Apple to launch new iPhone
>> Wednesday, June 9, 2010
05:55 AM Jun 08, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO - Apple chief executive Steve Jobs was poised to unveil yesterday (this morning, Singapore time) the fourth version of the company's hugely-popular iPhone - including a screen with up to four times more detail, a camera flash, noise cancellation and longer battery life.
The announcement was expected at the company's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, which has drawn thousands of programmers keen to write programs - apps - for the device.
More than 51 million iPhones have been sold since its launch in June 2007, and a number of developers have made thousands of pounds from selling apps through Apple's App Store.
But for Mr Jobs the unveiling would be something of an anti-climax - many details about the phone leaked out in mid-April after one of his staff lost a prototype in a bar near the company's headquarters. It was sold to gadget blog Gizmodo, where blogger Jason Chen took it apart and posted a video declaring: "You are looking at Apple's next iPhone."
While analysts are therefore expecting few surprises from Apple, they believe improvements to the iPhone will help to keep it at the forefront of mobile phone innovation.
"We'll see the evolution of an established and hugely successful product rather than a revolutionary new device," said Mr Geoff Blaber, an analyst with CCS Insight.
"Apple has to continue improving. It's facing a barrage of competition that didn't exist three years ago when the first iPhone was launched. Google's Android platform is gaining in momentum and popularity, and is an increasingly capable operating system," he said.
The new iPhone OS 4.0 software also features iAd, Apple's new mobile advertising platform. The company has ambitious plans to dominate advertising on the mobile web in much the same way as Google dominates desktop advertising.
Mr Jobs prefers to keep details of upcoming products under wraps to heighten expectations. But with more details known about the new iPhone than any previous model, some of that effect is likely to be diminished.
Yet Apple can revel in having passed Microsoft as the most valuable technology company based on market capitalisation, and having sold two million of its iPad tablet computers worldwide since they went on sale in the US on April 3. Agencies
The announcement was expected at the company's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, which has drawn thousands of programmers keen to write programs - apps - for the device.
More than 51 million iPhones have been sold since its launch in June 2007, and a number of developers have made thousands of pounds from selling apps through Apple's App Store.
But for Mr Jobs the unveiling would be something of an anti-climax - many details about the phone leaked out in mid-April after one of his staff lost a prototype in a bar near the company's headquarters. It was sold to gadget blog Gizmodo, where blogger Jason Chen took it apart and posted a video declaring: "You are looking at Apple's next iPhone."
While analysts are therefore expecting few surprises from Apple, they believe improvements to the iPhone will help to keep it at the forefront of mobile phone innovation.
"We'll see the evolution of an established and hugely successful product rather than a revolutionary new device," said Mr Geoff Blaber, an analyst with CCS Insight.
"Apple has to continue improving. It's facing a barrage of competition that didn't exist three years ago when the first iPhone was launched. Google's Android platform is gaining in momentum and popularity, and is an increasingly capable operating system," he said.
The new iPhone OS 4.0 software also features iAd, Apple's new mobile advertising platform. The company has ambitious plans to dominate advertising on the mobile web in much the same way as Google dominates desktop advertising.
Mr Jobs prefers to keep details of upcoming products under wraps to heighten expectations. But with more details known about the new iPhone than any previous model, some of that effect is likely to be diminished.
Yet Apple can revel in having passed Microsoft as the most valuable technology company based on market capitalisation, and having sold two million of its iPad tablet computers worldwide since they went on sale in the US on April 3. Agencies
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