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Can the Samsung Nexus Prime Compete with the iPhone 4S?

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As it stands, we sit about a week out from Samsung and Google’s event at CTIA San Diego where the companies will presumably announce the next version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, and a new Nexus device made by Samsung, a device that might be called the Samsung Nexus Prime. Details at this point are scarce but we did see what we believe to be the first photo of the Nexus Prime show up today.

But guess what?

Very few people saw it and that’s because at today’s “Talk iPhone” event, Apple announced a brand new iPhone called the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 4S’ launch couldn’t come at a worse time for Google and Samsung.

Pre-orders start this Friday, October 7th, and the device is going to go on sale on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon starting October 14th. In addition, Apple plans on pushing iOS 5 out on October 12th.

That means that whatever Google is announcing at CTIA on October 11th is going to be sandwiched in between iPhone 4S and iOS 5 buzz. And the buzz is just one enemy that Samsung and Google are going to be facing.

There is also a ton of anticipation and thus, high expectations in the Android community for this operating system and this new Nexus especially with the progress we’ve seen this year in terms of 4G LTE and hardware. I mean, we’re on the verge of quad-core powered phones here folks.

This is an uphill fight, no matter how you slice it. Apple launched first which puts the pressure on Google and Samsung to deliver a proper competitor to the iPhone 4S at CTIA. But what will the Nexus Prime need to compete with iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S?

Here are a few.

4G LTE

The Nexus Prime? Maybe.

The iPhone 4S will not have true 4G on board. Instead, it will have support for HSPA at 14.4 Mbps which won’t even be available on Sprint or Verizon. The Sprint and Verizon iPhone 4S’ will be limited to CDMA’s 3G EVDO while AT&T’s HSPDA network will likely never allow iPhone 4S users to achieve those sorts of data speeds.

That leaves a big void for the Nexus Prime to fill. It not only has the chance to be the first device with Google’s Android Ice Cream Sandwich but it also has the chance to be the first Android Ice Cream Sandwich device with 4G LTE.

That alone puts it above the Motorola Droid Bionic and to some people, above the iPhone 4S.

4G LTE is a trump card that Google, Samsung and the carriers absolutely need to play here if they want the Nexus to compete with the iPhone 4S. If it doesn’t have 4G LTE  on either AT&T or Verizon, not only will Android fans be disappointed but those on the fence between a Nexus and iPhone 4S surely will be as well.

Competitive Pricing

Apple announced three different iPhone 4S models. We have the 16GB priced at $199, 32GB at $299 and the massive 64GB model with a price tag of $399. If Google, Samsung and the carriers were smart, they would, at the very least, price the Nexus Prime like the iPhone 4S.

If they were smarter than smart, they would undercut the price of the iPhone 4S. Maybe by $50 or so.

Verizon and AT&T will have to play along though and thus far, neither of them have. AT&T released a 4G LTE tablet with an absurd price and Verizon is still asking for $300 for the Motorola Droid Bionic even though retailers have dropped it down to $150.

Why not just start the Nexus at $150? If it costs $300 at launch, it will be there in a few weeks anyway.

Killer Software

If you followed the Apple announcement at all, you would know that Apple unveiled something called Siri Assistant that will be coming exclusively to the iPhone 4S along with the hundreds of other features found in iOS 5. Not familiar with Siri? In a nutshell, it’s a powerful voice command tool that allows you to say things like “What’s the current weather like?” or “Set an alarm for 8am” and get the proper results.

All without lifting a finger.

For most, this is the main attractive of the iPhone 4S. Not the dual-core processor and not the massively upgraded camera. And guess what? Apple has it right here.

It had great hardware in the iPhone 4 and it made that hardware better. It also, and remember this was the focus of WWDC 11, developed fantastic software to go along with that hardware and that puts an enormous amount of pressure on Google to deliver with Ice Cream Sandwich on the Nexus Prime.

Right now, the details of ICS remain shrouded in mystery. We have bits and pieces but there is nothing at this point that stands out to the average user and that is who the Nexus Prime needs to lure in order to compete.

Oh, and it would probably help if it was able to get it to its phones shortly after announcing it instead of months or a year after the fact. In fact, if Google wants to keep up ahead of iOS 5, Android Ice Cream Sandwich needs to hit recently released devices in a timely manner.

Inspired Marketing

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Marketing is a driving force behind smartphone sales. We’ve seen how bad Verizon’s 4G LTE/Droid Bionic campaign has been and I would definitely say that it has a direct correlation to the phone’s mediocre sales. Verizon failed it. It has proven that it has no idea how to market 4G LTE to the average consumer and it rehashed the same old robot ads from its previous Droid campaigns but somehow managed to blunder those as well.

Here’s a novel idea.

How about Google and Samsung market the Nexus Prime? Samsung has proven that it has the ability to put out high quality advertisements and Google is an advertising company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-K71MpwCko&feature=player_embedded

How about we get a pre-launch teaser to get folks excited and try to kill off some of the iPhone buzz? Instead of talking Ghz and Mbps, show consumers what they can do in an a way people can relate to instead of pretending we all attend rooftop parties and fight robots in our downtime.

Why not go all out for a phone that deserves it?

Here we are a week away from the probable announcement and the only people that know about the phone are geeks who write about phones for a living and those that are Android enthusiasts.

I don’t get it. Apple seems to though.

I really do think that the Nexus Prime can compete if all four of these elements are executed successfully, not one of them, all of them. Sadly, I just don’t see that happening. I see the Nexus Prime thrilling Android enthusiasts only to hit the bargain bin like every other Android flagship a month or two after launch.

I hope Google and Samsung prove me wrong.

134 Comments

134 Comments

  1. iman

    10/04/2011 at 6:50 pm

    im still afraid samsung will f this up some how like they alway do .like making it have a 5 mp camera or a plasticy build or google may poorly advertise the phone like they did with nexus one (which could could have killed the 3gs ) here’s hopping the do this right 

    • Matt

      10/04/2011 at 10:29 pm

      just to let you know the nexus s camera has 5mp and is comparable to the iphone 4 (not 4s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tLO7fUYCEU

  2. Nuttinnyce951

    10/04/2011 at 6:58 pm

    I just tried and my g2x can set alarms by voice command too, so thats another new feature that android already does.

    • Anonymous

      10/04/2011 at 7:20 pm

      not being a fanboy, but siri is better than android, not because its apple, but because siri has been around for a very long time before they were acquired by apple.  I cant think of many voice recognition softwares that compete with it.  

      • Anonymous

        10/04/2011 at 8:18 pm

        How about Nuance’s Dragon Dictation?

        • Anonymous

          10/04/2011 at 8:27 pm

          Dragon Dictation doesn’t compete with siri because they are two different pieces of software made for different reasons.  Dragon is meant to hear what you say and translate it in to text.  Siri is meant to hear what you say and act on it.  Dragon’s focus is on having a larger vocabulary and being able to understand a broader spectrum of words.  Siri needs to have a spectrum of phrases which it understands, but is not as stable for long documents.

      • Scott Norris

        10/05/2011 at 2:20 am

        What software has siri actually released before this? I cant seem to find anything from the company that was only founded in 2007. Are you sure you’re not just a fanboy? How can you claim its such great technology if it has never been available to the public?

        • Anonymous

          10/05/2011 at 4:35 am

          Siri released, er, Siri! It was an application for iPhone and desktop for years. It might have been on android, but I don’t know for sure. You can’t find anything now because it was acquired by apple in 2010, so none of their products are on the market any more.

      • Jonboy

        10/05/2011 at 9:46 am

        Siri seems cool, but is it THAT much better than Google voice?  I can see it being a fun little toy, that people won’t really use.  It is still a nice selling piece, but a little misleading that it is hands free…

        They used some pretty basic commands during the demonstration.  I’d be willing to bet Nuances software is still better.

  3. dinosaucier

    10/04/2011 at 6:59 pm

    “That means that whatever Google is announcing at CTIA on October 11th is going to be sandwiched in between iPhone 4S and iOS 5 buzz. And the buzz is just one enemy that Samsung and Google are going to be facing.”

    Given the lackluster response today from fanboys and the stock market to the announcement today, if anything savvy smartphone shoppers are praying that the nexus prime will be the premier phone of the season.  Ball’s in Google/Samsung’s court.

