San Francisco: Apple's new iPhone, which was unveiled yesterday, is designed to fend off a threat from Google, analysts say.
Apple's Chief Executive Steve Jobs gave the keynote address at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, a forum he typically uses to showcase new products.
Apple has updated the iPhone each summer since the device's debut in June 2007.
As he tries to entice buyers and convince the more than 50 million current iPhone users to trade up to the latest model, Jobs has to contend with Google, which is promoting phones that use its Android software.
Apple's latest device may boast an easier-to-read screen and longer battery life — features the iPhone will need as Android gains in popularity.
"Apple should make sure they have the best experience that exists," said Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland.
"If they do, they'll keep the profitable piece at the high end and can let And-roid take volume share in the middle and below."
Apple also benefits from a broader range of downloadable tools, games and other applications — about 200,000 versus about 50,000 for Android, Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York, said in a June 4 report.
After unveiling the original iPhone, Cupertino, California-based Apple released the iPhone 3G in July 2008, which added support for third-generation wireless networks. A faster, thinner version, called the iPhone 3GS, came in June 2009.
Apple fell $7.16 (Dh26.29) to $255.97 last Friday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have gained 21 per cent this year. Speculation about what the fourth-generation iPhone will include escalated in April after an unreleased prototype, lost by an Apple engineer at a bar in March, was disassembled and photographed by technology blog Gizmodo.com.
Prior to the Jobs address, analysts wondered that if a version of that phone turned up on stage, customers could expect a model with a front-facing camera that enables video conferencing, a camera flash, a higher-resolution screen, longer battery life and a boxier design than the iPhone 3GS, according to Gizmodo's analysis.
Sacconaghi said he expected a new display with four times as many pixels as the 3GS, a better camera that shoots high-definition video and a faster processor based on Apple's custom A4 chip that is also used in the iPad tablet computer.
Casing change
The new iPhone may also include more storage than the current 16-gigabyte and 32-gigabyte models, said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. in Minneapolis. Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros., expects Apple to deliver a casing that transforms the look and feel of the device.
"The current form factor is a little long in the tooth," said Wu, who is based in San Francisco.
He recommends investors buy Apple shares and doesn't own any himself. "It's about time for a casing change."
