New iPhone heralds war with Google
APPLE boss Steve Jobs last night unveiled his “new baby” – the iPhone 4.
Jobs said the phone is a complete overhaul of the firm’s hugely successful 3GS phone, claiming it is “beyond a doubt one of the most beautiful things we’ve ever made”.
It is made of glass and steel, with an HD screen boasting four times the resolution of its predecessor and a front facing camera for video conferencing. It boasts a staggering 300 hours of stand-by battery life, with 40 hours of music play, or seven hours of talk time between charges.
It will be released in the UK on 24 June and is expected to cost £199 for the 16GB model and £299 for the 32GB.
During a combative presentation in San Fransisco Jobs declared war on both Amazon and Google.
Apple’s iBooks, an ebook platform launched two months ago to coincide with the iPad, will be made available on the iPhone in a clear attempt to strangle Amazon’s Kindle reader. Jobs’ attempt to take a slice of the lucrative ebook market appears to have worked, with his firm now said to control 22 per cent of the market after just eight weeks.
He also revealed more details about iAds, a platform which allows application developers – and Apple itself – to make money from advertising contained within “apps”. He claimed this will help Apple to control 48 per cent of the mobile advertising market by the end of 2010 – a clear swipe at Google’s dominance.
The announcement came just weeks after Apple overtook Microsoft as the biggest tech firm in the world by market cap.
But the market yesterday responded with a two per cent dip in the firm’s shares amid worries that its stock could be overcooked.
Jobs was also forced to defend his firm’s lead in the tablet and smartphone markets, with rivals including Google finally beginning to gain ground.