    • Tony Perez

      10/04/2011 at 11:25 pm

      True. It’s possible for Google and Samsung to leverage the distaste for the iPhone 4S into a great demand for the Nexus Prime. I had to literally laugh out loud as I read comments from several iPhone addicts that it may be time to switch to Android after the insignificant changes. Insignificant because outside of Siri, all of Apple’s upgrades catch it up with Android handsets that have been out for months. I’d rather have a handset that’s reflecting current technology, not dated tech. Also, I’m ready to jump to 4G. Getting an iPhone 4S today sounds like getting a Jag and only driving it on dirt roads…slowly. But hey, like on the Jag, the sound system works great!  

      • Anonymous

        10/11/2011 at 9:30 pm

        Ya that distaste is such a bitch they sold through over a million of them in 24 hours and now are out 1 to 2 weeks…

        Apple should seriously learn to build a phone. 

        Let me know when the Prime hits 100,000… oh nvm they will have already released a new craptastic phone in it’s place hoping to lure the next drooling idiot to the latest and greatest spec sheet. 

    • Brian Schweitzer

      10/05/2011 at 6:17 am

      Agreed – The “Let’s Talk iPhone” event was a disappointment all around.  Unless you’re an Apple cheerleader, you were disappointed.  I have a BlackBerry Bold 9650 that’s up for renewal right now on Verizon.  I can get an iPhone 4s for $199, an iPhone 4 for $99, or wait to see what Samsung has planned.  I’ll gladly wait – the Apple event was uninspiring – and I’m one of those people who are “in the market” for a new phone.  That bodes well for Google/Samsung.

      • Anonymous

        10/11/2011 at 9:32 pm

        Let me guess, if Apple had released a device called the iPhone 5 and simply changed the shape you would have been excited? lol 

        Ok I see your point… why would anyone want something like Siri, faster CPU, 7x graphics performance or a a better camera and 1080p video? That just sound crazy!

        • Soup's

          03/11/2012 at 5:24 pm

          You’re only comparing it to the iPhone 4. The Nexus is also better than the iPhone 4. We all have our opinions… don’t try to convert anyone to your belief.

  4. Still On Droid OG

    10/04/2011 at 7:02 pm

    Loved this article, the last few paragraphs are just too true!

    • Anonymous

      10/04/2011 at 9:55 pm

      I found they ring true too.

      I mean, seriously? Samsung had some of the coolest commercials well before the iPhone came out. But it seems like none of them for their smartphone lines grab my attention!

  5. Mattaj34

    10/04/2011 at 7:02 pm

    typo alert. Wher it says “The iPhone 4S’ launch couldn’t come at a worse time for Google and Samsung”

    You reversed it, Should say “Google and Samsung’s Nexus Primes’ launch couldn’t come at a worse time for Apple.” Very few people are going to order a 3G Iphone 4s, 3 days before they see what the Nexus Prime brings. 4.6″ screen, Ice Cream Sandwich and more. They do not have to undercut the Iphone 4S price eiher. The Prime is going to blow it away.

    • Anonymous

      10/04/2011 at 7:23 pm

      you have to understand, my good sir, that ITS THE FUCKING IPHONE!!!! The thing could be a flip phone! so long as it has the apple logo on it, it’ll sell like fucking hot cakes and slice android profits in half.  Apple has a MILLION times more brand recognition than nexus.

      btw, im an iPhone user, i love it, I’m upgrading to the 4S.  

      • Anonymous

        10/04/2011 at 7:31 pm

        The 4S is a fat fail I owned every Iphone since the beginning and today is very disappointing to say  the least. Us Iphone 4 users were expecting alot more than a rehash of the same old phone. Nexus Prime is looking better to me now, see ya Apple enjoy your tiny 4S rehash Lucas.

        • Anonymous

          10/04/2011 at 7:50 pm

          Let me show you something and see if you can connect the dots:

          Iphone 3g -> BIG step up from original iPhone. New design.  New software.

          Iphone 3gs -> Small, evolutionary step up from the 3g.  Software tweaks and additions, better camera, faster.

          Iphone 4 -> BIG step up from the iPhone 3gs. New design. New software.

          Iphone 4S -> Small, evolutionary step up from the 4.  Software tweaks and additions, better camera, faster.

          Iphone 5 -> ____________________________________________?

          Notice a pattern? Or are you clinically retarded?  I never said that the iPhone 4S was gonna change the world and shoot rainbows out of the headphone jack.  Its a small step up, just like everyone SHOULD have expected.  But saying that suddenly the world will open their eyes and see the light and ditch the iPhone is unrealistic.  The iPhone will outsell the nexus by tons for one reason: IT IS AN IPHONE, EVERYBODY KNOWS ABOUT THE IPHONE.  Grandma knows about the iPhone, children in Madagascar know about the iPhone.  Of course, techies on gottabemobile will think the iPhone sucks and will moan about it on here, but lets be honest, 90% of people will read about the new iPhone on the front page of the new york times and think, “ooooohh, shiny!” Nobody will hear about the Nexus prime if its released next to the iPhone. Nobody.

        • Boriqua121

          10/05/2011 at 9:25 am

          BL1969, I am with you I have owned every Iphone since the geginning and yesterday anouncement was a total disapointment.  I was on the fence between staying with the Iphone or moving to adroid.  I was waiting for the announcement form Apple before taking the dive in to Android.  After yesterday anouncement not only I am taking I am doing a cannon ball to Android.  The question is Would it be the Prime, Galaxy s2 or the upcoming HTC Holliday.  That is my only decsion at this point.  Sayonara Apple it was good while it lasted, thank you  for the good times.  May see you again but you have alot of catch up to do!!!!

        • Anonymous

          10/06/2011 at 6:00 am

          @lucas823:disqus  Iphone 3G – Android sucked balls.iphone 3GS – Android was ok but still had a lot of issues.
          iphone 4 – Android is starting to get some polish and good hardware.
          iPhone 4S – Android has amazing hardware.  My Galaxy SII runs Android insanely smooth. I’ve been dreaming of having hardware like this for the past two years.  And it’s not even a Nexus Prime with Ice Cream Sandwich which will make my phone look outdated before the end of the year.

          You notice how Apple following that pattern is going to be problem for them or are you clinically retarded? Just because it is a pattern does not mean it is the right thing to do.

      • Mihabt

        10/04/2011 at 7:38 pm

        You should buy 2 in different colors as well.  good for you Lucas !

      • Tom 0

        10/04/2011 at 8:10 pm

        Lucas you are an idiot.  It’s been 16 MONTHS since the iPhone 4.  Yes, I think everyone was expecting more than “a small step up”.  If Apple is satisfied delivering “a small step up” (as you, an Apple fanboi put it) then they are losing.  And you’re right, of course Apple will sell more iPhone 4S’s than Nexus Primes, but that doesn’t matter.. There will be TONS more ANDROID phones sold than iPhones.  Don’t you get it? Apple is not competing with ONE phone. They are competing with multiple phones made by multiple manufacturers, all competing against each other to have the most advanced ANDROID phone. Apple isn’t even trying to compete with Android anymore, they know people like you will buy the iPhone even if it was a basic flip phone (as you admitted). But they are falling farther and farther behind the real competition, and this iPhone 4S release proves it.  I was eagerly awaiting the release of this iPhone to finally make the switch from Android, but I won’t be wasting my money on it now.  The reason for me? It doesn’t have 4G, which is a requirement for any advanced phone. Who cares how fast the processor is when it takes 30 seconds to load a web page? The processor won’t make browsing any faster, and most people are fed up with the slow speeds of non-4G phones.  

        • Anonymous

          10/04/2011 at 8:20 pm

          Who are you arguing with? I didn’t “admit” that people would buy the iPhone if it was a flip phone, i PROCLAIMED it.  You act as if its some secret.  Im not an apple fanboy, i have a lot of respect for android, its an awesome OS.  I was responding to mattaj up there who made the bold statement that the Nexus will have a significant impact on the iPhone 4S’s sales.  Comparing the sales of android to the sales of iPhones is like comparing the amount of Harley Davidson motorcycles with the amount of cars sold: you can’t make it, its an unfair comparison.  And i completely disagree with your statement that “apple isn’t competing with android.” Android is apples ONLY competition.  As seen in ios5. notification center? siri? All of that was made to compete DIRECTLY with Android.  

