SAN FRANCISCO: Apple Inc’s iPhone is outdistancing the pack of phones that use Google’s rival software, thanks to video-calling features, a sharper screen and its array of 225,000 applications, analysts said.
The iPhone 4, unveiled on Monday by chief executive officer Steve Jobs, is thinner, has better resolution and adds a front- facing camera. It also sports a new type of glass and a stainless-steel band that Apple says is designed to improve network reception.
Apple is counting on the product to fend off mounting competition from Android, a smartphone operating system developed by Google Inc. The iPhone is evolving fast enough to keep competitors at bay, even if the new version lacks any major surprises, said William Kreher, an analyst at Edward Jones in St. Louis.
“They remain the technology innovation leader,” Kreher said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “While nothing was really revolutionary in terms of the new features , I think that Apple took a nice step forward.”
Jobs, who unveiled the phone at the company’s developer conference in San Francisco, downplayed the threat from Android. The iPhone was the No 2 smartphone in the US in the first quarter, with a 28% share, he said, citing Nielsen data. Research In Motion ranked first, with a 35% share, while Android-based devices accounted for 9%.
GIZMODO LEAK
Though many of the iPhone 4’s enhancements were expected, a prototype of the iPhone was dissected and photographed by technology blog Gizmodo.com in April, the upgrade provides Apple with some exclusive capabilities, said Shaw Wu, an analyst with Kaufman Bros. LP in San Francisco. “The new features and software further differentiate the iPhone from competitors,” he said. Wu recommends buying the shares, which he doesn’t own.
Even so, the new abilities come with caveats. The videocalling program, called FaceTime, will be limited to Wi-Fi networks for now. That means customers won’t be able to make video calls using AT&T Inc, the exclusive US wireless carrier for the iPhone.
And while the phone can tap fourth-generation networks, that technology won’t be ready from AT&T until the middle of next year. In a reminder that Apple’s new features are dependent on the reliability of wireless networks, Jobs struggled to get some new tools to work during his presentation .
WI-FI DISRUPTION
The trouble stemmed from a bad Wi-Fi connection, rather than AT&T’s service. Jobs asked attendees to shut off the wireless connections on their computers and mobile hot spots because of interference, saying, “I’d like you to look around and police each other.”
When Apple’s first iPhone appeared in 2007, its touch- screen design and app-based interface shook up the market. Research In Motion and other mobile-phone makers clambered to add similar features to their devices. Since then, the industry’s rapid-fire advancements have made it harder for an upstart to catch up quickly, said Charles Golvin, an analyst at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Forrester Research Inc.
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