far off 7 billion) but that is not the case. But since when has "objective truth" got in the way of a good story.

Just because your specific requirement is not met by a particular device does not mean that everyone else should or needs the same requirement. That is why it is always good to have other options that are compelling. IPhone might not be a fit for everyone and so you should move to a solution that meets your specific needs and priorities. Does that make a device bad, by no means no, that just means that it does not meet your requirements.

For example, I have no need for a SD card for extra storage because I have a 50gb Dropbox account that I use not to mention that I have 32gb on the phone already. I have had so many phones it is rediculas because I like gadgets. Almost every year I have something different and I have bought an extra battery on only one phone and that was because the battery life sucked. That was the Motorola Q when it first came out. You had to have one on that phone. I did not have that problem with the newer devices especially since they all can charge from USB now. Copy and Paste was not an issue before because I did not and still rarely even use it. Not like I am Coping and Pasting stuff all the time so it was never a feature I used to make a technology decision on. Do you honestly think that anyone purchased a phone just for copy and paste alone. It is a nice to have feature but not a must.

People buy devices for different reasons, personally I am a business user so Security, Stability, responsiveness, and business integration features come first and Media/Entertainment features come second. I don't root/jailbreak my device because there are no controls in place to make sure that the unauthorized apps don't overuse resources , provide security holes, compromise stability, or effect battery life. I am in IT Security and do allot of conference calls so I could care less about customizing menu's and all that. My phone is not a toy to me, it is a tool that just so happens to provide entertainment as well.

I agree, but for those of us who use our phones for work more than play, who do communication and content creation, one of the largest features missing (that will never be implemented in an iPhone) is a real keyboard. That is why I use BB. It isn't a toy. I can barely get 1 game to work on it well. But it texts quickly, and is flexible enough to suit my needs... I can put an SD card in so I can take as many photos as I need with me, and can transfer them quickly without a proprietary cable or over wireless, and I can change my battery if I run out of juice...

Those are not 'small problems' for me. And many people I know don't need these things, which is why I recommend either Android or iPhone, depending on their needs...

I can't even think of getting an iPhone for myself without even a physical keyboard... Even if Siri is the most amazing app of all time, there are some things you don't want to have to 'say'. You need to be able to type it quickly, and covertly.