        • Cendresmash

          10/04/2011 at 9:33 pm

          Lucas, a few points:

          1: Android is, as you said, the iPhone’s competitor. Given that for a while the iPhone was the standard to beat, and Android now outsells the iPhone, I’d say making the comparison between the sales of Android devices and the iPhone is entirely fair.. You could say it’s iOS vs Android, but the iPhone is the only iOS phone, so that’s purely semantics.

          2: People will buy the iPhone regardless of the tech specs, it’s true. There are however people who bought the iPhone not because they’re rabid drooling Apple fanbois or the ignorant masses who only care enough about their phone to want the one all their friends have. There are people who buy Apple products because until the iPhone 4S they’ve been one of the best devices available at the time. Now that simply is no longer the case. The Nexus Prime, HTC Vigor, and Droid HD will outclass the iPhone in every important respect except brand recognition, and people who care about their phone’s capabilities more than brand loyalty will buy them instead. That may not be a huge chunk of Apple’s customers, but it will be a significant percentage.

          3: No Android device lasts long as a great seller because other newer better Android devices come out every couple of months. Why should you buy last month’s device rather than wait a month and get the newest thing? That doesn’t happen with the iPhone because if you want an iOS phone it’s the only option, and a lot of people do. The fact of the matter is that people who care about what their phone can do no longer have a reason to wait for the next iPhone. It’s here, and it’s not very compelling. With so many significantly more powerful Android devices right around the corner (and quad cores on the horizon Q1 of 2012) why would anyone who cares about performance buy an iPhone 4S?

          In the end what we learned today is that Apple doesn’t care about the hardcore market. They’ve realized that as a single manufacturer the fight to have the most powerful mobile device is no longer one that’s worth trying to win. Instead, they’re focusing on what they’re good at, selling to the everyman. People who don’t care if they can run the latest game, or stream 1080p netflix to their HDTV from their phone, or load a webpage a second or two faster. People who want the simplicity and familiarity of an iPhone. That’s a market they will probably never lose, just as Apple will continue to have a market for their computers, comfortable in their niche, not a challenge to PCs, nor likely to be stomped out by them. I may not like Apple’s products or policies, but they’re here to stay, and in the end, isn’t competition a good thing? It drives innovation in the marketplace, and that’s good for all of us.

      • Alex Karpov

        10/04/2011 at 9:51 pm

        well then you will be one of the fewer that upgraded last year. I’m also an iphone user and siri sounds great, but isn’t nearly enough to get me to upgrade. Infact, I’ll be switching to Android and the Prime most likely. And for those that do upgrade for the logo, ignorance is bliss… i guess. 

        • Anonymous

          10/05/2011 at 4:40 am

          You have to understand, this is a free upgrade. I still have the 3GS so the upgrade to 4s is very welcome. I would never pay 200 dollars to upgrade from the iPhone 4.

      • Anonymous

        10/04/2011 at 9:58 pm

        Ah, an unbiased opinion.  Very convincing.  

        • Anonymous

          10/05/2011 at 4:46 am

          This isn’t about bias, it’s about facts. I never said that the iPhone was better than android, I said it has more brand recognition. This is a fact. If there is anything that apple absolutely EXCELS at, it’s MARKETING. For this reason, and this reason alone, the iPhone will crush any phones releasing near it. Idk why everybody is so upset at me. Everything I have said so far is pro-android.

        • Husky

          10/05/2011 at 8:04 pm

          Lucas has a point there. Lucas is right is just that we interpreted it wrong.

      • Tony Perez

        10/04/2011 at 11:28 pm

        Time to watch this again… Just add the “S”

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNz9gfs5Dw0&feature=related

  6. c001hand

    10/04/2011 at 7:13 pm

    Do you need Prime to compete with 4S. You are a JOKER. Even my 6 months old SGS2 is lot better than still unreleased 4S. ROFL

    • Chjones31

      10/05/2011 at 2:47 pm

      I have an android and the voice search in it is niwhere near the quality of siri on the 4s, nit to mention I can o about half the things on it. But there has been rumors that an ice cream sandwich nexys phone will have an improved voice search,.or ice cream sandwich itself will have it

      • Jstellmaker

        10/05/2011 at 4:16 pm

        i have been using siri for about 2 years now. works wonderful…. oh wait that’s vlingo haha good try apple. oh vlingo is cross platform so for all you sorry iphone 4 users who wont get siri, maybe go give vlingo a try!!

  7. A Carradero

    10/04/2011 at 7:22 pm

    Everything new coming in the 4s, android already does. Apple is the one playing catch up right now. I don’t know what this writer is smoking.

    • Umpa_j

      10/04/2011 at 7:40 pm

      What do you expect he’s a fanboy!!!

    • Anonymous

      10/04/2011 at 7:41 pm

      He’s basically saying that Google needs to really market this nexus phone theselves so that it gets proper exposure so that it cuts into whatever Apples phone is poised to do. We know that android is superior in a lot of areas, but do the vast majority see this? No.
      Instead, android phone commercials are filled woth irrelevant things that most people dont care about.

      I will pick up the nexus prime day one because i know what it will be capable of, more or less. The vast majority of people need to know that android has voice actions, turn by turn directions, etc.

  8. Jcasvt1

    10/04/2011 at 7:23 pm

    Yesterday the question was “Can Nexus Prime compete against the Iphone 5” Today Iphone announces that they have no Iphone 5 but instead trot out the 4s? This was like Motorolas brainchild of releasing the X2. Nobody cared and I suspect when the smoke clears that will be the view of many loyal Iphone fans who have been saving up thier upgrades. I guess this really explains the lawsuit after lawsuit apple has laid at Samsungs door. Fear. Samsung and Android in general are sitting in the cat birds seat. Can they deliver?

    • Matt

      10/04/2011 at 10:48 pm

      just to let you know, once apple placed their lawsuit, samsung claimed multiple lawsuits on apple for numerous patents. samsung won that battle already

  9. 송덕 Dragon

    10/04/2011 at 7:27 pm

    samsung will fuck this up soon rather than later.

    • Anonymous

      10/06/2011 at 10:17 pm

      Samsung has been on an incredible roll lately, and I don’t see them going anywhere but up with the Nexus Prime.

  10. jumpymonkey

    10/04/2011 at 7:35 pm

    All the fanboy comments are useless compared to the market share facts.   More consumers worldwide have chosen Android based smartphones. 

    • Anonymous

      10/04/2011 at 7:52 pm

      That data doesn’t make sense. Android is an OS. iPhone is a piece of hardware.  Thats like comparing that amount of BMW’s sold to the amount of motorcycles sold in a year.

      • Nian

        10/04/2011 at 8:15 pm

        In this case Android OS is the engine not motorcycle. Anyway it still making sense because OS is the key in every smartphone. I doubt you will buy this piece of hardware (iPhone) if installed with Symbian OS.

        • Anonymous

          10/04/2011 at 8:24 pm

          That is my point.  IOS is exclusive to the iPhone and vice versa.  Besides, there is so much variability in the capabilities of different android phones that they should not all be lumped together.  Compare the EVO with the iPhone, compare the Galaxy with the iPhone. But do not compare all of the androids with the iPhone. 

        • SInora

          10/04/2011 at 8:53 pm

          Lucas is stupid. According to your logic, when comparing PC and Mac, you should compare Sony Vaio vs Mac, ThinkPad vs Mac, Dell vs Mac, HP vs Mac etc etc? Maybe only you will do that but for the rest of the world, it is PC vs MAC. Same in Android vs IPhone (iOS)

        • Anonymous

          10/04/2011 at 8:59 pm

          @lucas823:disqus I think you’re missing the point. You’re correct that it’s not really a fair comparison to look at iOS vs. Android, but it’s also not really a fair comparison to look at Evo vs. iPhone4 (and they came out just about the same time so that would be a good comparison)

          The BEST thing about Android (and WP7, to a slightly lesser extent) is what many people might call “fragmentation.” I call it “options.” You can’t compare iPhone4 to Evo because some people don’t want a 4.3″ screen; some people don’t want need a front facing camera; some people don’t want to be on Sprint; some people don’t want to spend $200 on their phone; some people wanted to see what the Droid X/Galaxy S/whatever LG phone had to offer. 

          It’s like if Designer A made a shirt that comes in 1 color and is one size fits all and people love designer A and tons of them buy the shirt because it is beautiful, even if it doesn’t fit them just right. Then designer B comes along and makes 100 shirts, all of the same fabric, but in 10 colors and 10 sizes. You can’t really compare the 1 shirt Designer A made to the 100 shirts Designer B made, but you also can’t pretend like a Red Size 6 is a good comparison to the 1 Designer A shirt. 

