iPhone SIM Failing, Kindle Phone Coming?

The iPhone 4S may be selling quite well this year. But it has not been a flawless device. For starters, many of us have been complaining about battery issues on the device. Apple was supposed to fix that with a software patch. Unfortunately, the iOS 5.0.1 update has not done so. Now customers are claiming that their SIM cards are failing on the new iPhone. The problem does not seem to be carrier specific at this point.

The problem seems to be all over the place. The Apple forums are filled with people complaining about the issue. Some have experienced it since buying their phone. Others such as hussain5777 have started noticing it after installing the latest iOS update:

I have exactly the same problems after upgrading my Factory Unlocked 4S from i OS 5.0 to 5.0.1. The Signal strength is faulty, the wifi has issue, the sim gives an invalid sim error and the messages hardly go. The Sim is working fine on other iphones and the the iphone had no issues with iOS 5.0

Restarting iPhone 4S and letting it cool down a bit are two ways to fix this issue. With iOS 5.0.2 coming soon, Apple might manage to address iPhonr 4S’ battery and SIM cards in one shot.

Apple has had quite a successful couple of months with the iPhone 4S. But it will face more challenges to its market leadership in 2012. Amazon has already challenged Apple iPad with the Kindle Fire. According to Citigroup, the company may bring a phone to the market to challenge the iPhone:

Based on our supply chain channel checks in Asia led by Kevin Chang, Citi’s Taipei-based hardware research analyst, we believe an Amazon Smartphone will be launched in 4Q12.

All experts agree that the Kindle Fire is not an iPad killer by any means. It will be interesting to see whether Amazon adopts a similar price-leading strategy with its upcoming phone.

Your take: can Amazon challenge Apple in the smartphone business?