Khaleej Times article- What makes the iPhone4 special?

Did you guys catch my article in the "Tech Talk" yesterday? Friends of mine wrote in to tell me it had been published, otherwise I'd have had no clue!
I'd written this one the day after the phone had been announced, so if it seems a bit dated, it's KT's fault and not mine. Here is the article-

On the 7^th of June, Apple launched their fourth generation of the iPhone, the iPhone 4, and proudly proclaimed on their website, “This changes everything. Again.” I couldn’t agree more. I haven’t been this excited about an Apple product since the launch of the original iPhone. Even the iPad frenzy didn’t quite get me as excited as this device, and considering I, along with the rest of the world, thought I had already seen the new device and knew whatever I needed to about it, it’s quite something. It’s like Steve Jobs proclaimed tongue in cheek during his keynote address at the launch, “stop me if you’ve already seen this,” referring to the lost iPhone debacle going on, before quickly adding, “Believe me, you ain’t seen it.” Touché Steve!  

If you’re not an Apple fanboy (or as in my case, fangirl) you’re probably wondering what the fuss is about, and your feelings would well be justified. There is nothing revolutionary about the iPhone 4 that other products out there don’t already do. “Face Time” which is what the iPhone calls video conferencing, has been around on 3G phones for years! Pick up an old iMate device from a couple of years back when iMate still existed and still made phones people wanted to use, and you’ll see staring back at you a front facing camera to do just that- video chat. While Jobs is showing of the phone’s 5 megapixel camera and HD recording, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz has been touting an 8 megapixel camera along with HD video recording for months already. Same with Apple’s claim of it being able to multitask- Android and Palm users have been multitasking for months. Gorgeous screen? One look at the HTC HD2 will have you tossing your iPhone 3GS in the bin. So really, what gives?

When Apple talks, the world listens- It really is as simple as that. Micro Sim cards were unheard of till Jobs announced that the iPad 3G would be using the tinier avatar of the Sim. Suddenly, all network operators worldwide, including Etisalat in the UAE where the iPad has not even been officially launched yet, has the Micro Sim option ready and available for users. When the iPad was launched, a lot of people complained and said it was an extra device which they had no use for, and essentially called it a large iPhone. Apple has since sold 2 Million iPads, and my 63 year old mother quickly nicked mine when I upgraded my WiFi only to a 3G version, and watches her Indian TV shows on it nightly. Having a camera built in to a phone is old, old news. Yet, the iPhone has literally hundreds of applications that allow you change the look of your photographs- change it to make it look like it’s taken from an old camera, convert them into comic strips, make you look fatter/thinner/older/younger or insert your face into various cut out pictures on it. I’ve heard of art galleries display “iPhone art” and one even made it on the cover of the New Yorker. Hermes, Chanel and Louis Vuitton all have special iPhone cases, with Chanel, style.com, Net-a-porter and The Sartorialist all having dedicated fashion-apps for the device. Listening yet?

With the iPhone 4, I see video chat going from “nice-to-have” to de rigueur. While my best friend halfway around the world has Skype and a webcam on her computer, despite many promises and zero attempts to webchat or Skype, we still rely on Etisalat and AT&T to connect us. With no hassles of now having to schedule our communication, we can now (presuming she gets an iPhone 4) chat face to face over WiFi, while paying zilch to our respective network operators. How Etisalat, who has blocked the Skype website in the UAE, is going to react to that news needs to be seen. I see the iPhone slowly replacing clunky boardroom video conferencing devices, and I see it being used by very many suspicious spouses to catch their philandering partners. To keep in line with iPhone art, I see iPhone movies taking over YouTube, especially with Apple’s proprietary video editing software, iMovie, available for the new device.  I expect gaming companies out there to take advantage of the better screen resolution and come out with even more outstanding games with better resolution for the device. And with better battery life than before, I see gamers increasingly give up their handheld gaming devices and opt for an all-in-one product instead. After all, while you can play the best of games on your PSP or DS Lite, can you really harvest your craps in Facebook’s Farmville on them? On the iPhone 4, you can.

I’ve always maintained that the Killer App of the iPhone really is the App Store, and a device these days is only as good as the number of Apps developers out there are willing to make for it. I believe Steve Jobs when he says this 4^th generation device is their biggest jump since their first iPhone, and I believe it will change the shape of mobile telephony forever. When that happens, please remember you read it here first.  

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