          Designer B *intentionally* made 100 different shirts because they knew different people have different needs. Samsung made many Android (and WP7) phones for the exact same reason.

      • United

        10/04/2011 at 8:53 pm

        For someone claiming not to be a fan-bitch, you sure are defending apple’s IShit products tooth and nail. Why can’t you simply admit Apple completely dropped the ball on this one? Is it that hard to think for yourself or has apple completely droned you? 

        • Anonymous

          10/04/2011 at 9:41 pm

          “fan-bitch”? “ishit”? personal attacks? There’s no sense trying to reason with you, it’s like politics, and you’re an extreme right or left wing shill. Anyone in the middle looks like a “fanboy” for the other side.

          I can claim not to be a fanboy, the 4S doesn’t knock my socks off, but reading the extremist views the Apple-bashers had on another forum, how can anyone defending Apple with reason NOT come off as one.The most ridiculous was seeing a dozen people bash Apple for updating their models too quickly and contributing to massive e-waste, and two dozen laughing at Apple for not updating it often enough and therefore couldn’t keep up with Android.

        • Joejoe

          11/14/2011 at 7:19 pm

          You should understand that it was Apples iPhone that got the smartphone business going, and it was their dominance that paved the way for competition, dont hate Apple products, hate the people that blindly buy their products and then defend it without reason, actually dont hate at all. What apple started, droid makers are merely making better. Like basketball, invented by white people, mastered by black people, no racism.

    • Chjones

      10/05/2011 at 2:52 pm

      Ya but the iphone it self not the operating system itself, regular users dont know what their buying us android or a phone to use if their network does not have the iphone, and now its on sprint.

    • galicia_juanalberto

      10/10/2011 at 6:18 am

      Oh i dont know about that… I mean they just got over a million orders for the iphone 4s in the first 24 hours, without counting the ones received by carriers… AT&T reported their best pre-order numbers ever for an iphone so it sure looks like its gaining a lot of ground :p

  11. Drumn91

    10/04/2011 at 7:42 pm

    @ShafferJordan….
    TAKE YOUR SHIT ADS SOMEWHERE ELSE…. FRAUD BULLSHIT!!!

    • Drumn91

      10/04/2011 at 7:54 pm

      NOW…. regarding this article and the responses, Apple is okay, okay? Just okay. Android allows users to have more control over their device instead of the device telling them what you CAN and CAN’T do…. Sorta like our great Federal to State to County to Municipal governments…. Too much restriction. I CANNOT wait for Prime Time!!! An SD card slot? Wow now I can record videos and take photos and load the card up and switch the card while at Six Flags and stuff when it gets full and NEVER worry about space. Apple = 64gb (1080p and 8mp take up bigtime space)
      Android = How many 32gb cards do you have? Android has more capabilities, period. I have had an iPhone 3G and 3GS for over 3 years and I CANNOT WAIT TO OWN MY FIRST ANDROID!!! And it will be an Apple iPhone ass kicking Super Smartphone!!! Go Samsung!! Suck it Steve Jobs!!!
      PS I have thousands of choices for PC upgrades!!! Memory! Video Cards! CD/DVD/BLURAY Drives! ETC!!!!

      • Anonymous

        10/04/2011 at 9:02 pm

        “How many 32gb cards do you have?”

        Daaaang…More like… “How much money do you have?” Each of those cards is at least like $50

      • Jesuschrist

        10/04/2011 at 10:12 pm

        you can upgrade macs too. im a huge android fan. but mac has pc beat. by far. it takes about 1/4 if not less of the hardware a pc needs to run smoothly. my intel core 2 duo 2.16 processor and my 2 gigs of ddr2 ram runs better than those things would ever on a pc. a pc with 8 gigs of ram and a quad core, is still gonna lag like shit, and get worse over time. my mac runs like the day i bought in july 07. plus the os is just so much more visually pleasing. everything flows so much nicer, and the organizational system is so much better. fuck a pc, fuck a iphone. lol.

      • Anonymous

        10/05/2011 at 1:52 pm

        @LaurenReeseBrink:disqus  32GB Micro SD card on Newegg is $34.99. Not that bad.
        https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0MC05Z6777&cm_sp=Spotlight-_-9SIA0MC05Z6777-_-10052011

      • Drumn91

        10/05/2011 at 10:26 pm

        EDIT: Thank You Steve Jobs for your talent, your inspiration and changing our world for the better. I get worked up and type things I do not really mean, without your innovations Steve, Samsung would not stand a chance in smartphones. THANK YOU!!! AND TELL GOD I SAID HELLO AND SEE YA SOMEDAY!!

      • Stop the bickering

        10/06/2011 at 11:10 am

        LaurenReeseBrink Using Bschwartz40’s example you can take the $200 difference between the 4s 16gb model and the 4s 64gb model and buy 5 32GB micro SD cards giving a total of 192GB of storage while leaving enough left over to pick up a few spare batteries as well. Now who is talking pricey?

  12. w0rkah0lics

    10/04/2011 at 7:44 pm

    great write up. Everything you said is everything that needs to be one. something more than a leaked half photo needs to be done to get the talk off the iphone

    • A.J. Meadows

      10/04/2011 at 9:53 pm

      I’m a self-proclaimed Android fanboy, and I totally agree. Android phones just have NOT been marketed properly at all. Samsung and Google need to start teasing and promoting the shit out of this. Especially if the rumored specs and features of the Nexus Prime are true. They could have a real winner on their hands, but it’d be a shame if lazy marketing throws it under the bus.

  13. Anonymous

    10/04/2011 at 7:48 pm

    what a non-story.

  14. Anonymous

    10/04/2011 at 7:50 pm

    I agree. Has anyone seen the little help videos that google does? Where one of their young hip engineers stands in a white room and simply explains how to use their features, such as voice actions? Why not air this as a commercial to the masses???

    It will forever blow my mind why Google can be one of the greatest organizations and yet the stupidest! I despise the stupid advertising from all US mobile providers. Robots fighting women (Verizon), barely visible green robots in the corners(AT& T), and other ridiculousness.

    Who looks at a Android commercial and can walk away knowing what the device is capable of? No one that has never used one.

    All companies copy one another in one area or another, so why cant Google copy Apples marketing strategies?

    Present a simple message that shows how simple it is to use. Oh well.

    Its for this reason that the iphone 4S will still outsell the nexus prime. Not because its the better product, but because Apple knows what people want to see.

    • Jelectricalconcepts

      10/04/2011 at 8:49 pm

      But still fails to give them what they want. GM and Cadillac had this dilema. Fortunately the folks at Cadillac caught on right before the brand died. (I.E. 4100 engine) I think the arrogance of Apple might be a big hurdle to overcome. Thats just my opinion people. Apple is on a decline because the competition is dictating the market that Apple perfected.

  15. Scott Dooley

    10/04/2011 at 7:56 pm

    Apple just shot themselves in the foot with the iPhone 4s and I knew they would after they pulled that 3Gs shit. The Apple fans don’t wanna hear “faster phone” or “personal assistant” that most people hardly use on current phones. I’ll give them props for 1080p video shooting on the 8 megapixel camera because that’s probably the only thing Apple fans would like. Apple has two choices to not start a downward spiral, they either need to release the iPhone 5 with phenomenal features in half a year or they’ll be locked down into this current one for a whole year like the previous ones. Even 6 months could be to late because Android can release like 4 phones in that time. The second is that the iPad 3 is amazing which could be there only wanted product by basically abandoning iPods and if Apple fans reject the 4s. If the next android phone that has ICS is well received by fans AND the media, which I think they’ll pay attention this time to an android phone, then the iPhone has some catching up to do.

    • galicia_juanalberto

      10/10/2011 at 6:21 am

      Happily it seems you are wrong, i mean new numbers just coming out, they received over a million pre-orders within the first 24 hours of availability.

      Which frankly crushed the previous record, thats without counting the numbers of orders within different carriers, so seems like people really dont care a lot about a new redesign.

      • Scott Dooley

        10/12/2011 at 3:37 pm

        Lol I guess I was wrong.

      • Blahblah

        11/20/2011 at 11:09 am

        With over 6 billion people in the world.. a million pre-orders is nothing to write home about..

