As the reality and disappointment in the tech community set in that Apple wasn't going to be releasing a new iPhone 5, just a modified iPhone 4, consumers came away from the Apple special event with clearly a different take as evidenced by their actions when they got their first chance to preorder a new iPhone 4S.
The iPhone 4S pre-order period ended with record sales surpassing (by nearly 400,000 units) the record sales set forth during the iPhone 4 preorder period.
"CUPERTINO, California—October 10, 2011—Apple® today announced pre-orders of its iPhone® 4S have topped one million in a single day, surpassing the previous single day pre-order record of 600,000 held by iPhone 4."Why such a disconnect between the media takeaway of the Apple Special event and the consumer who clearly ignored this negative sentiment with an overwhelming eagerness to get their hands on a new iPhone 4S? Really, the answer is quite simple.
Needless to say, Apple has built quite a reputation on creating quality products. Whether you're a fan of them or not, you can't deny that their products connect with an overwhelming number of consumers. If you're a techie, you can gripe that the iPhone is limited in customization options (without jailbreaking), but, in being objective, you have to admit that the iPhone is solid in nearly every aspect from form to function. There's little disagreement that it's the industry standard (even if you're an Android fan).
If you're a consumer, you're not worried about any (or at least most) of these technical nuances. When you take your new iPhone out of the box, it looks great. You turn it on, it looks even better. You immediately go to use it and there's virtually no learning curve in getting started with the basic functions.
If you view the iPhone 4S from this vantage point, let's look at what you get. The iPhone 4S has the same great design that the iPhone 4 had, but it will be faster, loaded with new software features, a better camera and video recording capabilities, and a new voice operated assistant. Of course the consumer's reaction is going to be, "Wow!". Your friend loves their iPhone, there's no way I'm not going to love the new one even more! You get my point.
For the most part, the general consumer is not overly concerned and, in many instances, may not even be aware of all of the small details that come under the hood of the new iPhone 4S. They may not realize that it's essentially twice as fast as the iPhone 4, boasting 7x improved graphics performance. They may not even understand what the new notification system and iMessage software enhancements will mean to them in terms of improved performance and overall usability. They may not even realize that Siri software is the foundation behind the new voice operated assistant. These are mere details that the tech community delves into and is left to sort out while the consumer is going to stick with the general tag lines that Apple and Apple owners market so well.
From the tech side, they were widely anticipating and eagerly waiting for the "oh, there's one more thing" and the "one more thing" was supposed to be the new iPhone 5. When that didn't show, neither did their overwhelming excitement and positive reviews for the new iPhone 4S!