Top 10 reasons for and against the iPhone 4

In case you haven't heard yet, Apple had a little do last week, and the star of the show was a new iPhone.

Apple products tend to be very polarising: either you think they're revolutionary devices that reshape the industry, or you think they're overpriced, underpowered status symbols for those who have more money than brains.

Earlier this week Apple furthered that debate with the introduction of the iPhone 4. While the new handset sports a number of impressive features, there's still plenty for the cynics to dwell on. So this week we decided to go over what we think are the five best and worst features of iPhone 4.

The two most vocal sets of V3.co.uk commentators by far are Apple fans and their detractors. As we will be giving both plenty to froth over this week, we're hoping to hear plenty of input and response. Feel free to share your thoughts on what we caught, missed and just got flat out wrong.

Finally, as a side note, we took some stick from readers after doing a Top 10 that put five points on either side. We're doing it again today, just as we have with other features, because some topics don't work well with a pure Top 10 format.

To those who say that obviates the format and five plus five doesn't equal 10, I'd suggest worrying about other issues. Devotees of Lynne Truss's excellent book Eats, shoots and leaves would recognise what that's about.

FOR:

Honourable mention: FaceTime
Shaun Nichols: FaceTime chat is one of those things that could start out as a minor feature that Apple builds up into a pillar of the iOS platform.

As it is, the software is pretty cool. Users with a Wi-Fi connection can hold video chats on the iPhone by way of the new front-mounted camera. Business travellers and those with family abroad should particularly like it.

Obviously FaceTime will get a big boost once Apple can convince the telcos to support it. But if Jobs and company are planning to expand the software to its other products, and you have to think they are, FaceTime could become something of a killer app.

The MacBook, iMac and Studio Display products all have built-in cameras, and teardowns of the iPad suggest that Apple is leaving a spot open on the front of the tablet for a camera in the future. Imagine being able to have videoconferencing with any Mac, iPhone or iPad user. FaceTime has a ton of potential.

Iain Thomson: FaceTime was introduced as 'one last thing' but I suspect it will be a killer app for the new iPhone.

Videoconferencing has been ambling down the side-roads of technology for many years now. Back in 1993 I wrote articles about the technology and every year we get press releases telling us that this is the year it will take off. We're still waiting. But if FaceTime lives up to its promise it could be a revolution in the field.

The one thing that bothers me about all this is Apple's commitment to open standards. Jobs said the standard should be open, but I suspect there's many a slip between cup and lip. IPhone 4 users will love it as well, but I suspect several thousand members of public transport will rue the day the application became available.

It's also going to be very interesting to see how the mobile providers price this service. At the moment it's Wi-Fi only, but the data load it requires will, I suspect, price it out of the reach of most of us.

5. Developer community
Iain Thomson: Honestly, I would have put this higher but Shaun wanted to make his case. The size and strength of the Apple developer community is what gives the iPhone long-term strength.

No other phone environment can offer so many applications across such a wide range of areas. True, the vast bulk are freebies and games, but these are used by everyone and provide useful information and fun.

But Apple's biggest opportunity lies in the business developer community. We're already seeing the very biggest corporate networks supporting the iPhone, primarily because it's the handset of choice for the bosses.

As the developer community starts to add more and more business tools, RIM is going to face increasing pressure from Apple.

Shaun Nichols: The reason I didn't want this higher on the list is because Apple has made the developer community and its range of applications smaller than it could be, but we'll address that later on.

The iPhone platform offers developers a wide range of cool interfaces and devices to work with, and they have responded in kind by churning out some very cool products. From addictive games and goofy apps to productivity tools and nifty utilities, the third-party applications make the iPhone what it is.

There's also the convenience that the App Store offers. You don't need to root all over the web or deal with download sites to find the software you want. If it's available for the iPhone, it's in the App Store.

4. Multi-tasking
Shaun Nichols: This feature isn't unique to the iPhone 4 (3GS and late-model iPod Touch users will be able to multi-task as well) but, given the processor and battery upgrades of the iPhone 4, it will be best used on the new handset.

One of the big gripes of current iPhone users, and one of the big selling points for Android handsets, is the ability to run multiple applications at once.

Currently you can only do one thing at a time with the iPhone, and accessing a second application means quitting whatever it is you're working on right now. For example, you can't listen to a music streaming service like Pandora and read the news or check your email at the same time.

With the next version of the iPhone OS (which will turn into the iOS) users will be able to run multiple applications simultaneously. Developers and users alike should be very happy that Apple has finally enabled this on its handsets.

Iain Thomson: It's a little rich for Apple to claim multi-tasking as a design win when it dissed it for so long. To the company's credit it didn't laud it over the competition too much when it introduced the feature.

