Apple will start taking orders for the phone Friday and begin shipments Sept. 21 in the U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Australia and Japan, and said it would be available in 100 countries by the end of the year. Pricing for U.S. customers will start at $199.
Loyal Customers, but has Lost Market Share
Apple has fierce customer loyalty and has been rapidly gaining users, but has lost market share to the faster-growing segment of smartphones powered by Google's Android operating system.
Smartphones powered by Android software continued to dominate with 52.2% of the U.S. market in the past months, but Apple's iOS was the second most popular smartphone platform with 33.4%, comScore reported.
Samsung mobile phones remained the most popular in the United States with 25.6% of the market, but third-place Apple gained ground to claim 16.3 percent as of the end of July, according to comScore.
Apple is engaged in litigation with Samsung over patent infringement and is seeking to ban U.S. sales of some Samsung devices after a major court victory in California last month.
Nicholas Carlson of the website Business Insider said the new iPhone launch represents "the most pivotal moment" for the sector.
"Companies that are, collectively, worth a trillion dollars -- Samsung, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and more -- have bet billions of dollars building competitors to the iPhone," he said.
"Today, they find out if Apple has once again leapt way ahead of them, or if finally, the battleground is growing even."
Apple shares, which hit record highs this week and extended the company's position as the world's most valuable firm, edged up 0.7% to $665.36 on the news.
Apple is widely expected to launch a smaller version of its market-leading iPad tablet computer later this year.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012