  16. Rob08vc

    10/04/2011 at 7:57 pm

    i definitely think samsung or google should head up the marketing here…the droid commercials might appeal to 12 year olds but those arent the people buying these phones…i’d like to see something along the lines of htc’s old commercials the “you don’t need to get a phone, you need a phone that get’s you” those were fun…also looking forward to this phone being a verizon customer and get screwed out of the galaxy s II and disappointed by the 4s

  17. BrianB13

    10/04/2011 at 8:01 pm

    Since I don’t own stock in Google, Samsung or Verizon, I don’t really care what phone competes well with another phone.  Seems to me that the demographic for these two phones are very different.  Unless you are a geek, you have no idea what a Nexus Prime phone is and what it is all about.  Everyone knows what an iPhone is.  So yes, Google/Samsung/Verizon should market the crap out of the Nexus Prime however, it still won’t compete with the iPhone 4S.   

    • MML

      10/04/2011 at 8:36 pm

      Yeah? However sales ratio doesn’t mean squat. People get the iPhone because they do not do their research and know what it is. IPhone 3G was cool…. but apple is falling behind buddy.

      Hope nexus prime blows this piece of crap off every iPhone livers mind.

      • BrianB13

        10/04/2011 at 9:34 pm

        I agree with what you are saying.  I’m planning on getting a Nexus Prime.

  18. Code Honor

    10/04/2011 at 8:02 pm

    I can’t imagine anything being better than the Samsung Galaxy II.. I brought one 2 days ago, and its like my Girlfriend it never leaves my side LOL Some people may not like the plastic, but I like it cause if u drop it it won’t break as easily.

  19. EarlyAdopter

    10/04/2011 at 8:24 pm

    Apples going with the 4S instead of the 5 at this juncture is a HUGE opportunity for Google/Samsung.  If the Nexus Prime has the specs almost every blogger out there thinks it will, the iPhone will live in the shadows for some time to come.  The display alone on the Nexus Prime is lust worthy, far beyond anything new in the iPhone 4S.  Props for the sweet voice command system and the camera, but that’s it!?!  Ha!  I laugh at Apple right now.  Don’t get me wrong, they make nice stuff, but they’ll be playing catch-up big time…

    • galicia_juanalberto

      10/10/2011 at 6:24 am

      I dont know…I was really excited about it buuuut I was a bit worried that people wouldn’t like it, it looked as if everyone hated it =p

      But apple just announced it got over a million pre-orders within the first 24 hours of availability, which crushed the previous record so…. I don’t think they´ll be playing catch-up :p

  20. Weisguy119

    10/04/2011 at 8:29 pm

    The 4s just made my decision easy.  Tiny screen?  Ummm…pass.  Voice activation?  Will never use – don’t care.

    I was waiting for the iPhone 5 (now 4s) and Nexus Prime (or whatever it’ll be called) before making a decision on my new phone.  Android just won without even firing a shot.  That 4s is a snoozefest.  Besides, I still like my flash support.

  21. Guest

    10/04/2011 at 8:39 pm

    Guest

    The iPhone 4S is a downer. All it is doing is copying ANDROID. All new android already has 8MP and 1080 recording. Wow very innovative for apple for COPYING. GOOGLE SHOULD SUE.

    How about that new iOS5 COPYING ANDROID AGAIN. What’s that at the top of the screen. Wow “a NOTIFICATION BAR” ow my very innovative. LOL.

    ANDROID RULES…

    • Anonymous

      10/05/2011 at 12:09 am

      Sue Apple because the iPhone 4S uses 8MP and has 1080p video recording? That’s stupid, what if other manufacturers such as Blackberry and Windows Mobile do this?

      • Scott Dooley

        10/05/2011 at 2:28 pm

        I think Guest is making the point that Apple would do the same if it was the other way around…

  22. Anonymous

    10/04/2011 at 8:45 pm

    Say what you want about Sprint but only they know how to market Android. Between no ads from AT&T and wtf are they selling from Verizon, Sprint is the only one giving Android it’s fair shake. You don’t know how many cores it has or megapixels but you know it’s an Android phone and does does “x” brought to you by Sprint.

    Google really needs to take the OS brand back from manufacturers. It needs to be more Apple like in making sure it’s fucking software works with the hardware and that’s kill all these other useless Skins. You want to bog down your phone with motoblur? DL the separate OS add on in the market…

  23. auburncatfish

    10/04/2011 at 8:48 pm

    I have a Droid 1 that I’m dying to ditch. Been waiting patiently for today, and I think I’m not alone. If the iphone 5 was a revelation, or even a mild form upgrade from the 4, I was getting one. I will readily admit that I want a phone that looks good and works well. However, I think “look” is way more key than people realize (or want to realize) and has always been Apple’s strong suit. Wow did they beef it today! Hardcore…never seen a company beef it like this. People like me that have been patiently waiting for an iphone with a larger screen and updated ergonomics are not going to migrate for this. Warmed over is the right way to describe the 4s, and it’s frankly an insulting move on Apple’s part – a bet hedge on the aforementioned notion that they can sell anything to customers with an apple logo on it. How long can they trot that iphone 4 out there. Orginial launch, iphone white, now the 4s – 16 months of the same phone with 3 launches mixed in – what a joke! Apple’s post-Steve Jobs decline will apparently be swift and decisive. The mileage limit has been reached the iphone 4, the 91 Lexus has 300,000 miles on it.

    I eagerly await the Nexus Prime – don’t let me down Samsung/Google.

  24. Roblearns

    10/04/2011 at 8:59 pm

    Wow, this guy doesn’t get it… The disappointment with the iPhone 4S is overwhelming. Nexus prime may just steal all of apples Buzz.

    • galicia_juanalberto

      10/10/2011 at 6:25 am

      Doubt it considering the newly released pre-order numbers :p

  25. Dustin Radin

    10/04/2011 at 9:01 pm

    The nexus line isn’t a phone for the masses it’s designed to show the state of the art in Android right from the Google source. That was the original idea. There are plenty of phones like the Galaxy SII and Bionic that already out class the iphone4s. I have a Nexus One and when I heard about Siri I thought my phone has been had essentially the same functionaliy since it came out two years ago.  Siri may be incrementally better than Google voice commands but nothing significant. Google voice commands are actually incredible useful and accurate for searching and controlling the phone. As far as no 4G LTE on the iphone 4s its a clear indicator that the iphone 4s is not a phone aimed at the high end consumer its a phone for the masses.

  26. Matt Guempel

    10/04/2011 at 9:05 pm

    not all people who prefer nexus are tech geeks.  I enjoy apple products for their ability to work more smoothly and reliably with better customer service than just about anything else in my experience, but they dropped the ball this time.  4s in july, i would understand, but waiting until october, just to come out with a lame 4s that just equals what some other smartphones pack, AND THEN STILL NOT HAVING FAST INTERNET???!!!?  Nerd, Casual user, whoever; how many people think a possibly slightly better voice command, playing catchup, and a slightly more user-friendly OS is more important than internet speed?!?!?!  anyone with half a brain can see that what they do on their smartphone, MORE THAN ANYTHING, is use the internet, and you are going to feed me 3g speeds AGAIN, while the competition will likely run internet speeds 2-4 times faster, with an equal or better screen, and more options, and ability to view flash content, ect.  honestly, it doesn’t take a nerd to realize apple thinks of people as puppets, and some are, but if you just use 2% of your brain capacity, you will see that 4s is a sham and a scam.

    • Gary03mw

      10/04/2011 at 10:41 pm

      Apple will use 3g chipsets until good chip sets come out that are small enough and don’t eat battery life. That being said they did announce two antennas and hspa+ which is the next best thing. This is not only the best decision that Apple could have made, but the decision that Android manufacturers should be making. Instead they are choosing to avert quality and focus on the spec sheet. Apple did the right thing, as usual.

    • Gary03mw

      10/04/2011 at 10:48 pm

      As far as screens go, if bigger is better then you’re correct, but the iPhone screen is nice. Personally I’d like it to be slightly larger, but I’m also not a fan of these 4.5-5 inch screens. Not to mention that as far as resolution goes (IMO a more important aspect than size) the iPhone is still as good as it gets.

      As for flash, its one of the main reasons Android phones and PC’s crash. Not to mention its a processor and battery hog. There’s a reason why Apple is able to create such high quality products that work well and are easy to use. The iPhone 4S isn’t a scam at all. Its a really great phone with a great approach. It’s insane to me that had apple changed the design ever so slightly and popped a 5 on it that the consumer reaction would have been so much different.