Mobile phones are 10 years behind the computing curve but are accelerating faster up it than the PC ever dreamed of. Next year we'll see the first dual-core phone processors from Qualcomm and others, and the mobile platform will be getting to the point where it is more than a smart device and rather a complete computing platform.

Mobile phone users now expect multi-tasking as a matter of course. They should, as its time has come.

3. Design classic
Iain Thomson: Once again Jonathan Ive has pulled off another classic design with this latest handset. It is instantly recognisable, has classic good looks, a slimline figure, and marries form and function well.

I've got my doubts as to the effectiveness of the metal band helping the Wi-Fi reception, however. There were repeated requests during the keynote for Wi-Fi to be switched off as it was causing crashes, something that causes a niggle of doubt.

Importantly for Apple the design also clearly distinguishes itself from previous models. There is no way you could mistake this for another handset and that's important in keeping the replacement sales coming. Expect to see product placement of the new handset across films and TV.

Shaun Nichols: If Steve Jobs is the man most responsible for Apple's resurrection and assent in the electronics industry, then Jonathan Ive is a close second. The Apple design chief has overseen Apple's biggest products over the years, including the iMac, iPod and iPhone. Perhaps the 'i' prefix ought to be replaced with 'Ive'.

There wasn't a lot you could knock the iPhone 3GS for design-wise, but Apple fixed just about all that there was with the iPhone 4. The cheap-looking plastic back was replaced with a sleek glass panel, the 'teeter-totter' volume control was replaced with a pair of slick round buttons, and the metallic ring on the outside of the phone was transformed into a stainless steel band that encases the antenna hardware.

Whatever Apple is paying Ive and his team it must be astronomical, because Google, Palm and Motorola must have offered him wheelbarrows of cash to defect at one time or another.

2. Size
Shaun Nichols: One of the knocks on smartphone handsets is size. Designs have improved remarkably since the days of the first BlackBerry models, but it's still an issue.

While the current iPhone isn't exactly hefty or cumbersome, it still takes up an entire pocket. Apple improved on this with the new iPhone. The thickness has been whittled down to 9.3mm and the curved back has been flattened out. Advocates of skinny jeans should be pleased.

Perhaps most impressive is that Apple was able to slim down the iPhone while still adding a ton of hardware improvements. The iPhone 4 has been given a faster processor and larger-capacity battery, in addition to a second camera. Impressive enough in the old casing, but remarkable when paired with a slimmer design.

Iain Thomson: Mobile phones are about the only thing that men will brag that theirs is smaller than everyone else's. Size matters in the mobile phone world, and small is beautiful.

The sheer thinness of the new iPhone will attract many, and we can only hope that functionality hasn't been cut for the sake of design. I suspect it hasn't and the form factor looks lovely.

Even while the technical side of my brain was saying 'no' the visual was saying 'that's a seriously well-engineered bit of kit that you need to use'. What can I say? My brain works differently.

Provided the handset works as specified I suspect other manufacturers will be forced to follow suit. The HTC Evo, while only 20 per cent larger than the iPhone, feels like a brick in comparison and the iPhone could usher in a new wave of slim smartphones.

1. Display quality
Iain Thomson: Whatever the technical rights or wrongs of the Retina display idea Jobs touted during his keynote, one look at an iPhone display settles the argument for all but the most pedantic.

The screen contains 78 per cent of the number of pixels as an iPad and is capable of fine granularity that really can't be matched by much else on the market. More importantly it gives Apple a pretty good selling point across a whole range of business areas.

A good screen is a must for an entertainment phone, but business users want it too. Poring over documents on the device is becoming increasingly popular, and Apple has been keen to link the phone to more document use, as PDF support shows.

Shaun Nichols: Of all the features on the iPhone, the Retina display seemed to be the one Steve Jobs was most proud of, and with good reason. The quality of the picture is amazing and, when you compare it with the screen on the iPhone 3GS, the difference is obvious.

The technical row Iain refers to is the debate over whether the display actually does render images finer than the human eye can discern at close distances.

Some suggest that to surpass the abilities of the human eye you need to hold the device 18in from your eye, not the 12in that Apple claims. Yes, it's more than a bit nitpicky as far as criticisms go, and it shows just how good the image quality on the iPhone 4 is.

Image quality for a mobile phone might not be the most important feature, but with phones increasingly being used to view media, it's definitely climbing the list.

AGAINST:

Honourable mention: Foxconn policies
Iain Thomson: I'm iffy about this one. Yes, by modern standards in the West, conditions at the Foxconn factories in China, where the iPhone is made, are appalling. But this is more than a little hypocritical.

In the 1790s the average lifespan for men working in my birthplace was just 28. A combination of near-lethal working conditions, forging red-hot steel and grinding knife edges on huge spinning stones, gave Sheffield men few years of life, but they made the tools that built an empire.

