iPhone 4 – What’s In It For Me?

The dust has settled over Steve Jobs’ keynote and everybody knows now how an iPhone 4 will look and what will be capable of doing. I closely watched the keynote on various liveblogging hubs and so I know for myself pretty much everything I need to know about it.

A4 Apple Processor

The first and the most important thing that pleased me was something not so visible. It’s the Apple A4 processor. This is the heart of the device. Apple already did a huge step forward when introducing their own proprietary chip in iPad, but now they’re putting it into the iPhone as well. This has a huge impact on every aspect of the device: life battery, graphical display, advanced mathematical functions which can all be now pushed into the hardware as Apples sees fit. This major step will help Apple build new iterations of the product faster than before and it will also give them a much higher degree of freedom when it comes to adding new features.

FaceTime

It’s not that complicated and it was already there. On NTT DoCoMo network in Japan video calling was a reality for years. What’s new now is that Apple brings it into their own ecosystem of more than 100 millions devices already sold. Of course, FaceTime is available only on iPhone4, but all those 100 millions devices are in fact the hot market for this feature. I like this because, despite its relatively simple technological challenge, it brings a fantastic sensitive layer, making the usage of the iPhone 4 a full experience, rather than just “usage”.

iAd

Again, not that big at the first glance, but with tremendous impact on the medium and long term. Apple tries to build with their iPhone 4 – iAd pair the future AdSense. Mobile information will be (and, to some extent, already is) the most important way of communication between people. The strategic advantage of Google when it comes to controlling the web (via their indexing and retrieving algorithms) will pale if and when the iPhone universe will be big enough. Of course, there is also something scary in this image. Anyway, iAd is a big step ahead, and not only from an iPhone developer perspective.

Retina Display

I guess this would be one of those tiny differences impossible to describe, but so powerful, that they will trigger the buying impulse for anyone who sees it. Retina Display, as advanced as it may be from a technological point of view, seems to be the most important marketing feature of the iPhone 4.

iOS 4

As an operating system release, this looks interesting. The most important point seems to be multitasking, although I was pretty much ok without it so far. Another interesting additions are: tap to focus (while shooting a movie, tap the screen to set the focus), folders (for organizing apps), an integrated Inbox (this should have been there already, IMHO) and iBooks (a strategic move in the Kindle battle).

5 Megapixels Camera

That should also bring in quite a few non-Apple fans, and should act as a converting tool. People – like real, simple people, not brain-washed, stubborn and impossible Apple fanboys like me – love to take nice pictures. Give them a good camera and you can sell them a device packed with so many functions that they don’t even know they’ll need.

All in all, iPhone 4 is an important step forward. I wouldn’t buy the marketing tagline: “this changes everything, again” because it won’t. iPhone 4 comes on a waiting trend. There were already pictures on the internet of a stolen device, so people knew what to expect. The surprise factor was almost zero. And still, the product is good enough to generate buzz and a lot of interest from Apple developers.

The question is: would I buy an iPhone 4? The answer is not “Yes!”, the answer is “When?”.