'''New i-Phone Bows But Fails To Wow'''

Apple Inc.'s Tim Cook stepped into the spotlight for the first time as chief executive to unveil a new iPhone that was more fizzle than pop.

At a keynote address at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, the new CEO introduced the fifth-generation of the company's smartphone, dubbed the 4S, which features a faster processor and a better camera, as well as voice-command services.

But despite upgrades to its internal components and some new software capabilities, the iPhone 4S looks like its predecessor physically and doesn't make a big leap in its overall capabilities. Many of its features are also already available on competitors' phones. That left some analysts, investors and customers wanting more.

'Underwhelming is the word that hit me,' said Endpoint Technologies Associates analyst Roger Kay. Many of the new software features, such as syncing media among devices over the Internet, are 'really interesting,' he said, 'but when it comes to packaging that for excitement, it is really hard to show people why that is so cool.'

The letdown was echoed in the early performance of Apple's shares, which fell as much as 5% Tuesday and finished down 0.6% at $372.50 at 4 p.m. trading even as the broader market rose.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said there will inevitably be long lines for the new iPhone, which will arrive at stores in the U.S., Japan and several other countries on Oct. 14. 'But those lines could have been longer if they would've just gone to a four-inch screen,' instead of keeping it at 3 1/2 inches, he said.

Mr. Munster estimates Apple sold 22 million iPhones in the quarter that ended in September and will sell 25 million in the next quarter.

The iPhone 4S is Apple's first overhaul of its popular smartphone in nearly 16 months and comes at a vastly different time for the company and the market. Apple now faces a considerable rival in the form of phones running Google Inc.'s Android software, which is also touch operated and offers users access to thousands of apps.

The new iPhone, which comes in black or white, will have an Apple A5 processor, the same chip found in the company's iPad 2 tablet. The new chip can download data twice as fast and can handle graphics seven times faster, making it better for videogames, Apple said. Users can also go directly to the camera even when the phone is locked and take a photo within 1.1 seconds. The phone's battery offers eight hours of 3G talk time, nine hours of Wi-Fi browsing and 10 hours of video.

But with Tuesday's announcement, Apple also sought to focus attention on its software. The new phone will run Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 5, which features new messaging and data-synchronization tools and is part of a wider ecosystem of software and services designed to work together, so that, for example, photos taken on the iPhone show up automatically on a user's iPad.

Some Apple followers -- and more than a few avid customers -- had expected Apple's fifth-generation phone to be called the iPhone 5. But Apple chose to follow the strategy it used in upgrading its iPhone 3G. That phone was called the 3GS and included improvements to software and services but retained the same basic form.