Analysts give iPhone 4 thumbs up

The iPhone 4 was unveiled last night at WWDC

Apple's iPhone 4 has received a welcome reception from industry analysts after being unveiled by chief executive Steve Jobs at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco last night.

The fourth-generation iPhone is 24 per cent slimmer than the 3GS model, and is powered by an A4 processor, which Jobs claimed will increase battery performance by "up to 40 per cent for talk time". It runs on the iOS4 platform, and features a new touch-screen display known as Retina, which supports a 960 x 640 pixel resolution, four times more than its predecessor.

According to analyst firm Ovum: "The iPhone 4 is a continuation of Apple’s existing strategic direction, representing a solid refresh of the product’s features and capabilities packaged in typically excellent Apple industrial design, but with few surprises.

"The new handset’s specifications bring it back to near the top of the smartphone pile, but not beyond. Ovum’s Smartphone capability analyzer also shows there are already several handsets in the market with higher specifications than iPhone 4." said the frim.

Tim Shepherd, an analyst at Canalys, explained that he is impressed with the iPhone 4, but that it represents an evolutionary, rather than a revolutionary, step.

"The hardware was leaked, but it still looks good as does the iOS 4 software. The camera is a huge improvement and the inclusion of HD video is not surprising," he said.

"The screen is interesting. Apple's competitors such as the Samsung Wave and the HTC Touch have great screens. With the iPhone 4, Apple is meeting competitors head-on in this area."

Ian Fogg, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, argued that the iPhone 4 is a solid product.

"The hardware has dramatically improved and it is visibly different from the 3GS. It looks compelling and the operating system is a long way ahead of the opposition and Apple can add to it," he said.

But Fogg added that Apple has not gone far enough to make synchronising between different Apple products more seamless.

Fogg and Shepherd were both surprised at the emphasis given to the FaceTime video chat feature, as third parties such as Skype are likely to out-innovate Apple with apps using the front-facing camera.

However, analyst Ovum pointed out that Apple has a track record of successfully popularising pre-existing technology. "It could do for video calling what it did for digital music players and mobile applications," the firm noted.

If Apple does acheive this, Ovum predicted that "video calling will provide an opportunity for carriers to increase revenues from data and test the viability for video calling on 4G networks".

The iPhone 4 will be launched in the US and UK on 24 June, with pre-orders accepted from 15 June. It has been confirmed that O2, Orange and Vodafone will carry the device.

V3.co.uk is awaiting confirmation on pricing.