Apple CEO Steve Jobs has unveiled the latest version of the iPhone at Apple’s WorldWide Developer Conference. Jobs opened up by telling delegates that there are now 8,500 iPad apps in the App Store, and that they have been downloaded, between them, over 35m times. He also wasted no time in laying into Google, quoting the developer of an app called The Elements, Theo Gray from Wolfram Associates, as saying that he earned more in the first day of selling Elements than he did in the past five years from Google ads on the website where it began life.
He also talked about Apple’s app approval process. He pointed out to delegates that the company receives around 15,000 app submissions every week, and that 95 per cent of these are approved within seven days. Te ones that are rejected, he said, are rejected either because they use private APIs, because they don’t do what the developers claimed they would, or because they crash. Jobs also revealed that the App Store has passed 5bn app downloads in total, and has paid out $1bn to developers in app revenue shares. Jobs described that as his favourite stat of the show.
But the main event was the official unveiling of the next iteration of the iPhone, the iPhone 4. It’s 24 per cent thinner than the iPhone 3GS, and according to Jobs is: “the thinnest smartphone on the planet” at 9.3mm thick. It’s made of stainless steel and glass, and has a front-facing 5 megapixel camera, the iPad’s micro SIM card, and two microphones, one for noise cancellation. The camera also records high definition video, and there’s a version of iMovie for the iPhone too.
The handset also has a feature called Retina Display. Apple has increased the pixel count by a factor of four, enabling the iPhone to render text much more sharply. Jobs told delegates it will also increase video and still image quality. The iPhone 4 also has 3 axis gyroscope which Jobs says is perfect for gaming. 
The phone runs off Apple’s A4 chip. Combined with a bigger battery, this has enabled Apple to improve battery life to seven hours of 3G talk time, six hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of wi-fi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music, and 300 hours standby.”
Apple has also unveiled the new OS for iPhone, called iOS4, which finally introduces multitasking to the iPhone. Jobs told the audience that Apple will sell its 100 millionth iOS device this month, across the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices. He then unveiled iBooks for the iPad, and talked about Apple’s iAd mobile ad platform, telling delegates that iAd will be switched on on 1 July, and that iAds are projected to represent 48 per cent of the total US mobile advertising market in the second half of 2010.
Next, Jobs unveiled Face Time – video calling on the iPhone – which he demoed with a video call to legendary Apple designer Jonathan Ive, before revealing pricing and availability for the new handset: in the US, $199 for the 16GB model; $299 for the 32GB version, both available in black and white.The iPhone 3GS drops to $99 (but who’s going to want one of those now?) Existing iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPod touch owners can get the iOS4 upgrade for free. As for availability, the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan get the iPhone 4 on 24 June, with 18 more countries to follow in July and 88 countries in total by the end of September.
