iPhone 5 launch: live coverage of Tim Cook’s speech

Full coverage as the Apple chief unveils its latest iPhone – find out what’s new 5.35pm: Welcome: and is your popcorn popping? It’s iPhone 5 launch time. It seems so long since we were last here. We know some details already: there’s going to be an iPhone 5. Given that at WWDC in June, Steve Jobs described the next version of the software powering the iPhone as “iOS 5″, and since every launch of a new number of iOS has seen a new version of the phone (3G, 3GS, 4 – see Wikipedia ), the idea that there won’t be an “iPhone 5″ just doesn’t hold any water. Then there’s the question of whether the crowd has managed to figure this out ahead of time – if you’re reading this before 6pm UK time, then our crowdsourcing experiment is still open (and if you’re reading it later, it’s closed: tick off the results as they come by). We also know that: • the phones will be in the UK from 14 October : reserve your place outside the stores now; • “iTunes in the Cloud” (so you can get your purchased music on any iOS device, without syncing with a PC or Mac) is coming to Europe , and to the UK first. Why no iTunes Match to sync all your music library? Still being negotiated with record labels, we understand. We suspect that the iPod Classic is for the chop, but that’s not certain. Sales of iPods are tailing off at about 5% annually, and iPod Touches (the app-enabled ones) taking more and more share – now up to 50% of iPod sales. There’s a huge amount at stake today. Apple is presently the world’s largest mobile phone company (by revenue; Samsung is expected to be the biggest in terms of shipments). It’s possible that Samsung will have overtaken it in smartphone shipments in the third quarter (July-September) just ended; it will be interesting to see if Cook announces any iPhone shipment numbers for the quarter, because this should be the “quiet period” ahead of the financials. Possibly he’ll announce “iOS shipments”, which would be iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. Being biggest is no guarantee you’ll continue, though: just look at Nokia, which just one year ago could claim the title. Now it’s plunged into loss and we’re still waiting for its first Windows Phone device. Everyone knows that with Steve Jobs having stepped down as chief executive, Cook needs to keep the executive team and the staff weaving the magic that has made Apple the biggest company by value in the world. That’s no small order. Everyone will be looking for the slightest flaw. And now, on with the show… iPhone Apple Smartphones Charles Arthur Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 4, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.