Apple Keynote: Apple iOS 5 Coming 12 October

With the replacement (or replacements?) for the iPhone 4—launched no less than fifteen months ago—due to be presented tonight, we've been following the Apple press conference closely to find out what's new.

This will be the first time that current Apple CEO, Tim Cook, takes to the stage at an Apple keynote, with tonight's presentation due to be held at Apple HQ in Cupertino, California.

Once on stage, the shirt-clad Tim Cook declared 'I love Apple' opening a presentation that will no doubt be as good humoured as those of his predecessor.

As usual, the conference kicked off with a whole load of facts and figures to remind us just how successful Apple is right now.

First of all, Tim Cook reminded us that Apple has successfully opened a store in Shanghai, China—the market everyone's desperate to conquer. Cook then moved on to Mac OS X Lion and that fact that it has apparently attracted more users that Microsoft's Windows 7.

The iPod At Ten

Long live the iPod! Tim Cook went on to declare that 45 million iPods were sold between July 2010 and June 2011. Plus, 20 million tracks are now available in iTunes—that's 20 times more than when the service was first launched. And, with 16 billion tracks downloaded to date, iTunes is still the market leader.

Tim Cook then showed the audience a table of customer satisfaction ratings, with the iPhone leading the way for mobile phones with a user satisfaction rate of 70%. Next came HTC with 49%, Motorola with 38% and LG with 34%. Samsung, a firm that's probably the closest thing Apple has to a rival, scored just 26%. That said, the iPhone has a market share of 'just' 5%.

Next up, it's the iCloud Apple's 'free' online data storage service—more on that coming soon on DigitalVersus.

iPad: 95% Satisfied Customers

Long live the iPad! As things currently stand, Apple has a 74% share in the touchscreen tablet market. Tim Cook insists that the touchscreen tablet is a product that's cropping up everywhere (80% of hospitals in the US are apparently trying out the iPad) and that 95% of iPad buyers are entirely satisfied with their product.

Long live iOS! Apparently, Apple has shifted 250 million devices running iOS to date. Apple's operating system now accounts for 43% of all mobile OS currently installed, ahead of Android (33%) and RIM (17%).

iOS 5 Coming 12 October

Tim Cook then presented iOS 5, the updated mobile operating system that has already been partially revealed, and reminded us that 18 billion applications have been downloaded so far.

Notifications will finally be making an appearance in Apple devices—about time too! Similarly, Apple has followed in the footsteps of BlackBerry and Samsung by offering anyone who owns a device running iOS (3G and Wi-Fi) an internal instant messaging service, called iMessage.

Apple has also promised improved integration of Twitter into its mobile OS.

Next, iCamera will be on hand to make taking pictures much easier, apparently. In fact, you can now go straight to the camera mode by pressing the Home button twice, even when the screen is locked. The volume controls are then used to take a picture.

Tim Cook then announced that you'll no longer have to use a computer to activate an iOS smartphone and that updates will be available over the air.




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