One hundred years later it was the factories of America that offered similar conditions. Now we're criticising the Chinese for doing exactly the same thing.

If you want to take on the IT industry for poor ethics then fair enough. Just make sure you include the poor souls getting their limbs hacked off in coltan mining disputes in the Congo so that we can have cheap PlayStations, or the lives of children growing up in the cancer clusters that bloom in areas where electronic waste is dumped. We are all guilty on this one due to the economic system we live in, and our decision not to challenge it.

China is recovering from the abuses of Mao's rule and has developed a new form of capitalism based on its unique situation, mixing free enterprise and hard state control. Do I like it? No. But it's understandable given China's past few centuries of history, and Apple doesn't do much worse than anyone else in the industry.

If I honestly thought people cared enough to pay extra for the price of someone else's life I'd have some hope, but there's precious little evidence of it anywhere in the tech industry.

Shaun Nichols: Sorry Iain, but the economic excuse doesn't really wash. Apple is making money hand over fist with the iPhone, so it's not going to bankrupt the company if it has to pay a bit more to make sure that the people assembling the devices get a fair wage and safe working conditions.

The success of Fair Trade coffee and blood diamond campaigns have shown that consumers will pay more for products produced under ethical conditions. Apple's user base in particular would have little issue with paying more for a 'fair trade' iPhone if need be. In fact it might actually improve sales among younger, more progressive customers.

Greenpeace singled Apple out for its environmental policies in large part because the company is so influential among electronics vendors. If Apple were to threaten to pull out of Foxconn and other manufacturers over staff treatment, Sony, Microsoft, Dell and other companies would likely follow suit.

5. Telco partners
Shaun Nichols: Originally we were going to single out US carrier AT&T, which has been raked over the coals for its poor coverage and inability to support heavy traffic, but we figured that Apple's other partners around the world have given users plenty to gripe about as well.

I'm sure Apple would love to sell the iPhone to everyone regardless of their mobile network, but the economic realities don't make it possible. Tear down studies of the iPhone suggest that the hardware in the device alone costs more than the iPhone retails at.

To offset this, the company has to make a deal with a carrier that subsidises the cost of the handset, sells them at a loss and makes up the money through mobile service charges. In most cases, Apple has to sign a deal with the carrier to make it the exclusive carrier of the iPhone.

While the company no doubt views the exclusive deals with AT&T and others a necessary evil to get the iPhone on the market at a reasonable price, the company is no doubt counting down the days until it can offer users the chance to move their iPhones to better carriers. Customers feel exactly the same way.

Iain Thomson: Sorry Shaun, but I don't buy it. Mobile phone vendors have done deals with multiple vendors for many years now, and the AT&T lock-in was all about exclusivity, not service.

Rather than getting one supplier to subsidise the handset, Apple could have gone to multiple vendors and got the same - if not more - of a subsidy. It didn't because the whole point of the iPhone, indeed the whole point of Apple sometimes, is to make it an exclusive item, and to bond the people that use the hardware into a club.

I also worry about the ambitions of Apple compared to the quality of its partners. Some of the applications coming down the line will require serious bandwidth, and I suspect many Apple network operators spent so much buying the rights to the handsets that they will have little left to upgrade their networks.

4. Growth of the Android platform
Iain Thomson: Alanis Morissette may not know the meaning of the term ironic, but neither does Apple if current form is any indication. Apple is used to being the underdog, but now the reverse is true.

Apple used to be the Syracuse of the computing world, with Archimedes-like IT gurus holding firm against the ubiquity of Microsoft's ideas. It was a hive of innovation standing against the forces of uniformity. But in the smartphone arena the opposite is true. Apple has become the dominant player looking to crush all, and so a new Syracuse has risen in Android.

Android wasn't taken seriously at first, but the platform offers better features than Apple, with an open platform for innovation to boot. If you're not happy with your mobile provider's service you can go to another one, something Apple users can't manage.

The platform, while young, lets canny developers get the most out the open architecture, and I suspect we'll see great things ahead. Jobs has always wanted to dictate to the market, just like other IT visionaries such as Larry Ellison or Bill Gates. It remains to be seen whether this will work in Android's favour or not.

Shaun Nichols: Not long ago, the iPhone was considered by many to be light years ahead of any competing smartphone. While some still hold that opinion, the smartphone market and the Android platform in particular have caught up with, and in some areas surpassed, Apple.

If you like the iPhone 4 and are in the market you might want to look around a bit. The newest class of Android devices go toe to toe with iPhone in terms of features, and in many areas they're supported by better carriers than those Apple partners with.

If you're the type that likes to poke about and customise your phone, and you don't mind having to get a bit more technical, the latest Android handsets might be a better choice than iPhone.