  27. Billtaylor12

    10/04/2011 at 9:21 pm

    Iphone 4s is already a bargain bin phone…nobody cares about talking to a phone if its not a phone call in fact its kinda of embarrasing if you think about it

  28. Screwedupsmitty

    10/04/2011 at 9:24 pm

    Here are the facts
    Iphone will sell, no matter what because its “cool” or “hip” and functional for soccer moms
    Nexus will sell to people who believe in open source and love the community developed software that comes with it, as well as superior hardware specs and benchmarks
    Final decision
    Buy whatever you want, fanboys will be fanboys

  29. Jessica Brown

    10/04/2011 at 9:35 pm

    Now after waiting sooooo long for the iPhone 5 announcement (which turned into the lame 4S), I have to WAIT AGAIN for the Nexus Prime announcement…. any more of this patience crap is going to turn me into a buddhist monk!
    I had a 3GS and then upgraded to a Galaxy S, put off getting a Galaxy S2 because I was waiting for iPhone 5, and now I’m still waiting as the 4S is of NO interest to me…… so now I wonder should I just end my misery and get the Galaxy S2? or WAIT for more annoucements?
    Problem is, even if an AMAZING Nexus Prime is announced next week, it probably won’t be in Australia till next year
     :(

    • Mark

      10/05/2011 at 6:48 am

      Technology moves and shifts at an increasing rate of speed.  Think about how long it took the rotary dial phone to become obsolete – about 90 years?  My Motorola Droid is a Dinosaur after 2.

      Given this reality, when is the right time to buy a new phone?  I think there are two valid answers:
      1)  When you want a new toy.  If you want to treat yourself to something new and cool, go to the toy store (Verizon, Sprint, ATT, Best Buy, etc) and find the coolest phone-toy you can for the money you are willing to spend.

      2)  You have a real need for a set of capabilities that can be met by a handheld devise:  If you phone is driving you crazy because it can’t do the things you expect of it, find one that can.

      While I have wanted a cool replacement for my Droid since I purchased a Droid X for my son, I have chosen to wait until ‘I just can’t take it anymore’ from my low memory, painfully slow, battery-hog Droid.  I am near that point.  Near enough to go for a Droid Prime when a SGIII or iPhone5 may come out in 4-6 months?  Probably.  For me the capability gap is performance and storage space.  I cannot keep the apps I use on the phone (they are too big) and those I do have often run too slowly to be of value (Try taking a candid photo on a Moto Droid – not possible)

      The decision is not so much whether any one phone or OS is the be all and end all.  They will all be bargain bin items within months and I need to accept the fact that some shiny new phone will be old news within weeks of my shelling out $300.  How do you Driod Bionic purchasers feel today?  How will you feel after quad cores with 720p or better screens come out in 6 months?

      Like many, the decision on which phone I get will boil down to which one is the very best one available (based on what that means to me) at the moment I decide I must have a new one.  With the holiday season coming I’ll probably be looking to purchase the most advanced one possible – that can be under the tree on Dec. 25th.

      Though I prefer Android phones for all of the flexibility and choices, I do need to give Apple credit.  With only one new choice every year or more, iPhone fans suffer from buyers remorse less acutely than Android fans.

  30. ECC

    10/04/2011 at 9:35 pm

    There seem to be two types of people disappointed. The people that love the specs and the people that love the case. The Iphone 4S has so really good specs, but there not the best. They don’t need to be it runs its processes well and that is what it was designed to do.  The cases is still as attractive as it ever was (opinion), so where is the need to change that?  ios5 baring any bugs should be a great system, easy to use and full of neat features. icecream sandwich will most likely have much of the same as ios5, but both look and act differently. I think that is mostly preference based, but my friends have said that there driods will freeze up or give them some software troubles (nothing major).  There are a third group of people that want a phone with good specs, and care more about the practicality of the phone.  large screens and 4g chew up battery and for me I hate the idea of charging my phone around the clock.  I don’t know how my friends put up with it.  I think apple has made a very sensible product that will run well and be secure.  I am not so sure about all andriods, and that is what has separated apple and other companies.

  31. A.J. Meadows

    10/04/2011 at 9:43 pm

    I totally agree with the last part of this post. Google needs to learn how to actually advertise and promote their products. If they put out a Nexus Prime TV spot even half as good as this: 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsSUqgkDwUThen they’ll already have the best selling android phone on their hands. And yeah! Show it doing something genuinely cool that the iPhone can’t do! That’s how you win people over.

  32. Jerry Yee

    10/04/2011 at 9:48 pm

    The fanboy syndrome is really amazing. They don’t even realize how biased they sound at times. They have such an emotional investment with Apple that it’s almost inspiring. The IPhone won best invention of 2007(Time Magazine) and deserved it. But it’s 2011 now and they aren’t competing with flip phones anymore. I’m not an Apple fanboy and even I have to admit that I’m disappointed with the fact that there was no IPhone 5 today. The Nexus Prime will simply be the new standard to be measured against when it comes to smartphones….with the SGS2 being the current standard. The IPhone 4 may have been the standard back in 2010 to early 2011, but not now.

    As a consumer, I don’t really care what company sells the most phones or what a marketing department needs to do or not do. I just want to have the best product. Apple no longer makes the best product, but they should still be admired for having great marketing that enables them to still sell the most phones. Their loyal following would buy phones made out of wooden boxes from them. Apple gets full credit for that.

    Can someone explain how Samsung sold 10 million Galaxy S2’s from May to September without slick marketing or U.S. sales yet? That’s pretty sick….it must be a great smartphone.

  33. Anonymous

    10/04/2011 at 9:54 pm

    I don’t mean to play devils advocate but I think I agree with Lucas. The iphone 4S isn’t a complete rehash, it has a few upgrades and it also has lower price to compete with other phones. Specs wise, a dual core, extra ram, an 8 MP camera all makes sense in making a new device. It seems rather teleological but I think we take tthe phat for granted. 

    Case and point, RIM is probably much worse than apple in rehashing the same product over and over again without making a real difference in their line up of devices. You’d think they’d have upgraded some of the hardware like the CPU, the RAM, the GPU or the battery but they didn’t. Part of me understands that if you increase the performance of the CPU and/or GPU you’re going to increase the battery drain, which defeats the purpose of having a BB which is, ideally, supposed to be on for the majority of the day to take calls and receive emails, hence upgrading components of a phone to increase performance but the trade off is in the battery? It doesn’t seem like a healthy compromise, especially to people in the business world. (not trying to alienate or pick a certain group, i’m only trying to make my explanation and example make sense)

    Nexus Prime will definitely make waves. It’s going to have ICS, a larger display, and 720p resolution. There may be some other notable attributes of the phone and I apologize for omitting them, I’m just a student who stumbled onto this post.

    The point is what Apple did makes sense, and with respect to a business model it makes more sense. That said, an upgraded iphone 4 isn’t bad at all, more processing power, a better camera and some nice software to boot, along with a price-tag that doesn’t make you want to claw your eyes out. If you like Apple, if you use Apple, so be it, it’s your choice and you shouldn’t be ostracized for it.

    I’m an Android user, I love android, it works. I also own an ipod touch 1g and 4g, I love it because it works.
    It’s not about the branding or who owns it, at the end of the day it comes down to what the device does for you. As for the Nexus Prime, I want that phone because I want a vanilla device with some great hardware and peripherals, that’s all.

  34. Xdigits

    10/04/2011 at 10:01 pm

    i close to buying an android phone.  however a few things would have to align:

    * skype video chat support on that phone
    * no funky/skewed looking fonts in both portrait landscape mode
    * native aggregate email support (including yahoo basic)
    * no funky lookings fonts in the browser
    * retina display in minimum 4.0″ display size
    * flat back, no weird bumps, decent quality, maybe the the same duramax stuff used in samsung series 9 laptops???

    i guess it is about the software to some degree that makes it more difficult to switch.  I don’t like the 3.5″ screen anymore though.

  35. enoughalready

    10/04/2011 at 10:08 pm

    It’s interesting to read how many ANDROID users take the iPhone personally in a negative way.  As someone who owns an iPhone, it’s clear to me that the negativity is a reflection of how insecure they are of their ‘android’ device.  So sad!  Look, if you want to customize your phone to your hearts content, get an android phone.  If you want something that is elegantly designed, intuitive, and simply just works (only needs minimal tweaks), get an iPhone.  Simple!

