Apple fills iPhone gaps
2009-03-18 08:04
Cupertino - Apple Inc has
unveiled an iPhone software upgrade with new features ranging
from copy-and-paste and message notifications to picture
messaging, as the company pursued further growth in a hotly
contested cellphone market.
While Apple's touchscreen interface had inspired many
imitators, some users had complained it lacked functions common
in other smartphones such as multimedia messaging and the
ability to copy and paste text.
Such features already exist on rival devices like the
BlackBerry from Research In Motion and Treo from Palm Inc. The
iPhone is central to Apple's plans, as growth in its Mac
computer and iPod music player businesses slows.
On Tuesday, Apple - led by iPhone software senior vice
president Scott Forstall with Chief Executive Steve Jobs out on
medical leave - lifted the veil on many wished-for functions
and features.
The company said an early version of the software would be
available to developers later on Tuesday, with consumer availability this
summer.
Its 3.0 operating system for the iPhone would support
automatic alerts of items such as sports results or the arrival
of an instant message. The alerts would show up automatically
even if the user is in another application.
Analysts said that while most the of updates were long
expected, improvements to the developers kit could help
increase revenue made from applications.
Keeping up with the Joneses
Apple promised multimedia messaging capability with the new
system, allowing users to send each other photographs from the
phone. And it announced a peer-to-peer capability that allows
users near each other to interact with their iPhones for
features such as gaming.
On top of that, the company unveiled a widely anticipated
universal search feature called "spotlight", which can search
key applications on the phone such as e-mail and iPod.
Apple, which sells iPhones in 80 countries, said consumers
had already downloaded 800 million iPhone applications from its
store, which offers 25 000 applications so far. In January,
Apple had said that more than 500 million applications had been
downloaded and that more than 15 000 were available.
It said it will expand its App Store to 77 countries from
62.
Apple did not comment when asked about plans to release a
netbook computer or a new iPhone model. Many analysts expect to
see a new iPhone this summer, while some speculate Apple will
also introduce a stripped-down version for as little as $99.
Apple's second-generation, 3G iPhone was an immediate hit
when it was released last July. The company sold a total of
13.7 million iPhones in 2008, topping its 10 million target.
The iPhone App Store has become something of a consumer
phenomenon, helping boost interest in the device, since it was
launched last summer. The store features a wide array of
applications, some for free and some for a fee.
"What they did with this blew us away," Forstall told the
audience, referring to the applications developers.
Apple shares were up 4.4% to $99.66 in late
afternoon trading on Tuesday, extending strong gains in the
morning ahead of the news and outperforming slightly the
Nasdaq's 4.1% rally as large technology firms gained on
positive broker reports.