iPhone 4G on the horizon

Today Apple gave us a sneak preview of the iphone OS 4. Normally i don’t blog about Apple events, but this one is different… because i’m in the market for a new phone. Although i don’t necessarily like the iphone (or apple), it’s not about the hardware anymore… it’s about the apps…

I’ve been doing a lot of research on iphone -v- other smart phones. Right now, it’s really just iphone OS -v- Google’s Android. Windows are late in to the game. Probably too late & inexperienced to do anything.

The iphone 4G is rumoured to be announced on June 27th. HD video, double the screen resolution of the 3GS, front facing camera… All rumored to be included in the new 4G.

Right now, i could get an iphone 3GS. €200 up front and €40/month on an 18 month contract. Pretty much unlimited calls, texts and data transfer. However, if i bought now, i’d be locked in to an 18th month contract which is a hell of a long time in the mobile world.

As with any tech device, i always try to buy the best if i can afford it. That means looking over the horizon and seeing what’s coming. The 4G is coming so it would be a mistake to get a 3GS now when it will be old news in 2-3 months.

Are there any other alternatives to an iphone? In my mind, no. Whilst the new iphone 4G won’t win against competitors on hardware, it doesn’t have to. It just has to stay in the game in terms of hardware… the apps and hype around the bubble that is the iphone will ensure it continues to grow in popularity.

Why do i want a new phone?

My n95 is now 3 years old… things have moved on. My alarm also failed to go off one morning recently (i’d switched my phone off the night before). When i switched it on, the alarm came on straight away. A reset would probably fix it, but then it’s pretty dusty on the inside.. the numbers are worn on the keypad / cover which has already been replaced twice… for those reasons the reasons below, it’s time for change.

photo credit: Andrew Currie

Ironically, the n95’s hardware is still superior to the iphone today. Better camera, dedicated GPS chip etc… however, there’s no doubt Apple is king when it comes to applications. And technically it’s not apple that’s king… it’s the army of developers they have under their belt / spell that are king.

Back in 2007, i knew the iphone was coming out that summer but wrote it off because of it’s touchscreen. I knew it would be popular but I didn’t see it becoming anything more than an ipod – a simple, classy, easy to use a music player. I certainly didn’t see the app store success coming… which is the single biggest reason (imo) the iphone craze has kept on booming. So that’s why i bought the n95 – it was a straightforward decision – the n95 crushed the original iphone on paper, on hardware.

At the minute, i can get online with my n95, but it’s slow, painful to use and too much hassle to keep up to date. The symbian OS is also pretty clumsy compared to the iphone OS, then again most are. I’m also watching (in envy) quality apps being rolled out for the iphone, one after the other. It’s as if that’s where all the development is at these days.

The future

The days of a phone being a phone are well and truely over and the phone is now a proper stream to the internet. Not thanks mobile browsers, thanks to apple’s apps and developers. I don’t see any let up in sight either.

photo credit: malcom.mac

Today, there’s the 3GS and then there’s the competitors. The next iphone coming this summer, the 4G will just cement the iphone as no.1 phone in the mobile space. In fact we’ve already seen that today with apple’s new OS 4. They’ve introduced multitasking (which is long over due and essential imo). They’ve also introduced a new iads platform which for me shows they really know what they’re doing. They’re revolutionizing mobile ads as we know them, or attempting to. They’re doing to mobile ads what google did to online ads with adsense.

That gets developers on side, it gets them thinking, creating… the same way people would build websites purely for adsense revenue. Where there’s money to made, there’ll be people trying to make it and with the iAd platform, Apple are on to a winner imo.

Right now they can do no wrong, even when they release crap like the ipad which we all know is only a shell of what it could have been. It’s not a netbook killer and won’t be for some time, but people buy it anyway because it’s different and hyped up to the extent that people don’t actually understand what it is they’re buying or of what use it will be to them – they just want it because everyone else wants it and it’s made by Apple. Crazy.