Today marks the 15th anniversary of the iPhone 4S launch, introducing Siri as a built-in feature of the iPhone for the first time.
The iPhone 4S went on sale on October 14, 2011, ten days after its announcement. It initially launched in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom, retaining the iPhone 4's glass and stainless steel design while introducing substantial internal improvements.
The device's defining addition was Siri, which allowed users to make calls, send messages, create reminders, schedule appointments, and ask questions using natural language. Apple highlighted the assistant's ability to interpret requests in context, such as understanding that a question about needing an umbrella was a request for the weather forecast.
Siri initially launched in beta, supporting English localized for the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, alongside French and German. The assistant was exclusive to the iPhone 4S, so owners of older iPhones could not access it simply by installing iOS 5.
Siri had already existed as a standalone iPhone app, which launched in February 2010. Apple acquired the company in April that year before integrating its technology into iOS directly. Following the iPhone 4S announcement, Apple removed the original app from the App Store and notified existing users that its service would stop working on October 15.
Beyond Siri, the iPhone 4S introduced Apple's dual-core A5 chip, which it said delivered up to twice the CPU performance and seven times the graphics performance of the iPhone 4. Its rear camera increased from five to eight megapixels, with an f/2.4 aperture and support for 1080p video recording. A revised antenna system could switch between antennas for transmitting and receiving, while maximum supported HSDPA download speeds doubled to 14.4 Mbps.
The iPhone 4S shipped with iOS 5, which had become available two days earlier alongside iCloud. The software update introduced iMessage, Notification Center, and Reminders, as well as wireless software updates and on-device setup.
Available in black and white, the iPhone 4S came in 16GB, 32GB, and a new 64GB configuration. U.S. prices started at $199, $299, and $399, respectively, with a qualifying two-year carrier contract. Apple subsequently announced that it had sold more than four million units during its first three days of availability, more than double the iPhone 4's opening sales over the same period.
