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Gabriel Madway
June 08, 2010
iPhone 4 boasts better picture quality and video chat.
Apple's newest iPhone model will be on sale in Australia by the end of July, as the company strives to stay a step ahead of a growing cast of rivals like Google in the red-hot smartphone market.
Chief Executive Steve Jobs wowed a packed room on Monday with the new US$199 (AU$245) "iPhone 4," which is a quarter slimmer than the current handset, with about double the picture quality; sporting the in-house A4 processor or computing brain; and allowing for video chat.
A slim but energetic Jobs told an investor and industry audience at Apple's annual developers' conference in San Francisco that the latest phone goes on sale June 24 in five countries, expanding to 18 by July and 88 by September in the fastest-ever international roll-out for an iPhone.
click to view full size imageBut many of the technological improvements had been expected, and analysts say it will take a lot to stand out from the crowd. Google's Android operating system -- used by many brands from Motorola and HTC to Samsung Electronics and Dell -- poses the biggest threat, analysts say.
"This is more evolutionary than revolutionary -- it doesn't completely change the paradigm for the iPhone," said Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst. "Expectations get so high for these product launches and announcements that a lot of times, by the time it comes out it's already in the stock. They always have to walk on water in order to impress the market."
The stock has gained more than 20 percent this year, and the company overtook Microsoft to become the world's most valuable technology company.
The phone garnered mostly positive initial reviews.
"But what you're buying from Apple is not just the hardware. It's the whole package, including the apps and the store. That is very impressive," said Gartner analyst Kenneth Dulaney.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/214374,apple-unveils-slimmer-cheaper-iphone.aspx
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