In Apple is expected to pack lot of slick new features in its new iPhone 5, which is due to be unveiled at an event today. The device may be a showcase for improved voice controls, bringing phones closer to the realm of "Star Trek"- style speech recognition. Some technology websites are reporting that the device will have voice commands to let users make appointments in their calendars, send text messages or e-mails, and surf the Web.
The existing models of iPhone already have basic voice-control abilities for placing a call or accessing a song. With new features in place, voice control could become the most popular way of interacting with ones mobile phone. Voice commands won't be the only features added to the new iPhone. Analysts widely expect the new iPhone to include a faster microprocessor for running applications at a greater speed, along with a more powerful camera.
It is also being speculated that Apple might introduce more than one iPhone model. There could be a model that has fewer features and could be aimed at lower end of the market. A cheaper iPhone could help Apple win back many of the low-end users who are currently flocking to Android.
Despite its smaller share of the market, Apple earns outsize profits. Thanks to its comparatively healthy profit margins, Apple had about half of the operating profits in the mobile handset business in the first quarter of the year, even though its sales accounted for only 4.9 percent of the phones sold, according to a recent report by the analyst Michael Walkley of Canaccord Genuity.
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