As expected, the new phone was introduced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the firm's Worldwide Developer's Conference in San Francisco on Monday morning.
Apple has developed a new stainless steel and glass casing for the phone. It is claiming that the revamped design is the thinnest smartphone in the world.
The new iPhone will go on sale on June 24 with pre-orders starting on the 15th. Apple is selling the 16GB version for $199 with a 32GB version at $299.
The firm has packed a number of improvements and new features into what is its third take on a 3G smartphone design. New features in the phone include:- An antenna that is part of the metal strip on the phone's casing, which should improve wireless performance overall.
- Support for 802.11n WiFi and quad-band HSPA with maximum data rates of 7.2 Mbit/s over 3G connections.
- A bigger battery that delivers seven hours of 3G talk time or 300 hours on standby.
- A 5-megapixel main camera with a back-light sensor that can record HD video and a front-loaded camera for video chat.
- The ability to create, edit, and send HD video on the phone
- Support for multiple Exchange accounts and SSL VPN capabilities for business users.
- An onboard MicroSIM tray -- like the iPad -- so that the new phone can use smaller SIM cards
As Engadget noted at the keynote, Jobs had some radio issues himself with demos failing to load over WiFi during his keynote. Eventually he asked everyone watching to switch off their WiFi in order to cut down on interference while the live demonstrations were happening. — Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile
Apple's love of MicroSIMs baffles me. It just makes carrier support more difficult and gain a teeny tiny bit of extra space to design around. So weird.