Design, connectors, 4G, features: an overview of the new features on the iPhone 5 and the new OS.

What’s new on the iPhone 5?

The iPhone 5 has got smaller. The new design of Apple’s flagship product is thinner and lighter, but with a larger 4” display.

• Size and weight: 123.8 mm high; 58.6 mm wide; 7.6 mm thick; weighs 112 g (iPhone 4S: 115.2×58.6×9.3 mm; 140g) Glass and anodised aluminium casing.
• 4-inch retina display: 16:9 aspect ratio: 1136 x 640 pixel resolution (16:9 format), 326 PPI, as with the iPhone 4S). Scratch-resistant screen.
• A6 chip: more powerful than the A5, say Apple, for faster launching of applications
• Photo sensor: 8 Megapixel camera: smaller but faster, optimised for dim lighting, panoramic mode.
• 3 directional microphones (two on the front and one on the back) for higher quality sound and voice recognition.
• 9-pin Lightning dock connector. This replaces the 30-pin connector and can be plugged in both ways. Requires a new adaptor (around €29). This new feature has been heavily criticised (as it requires buying a new adaptor), but to be fair, it’s the first time in 10 years that Apple has changed its dock connector (whilst Samsung has so far brought out 18 different models!)
• Speakers: totally new design, with better comfort and quality of sound.
• NFC: no NFC module on the iPhone 5
• Storage capacity: 16, 32 or 64 GB
• Price: €679-€899 in France (handset only)

• Official presentation 
• Comparison between iPhone 5 and iPhone 4 and 4S

What’s new on iOS 6?

The new OS will be available this week for 3GS, 4 and 4S and 5 iPhones, iPad 2 and the new iPad. It boasts a number of improvements for Apple e-devices.

• GPS/mapping: the Google system has been eschewed in favour of a more powerful internally-developed solution featuring a digital compass.
• FaceTime can be accessed over 3G and not just Wi-Fi – good news for video phone fans.
• Bookmarks are saved across all your Apple devices.
• Call management and alerts: Apple has included a ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature, allowing users to screen calls, only receive callas at certain times, block all calls except emergency calls (i.e. friends and family), etc.
• E-mails: Create VIP groups with your most important contacts.
• Mobile payments: The Passbook application allows you to virtually store boarding passes, loyalty cards or gift vouchers, like Google Wallet.
• 4G/LTE: The iPhone 5 does not yet support most 4G networks in Europe.

Flying off the shelves

With a number of improvements but no real innovations compared with previous versions, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, the iPhone 5 has proved to be something of a disappointment.

Despite this, pre-ordered handsets sold out within just an hour of going on sale (compared with 22 hours for the iPhone 4S), and waiting lists are as long as three weeks.

Before the new model was even officially confirmed, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicted record sales: 6-10 million iPhone 5 sold between now and the end of 2012 and 26 million iPhones, (all versions) in Q4.

The world’s number 1 market capitalisation, Apple gets half its revenue from iPhone sales. The launch of the iPhone 5 also caused quite a stir on Wall Street, causing the Apple share to soar 1.38% the day after the keynote, bringing it to record levels – something none of the previous versions ever managed to do.