3. Early adopter syndrome
Shaun Nichols: When combined with the iOS update, iPhone 4 will see the longest list of new features to the iPhone since it first hit the market in 2007. And as any developer will tell you, new features mean new opportunities for disaster.

It's all but certain that, once the first iPhone 4 handsets get into the hands of users, problems will start to come up. Defective cameras will be reported, stability issues will surface and Apple engineers and software developers will have a laundry list of problems to sort out.

Developers will certainly be busy as well. While pre-release versions of iOS 4 are available to help developers update their apps, there's only such much testing you can do, and the public will be keeping developers busy with bug reports.

Early adopters pay the price (literally and figuratively) for being the first people to use any new technology. If you line up to get an iPhone 4 on its first days of availability, you're also agreeing to become something of a guinea pig for the platform.

Iain Thomson: Quite frankly if you line up for a phone you're a little soft in the head in my opinion. There's something called delivery service. Only a chat with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak would get me to an Apple store on launch day.

Apple users don't have it as bad as Microsoft early adopters. There you were playing Russian roulette with your system until recently, but let's not pretend the road ahead will be easy for iPhone users.

We've already seen with the iPad breach that users are vulnerable and the more affluent people who pile onto the Apple bandwagon, the more the hackers are going to be hunting for them. Deep Throat was right with follow the money.

Apple has had a free rein in terms of malware for a long time, because no criminal targets one out of 10 users when the other nine are ripe for the plucking. The more the iPhone becomes the smartphone of choice the more insecure it will be.

2. No Flash
Iain Thomson: Technically you could class this with the first point, but it's such a topic du jour I thought we'd do it separately.

Apple maintains that Flash is buggy, sucks power and doesn't belong on smartphones. Everyone else seems to be fine with it and, while it's not the most mobile-friendly bit of code in the book, it does have its uses, as any internet user will tell you. HTML5 is the next logical step, and it has a lot of Flash developers hitting the textbooks to update their skills.

Flash isn't absolutely essential but it's pretty high on the list of things people want to use on the internet. No-one knows what caused such close chums as Adobe and Apple to fall out, but the result benefits no-one. The stand against Flash, in my opinion, is not about code viability but politics. IT has enough problems without this kind of horseplay.

Shaun Nichols: Flash may be a battery hog with security flaws and have the stability of a child's tree house, but it's also used by a great many developers and web sites.

This is where Apple's attitudes about its products can rub people the wrong way. The company may be trying to keep its devices secure and deliver the best product possible, but they're also telling the users that they don't know what is best for themselves and they're not smart enough to make the decision themselves.

The least Apple can do is give users the option. Add Flash support to the iPhone, disable it by default and add an option into the 'settings' panel to activate Flash content. Unfortunately, these days Apple seems to prefer telling users what they want over listening to what users say they want

1. Apple's walled garden
Shaun Nichols: Apple's not really known as a company that plays well with others, and nowhere is this more apparent than with the iPhone.

If you want to get software for your iPhone, you have to use Apple's App Store and iTunes. There is the option of bypassing the controls by jailbreaking your phone, but that process is not recommended to novice users, and OS updates often disable the jailbreak and can sometimes render the handset unusable.

If you want to develop software for the iPhone, you have to register with Apple and submit your product for the company's approval.

Apple says that the reason for such tight controls is to keep the platform, and its users, safe from malware infection, but there's also the business angle. Developers aren't allowed to offer any products that compete with Apple's in-house offerings. Recently the company also banned developers from using certain ad networks.

If you remember, these are just the sort of practices that led to Microsoft and Intel's respective anti-trust cases, and there are rumblings that Apple is already in the cross-hairs of government regulators.

Not only have users and developers paid for Apple's tight controls, but the company itself may soon suffer for its paranoid approach.

Iain Thomson: We had some discussions on this one, quite heated at times, and it could have taken two or three talking points on its own. This really is the key philosophical problem with Apple.

Right now Apple is like a partner with issues. If you want to use the hardware you have to buy into the entire ecosystem, however scary that is.

ITunes used to be a great bit of code but now is a bloated Elvis-like application that waddles through your system to do a halfway passable job. One can only hope it doesn't expire in the waste basket in the same way. But the rest of Apple's infrastructure is just as worrying.

We're already seeing anti-trust regulators looking into Apple's platform deals, and I suspect we'll see much more action ahead. Apple is about to discover what it feels like to be in the spotlight of regulators, not as the plucky underdog but as a corporate force that harms competition and choice.

At the moment Apple reserves the right to choose what it runs on its platform. That's all well and good if it were done on a technical basis, but Apple is also reserving the right to block satire, pornography or what it deems 'questionable' internet content.

That's not something for a service provider to do, it's a job for an individual, and I'm concerned at the extent to which one company can infringe on my liberty.