Jun. 9--When Apple launched its first iPhone three years ago, the smart phone landscape was a very different place. Most of the devices were aimed at business users, weren't very easy to use and were limited in capabilities.
The iPhone blew up that paradigm and changed the way people think about these devices, which are actually handheld personal computers. It's fair to say that the smart phone business looks the way it does in 2010 because of Apple.
Consumers are winning because the giants in the business -- Apple, Google, RIM and Microsoft -- are competing to bring incredible phones quickly to market. So far, the iPhone's been the one to catch.
But the competition is gaining and, in many ways, passing the iPhone. That made Monday's announcement of the iPhone 4 all the more important -- both for Apple and for the market as a whole. If Apple wanted to stay leaps and bounds ahead of its competitors -- i.e., to attempt to return to the place it was back in 2007 -- it needed to introduce a phone that was clearly superior.
Not light-years ahead
Now, I say this without having actually touched an iPhone 4, but I am not sure the company has done what it needed to do. From a distance, the new device is impressive, beautiful and well-made. But is it light-years ahead of its competitors, in terms of features?
Not really.
When you compare the iPhone 4's specs to state-of-the-art Android phones -- the Droid Incredible, the Evo 4G and the Nexus One -- the new iPhone holds up well. But except in terms of screen quality, it makes no major leaps. (Yeah, it has a gyroscope, but it will be a while before we see whether that's a meaningful feature or just a gimmick for games.)
But the iPhone 4's whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I've tried nearly every major Android phone this year, and the overall experience of using these phones just can't compare to Apple's. The Android OS doesn't feel as mature, isn't as polished and certainly is not as intuitive as that found on the iPhone iOS, as it's now called.
While the Android specs may be better, Google's Android OS does not yet do as good a job of making those specs work as well for the user. And that's what Apple's known for -- harnessing computing power in a simple and intuitive way.
Why I'm sticking with it
Before the gadget blog Gizmodo got its hands on a "lost" iPhone 4 prototype and posted details on its website, I was seriously considering a Nexus One as my next smart phone. My AT&T contract has expired, and I was thinking about becoming an Android user.
But once I saw what was in the iPhone 4, I decided to stick with Apple. And after Monday's Steve Jobs keynote, I'm sold. I'll buy one to replace my now-pokey 3G model.
So if the iPhone 4's overall hardware isn't that much better than the competition's, what locked me in?
-- I'm impressed with what I've seen of iOS 4, particularly the way it handles multitasking. Having just spent some time with the Evo 4G, which required me to constantly kill apps and processes to keep the battery from draining quickly, I'm convinced that Apple's visual approach to multitasking is a lot friendlier than Android's.
-- TechRepublic editor-in-chief Jason Hiner wrote Sunday it was important for Apple to get a handle on battery life. The company made great strides in this area with the iPad, which can go for several days of moderate use before needing to be recharged. In its marketing, Apple emphasizes talk time as a measure of the iPhone 4's improved power longevity, but the real test will be when the Bluetooth, 3G and Wi-Fi radios are all firing at once. Android phones are notorious power hogs, and if Apple has made progress here, it could be a real advantage.
-- Jobs made much of the iPhone 4's improved screen resolution, and for those of us who like to read on our iPhones, the 326-pixels-per-inch screen will be a welcome improvement.
-- I am a big fan of 802.11n Wi-Fi -- both for range and speed -- and I'm very happy to see this in the iPhone 4.
-- The fragility of the iPhone 3G and 3GS design has always been a concern for me. I keep mine in a very protective case, and so far I've been lucky, despite dropping it many times. But I know way too many iPhone owners with shattered screens, and the new aluminosilicate glass on the iPhone 4 should make it more durable.
Apple needs to keep up
These factors are enough to keep me as an iPhone customer. I do think the iPhone continues to be the platform driving the rest of the smart phone industry. But I'm not sure this is enough of an advance to hold that lead for another three years. The pace of innovation on the Android platform is faster, and Apple is going to have to make another big leap next year just to keep up.