    • Dwilks

      10/05/2011 at 12:09 am

      That elegant design results in a crap load of cracked glass on the front or back, or both. I haven’t seen too many cracked android screens.

      Maybe if apple spent more money on R&D and less in the courts they may have come up with a half decent product… but it is already out of date and it hasn’t even launched yet, it’s going to take a whole lot of marketing hype to sell this puppy.

      • Brian Schweitzer

        10/05/2011 at 6:28 am

        That’s the part that I don’t understand…  Apple has good brand recognition, and can sell anything they decide to half-heartedly put together.  All the “new features” of the iPhone 4S are in existence in one form or another in the Android platform already.  

        Over the air updates – Uhh, been there, done that 4 years ago
        8MP camera – Let me count the phones with that…  already
        The retina display – It was cool when released, but Super AMOLED beats the hell out of it
        Expansion ports – Apple once again is dropping the ball

        Basically – The iPhone COULD be in 90% of cell holder’s hands if they’d be ahead of the technological curve – but because the average “fanboy” buys whatever they put out, they feel they don’t have to.

    • Sam Yunker

      10/05/2011 at 2:02 pm

      Lol…I have an iPhone 4, and I’ve had EVERY iteration since the first iPhone. I can tell you I am SUPREMELY disappointed in Apple…but this has been a long time coming. Since the 3GS, Apple has been playing catch up in some regards – (cut/paste, mail folders, etc) – and it’s only gotten worse since then. The first iPhone was head and shoulders above anything else, but their innovations have been slowing to the point where NOTHING in the device is first rate. The processor is from a 6 month old device already showing age, it doesnt have 4G or NFC, it uses a screen that is generally considered small for todays best phones. Hell, the Nexus Prime is going to have a 720p HD screen! Absolutely amazing!

      Basically Apple is resting on their laurels and relying on iSheep and the ignorant masses to continue to buy their products despite their lack of innovation. Steve Jobs probably left Apple just for this reason – it appears Apples golden age is ending.

      • Mark

        10/06/2011 at 7:20 am

        Sam, he left Apple because he died…

  36. Anonymous

    10/04/2011 at 10:18 pm

    -4.65″ Super AMOLED HD (720p)
    -1.5GHz dual core processor
    -4G LTE
    -Android 4.0

    Man, has to be blind or be a Apple religious to go for iPhone 4S. Never the 4S will be better even the Galaxy S II. iPhone supremacy time is getting over.

    • Anonymous

      10/06/2011 at 10:23 pm

      A dual-core graphics chip as well :)

  37. Edgarp_24

    10/04/2011 at 10:30 pm

    Lmao a year and a half and all they could come up with was making your iphone respond when you talk to it? Wow really Apple really? My Galaxy S 4g has more to offer then then your new iphone and its almost a year old, smh. Thats what happens when you get too confident in your product and sleep on the competition.

  38. Ads

    10/04/2011 at 10:39 pm

    This is the first site I’ve been to where the majority of folks weren’t underwhelmed by 4S hardware.
    I get a kick out of everyone saying what Google and Samsung need to do to market.  Yeah, they could improve, Sammy didn’t sell as many Galaxies as Apple did 4’s, but they had a HUGE success; Google?  uh, Android activations are well past Apple and I’d expect the SGS2 and Prime – just those two products – will approach the underwhelming 4s unless IOS5 cooks your breakfast for you.  My captivate has “learned” my voice pretty well, getting better even in noisy background.  I’ve been able to do incoming txt readouts and txt responses by voice while driving for a year.  Maybe siri is better, but I don’t think this one aspect is enough: apple just didn’t hit this one out of the park like they had been.
    The LAST nexus has NFC; it appears the sgs2 may have it embedded; the prime doesn’t need to do anything the author says to do well.  His tag says he loves both his phones the same, but he is clearly in defense mode for Apple. 
    There was NOTHING like the orig iphone, apple flat raised the bar.  Since then … to now .. they’ve been caught, and are now offering technology that has been out for more than a year – two product lifecycles in smartphone terms.  Are iphones more polished, absolutely.  If they hadn’t have hosed up the radio I’d have gotten my wife one instead of the S1, because they just plain work and function the best, but that was a deal-breaker.  But with … today … less apps, the number of different things one can do with a wide-open Android device is past the function apple offers, be they less polished.  And the gap appears to be widening. 
    Heck I’ve got networking stuff on my phone my employer doesn’t want me to have – internally developed since pulled after they figured out we’d vpn’d in with devices they can’t control like a BB!  Under $50 in paid apps and I can connect to ANYTHING, become a hotspot (again 2 years ago), tether, find (and track) my phone, remotely wipe it – me, not the IT department. 
    IBM almost went under in the early 90’s until they figured out not only that they couldn’t control everything, but that their competitors had outmaneuvered them and were making more money by letting CUSTOMERS decide if they wanted services bundled or included; this has the same feel.  As others have said, it’s all about the itunes control folks.  That’s their bizzillions of $1 at a time annuity they feel they have to control; the hardware, originally innovative, has largely become a means to that end.

  39. squirrelz

    10/04/2011 at 11:16 pm

    “How about we get a pre-launch teaser to get folks excited and try to kill off some of the iPhone buzz?”

    Here you go ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM9RO-GAKjE&feature=player_embedded

  40. guest

    10/04/2011 at 11:51 pm

    I am currently on a Droid 1, and truthfully this phone has made me resent the android platform. I’m sure it’s the old hardware/software, but it’s all about first impressions, and this phone was absolutely terrible after a few months. I’m looking at the iPhone, and it’d take a lot of convincing for me to go back to an Android.

    • Guest

      10/05/2011 at 10:30 am

       I am as well.  When I bought it I thought it was the greatest thing ever.  But now it is 2 years old and it freezes and slows down.  But I attribute that to age.  I have stayed away from Apple products for years because I was spending $300+ annually replacing my Ipods because the battery was dying after only one year and the cost to fix just the battery in comparison with just upgrading to newest model wasn’t worthwhile.  Maybe that was their business model, heh.  Recently I did bite the bullet and bought my wife an IPAD 2.  As a non-apple fan I do admit that they OS is just snappier and snazzier then even my initial good Android impressions.  An unbiased person just cannot deny that.  I was actually waiting to see what the new Apple phone was going to offer and I was going to consider upgrading to it but it didn’t really win me over.  I was hoping for 4g Verizon capability.  I was hoping that they would somehow include the turn by turn navigation which is still one of my favorite android features.  I was hoping it would be a tad bigger, I am not a fan of gigantic phones but even just a little bigger.  The whole cloud thing confuses me.  It makes it seem like to listen to your music you have to have it streamed back to you from the cloud.  What if you are on a plane with zero wifi or phone service?  Do i have to pre-select songs I want cached?  That would be annoying.  I like to manage my files in a working file system, not run everything thru Itunes.  I still feel thew 4s is a solid device and my wife might upgrade to it but there are just too many other good Android phones out there coming out to lock into this phone for 2 years right now.  I think this was a miss by Apple, at least to get me to switch.

  41. brandon holley

    10/05/2011 at 2:29 am

    Sooo this article was just to make sure people don’t forget about the iphone 5 when it drops in the summer of 2012? gotcha bro.

  42. Lloyds

    10/05/2011 at 6:55 am

    I have removed my apple blinkers and discovered there are far superior devices out there.

  43. Sudo Nonimus

    10/05/2011 at 1:23 pm

    Galaxy s2 is already a big hit. Not big as iphone, but 10 million devices and barely coming out on u.s. soil is nothing to be sneered at. I expect the prime to sell well, and more importantly, capture good mindshare.

  44. Anonymous

    10/05/2011 at 1:28 pm

    Hilarious read, considering you thing the Prime is needed for there to be a better phone than the 4S. The current crop of Android phones already overpower and feature the 4S. Maybe you don’t read much, but maybe you do.

    The Prime is something Apple hopes to compete with once the 5 comes out. Maybe, but we’ll have to wait another year to see that, and by then the newer Android phones will have lifted the bar even farther away from Apples reach. Sorry, your article is a failure to grasp the obvious.

