Apple yesterday announced it has sold more than 4 million new iPhone 4S models, just three days after its launch on October 14 in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The newest version of Apple’s smartphone will be available in 22 more countries on October 28 and more than 70 countries by the end of the year.
“iPhone 4S is off to a great start,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, in a statement. “iPhone 4S is a hit with customers around the world, and together with iOS 5 and iCloud, is the best iPhone ever.”
We’d like to think that the speech capabilities built into the phone are a big part of the device’s success. Siri, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking, is turning out to be a big hit with consumers, who have made the iPhone 4S one of the most successful product launches ever. The more than 4 million sales more than doubled the 1.7 million iPhones sold by Apple last year during the introduction of the previous model.
With those numbers, Apple leads the smartphone market, staving off competition from rivals like Samsung and HTC. Maybe, just maybe, those and other competitors should look to do something more with voice recognition software. There’s plenty to go around.