    • Jay Turner

      10/06/2011 at 7:37 pm

      No disrespect to all the posters, but I think some of you really miss the point or have never used an Apple product.  Looking at it or tooling-around with it for a few seconds is just not enough.  I’m not going to portray like I know all the ins-and-outs of the Android OS, but I think it’s their OS, UI, user experience, and app selection that really makes it fall short compared to iOS.  I’m  big on specs… I, too, was a little disappointed in the announcement.  I don’t think it is enough of an upgrade to replace my iPhone 4.  Siri-enhanced voice recognition may be nice, but until it makes it to other products I can watch as it will most certainly improve.  My iPhone 4 has worked just fine and will continue to do so.

      I have looked at Android-based phones and tablets.  Motorola… no way!  Droids put everyone on notice, but that robotic voice crap has got to go.  Moto-blur?  Atrix 4G had some serious specs, but what happened?  The Xoom?  My friend’s Photon put the nail in the coffin for me in regards to Motorola.  LG… I’ll pass.  HTC has some good quality, but hardware is a little hit or miss.  Now, Samsung has the hardware!  I’m not so sure about the build quality, though.  The Nexus Prime may be on another level.  Spec-wise, it looks to be a killer kit!

      Now, can the Android-users tell me what’s in store with Ice Cream Sandwich?    

  45. Samsoon

    10/05/2011 at 2:32 pm

    Wow how can the iPhone 4s compete with the upcoming nexus prime? If all the speculations about the phone are true iPhone 4s doesn’t even stand a chance. If you guys haven’t realized iPhone 4s has only now matched their inner components with today’s competitive smartphone market. A dual core and 8mp camera? Come on apple how unoriginal can you be.

  46. Chjones31

    10/05/2011 at 2:57 pm

    All I want to see is ice cream sandwuch to improve voive search and make it like siri an also recreate chrime os to make it an actual os, then I will happily make all my products and etc from.google

  47. Anonymous

    10/05/2011 at 6:46 pm

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  48. Youmama

    10/05/2011 at 7:46 pm

    I want a 5″ screen with 1080p resolution, super thin, super light, i7core with hyperthreading with a full linux os.

  49. Chris Strife

    10/05/2011 at 8:01 pm

    I KNEW the writer of this was an apple fanboy as soon as i read “Not the dual-core processor and not the massively upgraded camera.” dude, open yours eyes just once and look around, thats nothing “massive” compared to android phones. All Apple fanboys get too hyped up over something small like that, you guys embarrass yourselves. Good upgrade to be called an iPhone 4s, NOT enough to be claimed iPhone 5 imo. 

  50. Markl1959

    10/05/2011 at 8:21 pm

    I’ve never seen so much hatred for a phone. The mere mention of someone liking their iphone and everyone starts calling them names and attempting to put them down by calling them iSheep or Fanboys. The truth is there’s all this talk about specs and nothing about user experience and ecosystem integration. There are two different approaches to the technology experience of Android or iPhone. Some folks like to customize everything, root their phones, tout their hardware specs like some NFL home team stats; and there are some people that just want everything to work and don’t want to fuss with it and don’t care about what material it’s made out of just so long as it works. There’s nothing wrong with either way until you stand on either side of the fence and begin calling the other side names. It’s like trying to argue the difference between a Prius and a Corvette. There are reasons to like both but some folks are polarized and cannot admit that the other side has value. At the end of the day it’s a frackin phone, relax and be glad not everyone is running around with the same phone. It would be a boring world if everyone drove a Corvette.

    • Kazuo Moriyama

      10/06/2011 at 11:34 pm

      It’s the underdog phenomena, it has been shown that people tend to mindlessly flock to support and underdog and wanting to “stick it to the man” even to the extend of denial and fabricating stories regardless of merits and facts

  51. Bolivarmjesus

    10/05/2011 at 9:15 pm

    the author looks like an iphone fan, the siri option on the iphone its cool but apple just released a phone that is behind the galaxy S II, the galaxy note and also this one… When apple release a new equipment it was suppose to be something amazing and thats the reason of why the people are so disappointed with the 4S, it doesnt look that great when the hardware is compared…

    • Kazuo Moriyama

      10/06/2011 at 11:31 pm

      how is the iPhone 4S inferior to the Galaxy S2? 

  52. Anonymous

    10/06/2011 at 7:52 am

    you apple fanboys can have the iphone 4 rehash.  It doesn’t matter if it does sell more because of all the fanboys.  I’m going with the best smartphone to ever be created.  Nexus 3.

    • Anonymous

      10/06/2011 at 7:53 am

      galaxy s2 = iphone 4s.  Nexus prime is an upgraded galaxy s2

      • Kazuo Moriyama

        10/06/2011 at 11:29 pm

        in denial aren’t you? Galaxy S2 is not even on the same level as the iPhone 4S if you disagree, please produce proof 

        • Cristopher Maldonado

          10/12/2011 at 8:45 am

          Oh and a few things more, not only does the SGS2 has a much bigger screen using a much better technology which provides 100x better contrast ratio, a faster dual-core processor, a better frontal camera, etc., you seem to be so proud about the high of the new specs on the iphone 4 keeping it’s thin design.

          Let me tell you something, SGS2 thickness 8.5mm, iPhone 4S 9.3mm, let’s also talk about weight, iphone 4s 140g, SGS2 116g, yeah, the SGS2 is thinnier, weighs less and has better specs than the iPhone 4S, now tell me, what does the iPhone 4s has over the SGS2? and no, the camera is not the answer since SGS2 has a 8MP, 1080p video camera too (with better options than the iphone’s by the way).

  53. Chrishawkcarter

    10/06/2011 at 5:52 pm

    I’ve had every iPhone and loved everyone of them. My work phones have been droids. Never had a problem out of my iPhone’s. Droid Incredible just quit working after 6 months. Screen on the Droid X completely froze up and had to return it for a new one. Have the Droid Bionic now and the phone has a seizure when switching from 3G to 4G! I like droids and the 4G is awesome, but I don’t have to have 4G. 3G is fine with me. Between the Nexus and iPhone 4s, I’m interesting to see what the Nexus has to offer. But with A5 chip, 8mp camera and 1080p video. That’s all I wanted out of the iPhone and they delivered. Too me I feel like I’m getting fucked over when they put out another droid each month. I’m like shit this Droid does this and mine doesn’t. So with the iPhone you have nothing to worry about. Your only going to get one a year.

  54. Kazuo Moriyama

    10/06/2011 at 11:26 pm

    wow, it seems to me that people are more concerned with the design of a phone than what lies beneath it’s hood, the iPhone 4S outstrips the competition in camera quality, processor performance, integration of an AI coupled with HSPDA+ and a larger capacity battery all whilst retaining the slim form factor of the iPhone 4 

    Android phones are not worth mentioning but it doesn’t matter since fandroids are known to live in denial.

  55. Reality

    10/07/2011 at 8:29 am

    Pixel count isn’t everything. I would rather have a high quality 5MP camera than a poor 8MP one. Pixels only really matter if you are doing large print outs on A3 paper or something when really you will just look at the pictures on your phones screen. It comes down to the size of your penis – “Mine has got 8MP and yours has only got 5MP”. Don’t let numbers kid you!!

  56. Cristopher Maldonado

    10/12/2011 at 8:30 am

    SGS Screen, 4.3 inches, SuperAmoled, 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio
    Iphone 4S Screen, 3.5 inches, TFT(talk about outdated technology), 10,000:1 contrast ratio(lol)

    SGS Processor: Dual Core 1.2 GHz
    Iphone 4S Processor: Dual Core 1.0 GHz processor

    SGS Supports Flash Player
    iPhone 4S doesn’t support Flash player

    Now you tell me what does the iPhone 4 has that is superior to SGS2? Oh that’s right NOTHING, not the processor, not the voice commands, Apple played to catch up with SGS2 and still it fell short.

  57. Bojan Djordjevic

    10/12/2011 at 7:22 pm

    Apple bought me with iCloud. Even though I am using my full iTunes libary in Google music, my phone constantly redownloads the same music, hogging my device…

    I am disappointed by Samsung and Google. They failed me in the biggest departement of a smart phone, listening to music. Now lets not forget the fiasco of software updates and how crappy TouchWiz is. It basically made me hate my Android phone.

    Countless custom roms after on SGS, I gave up. I want something that simply works, no BS.

  58. Hardik Thakkar

    04/25/2012 at 12:50 am

    Also, less is more. Google, create less icons. Let your interface carry
    the logos of the companies or services that represent the choices of the
    costomer. This will ensure your contemporary graphic appeal and
    streamline the enterface. Service is every thing! Drop market lag and
    play your best hand NOW!

    All my best.

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