Take a good look at the image above. That’s how your iPhone is going to look like after June 21st. That’s the release date of iOS4 (former iPhone OS 4), announced today at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference by Steve Jobs. Developers (including myself) already have access to the GM version of iOS4 and SDK starting today. I can’t tell much about it per my NDA, but I can confirm everything that was shown today and in the Developers Preview on April 8th.
Now, iBooks. Steve said today that the iBookstore market share is about 22% in only 8 weeks of operation, which is amazing. Looks like Apple is now a very serious competitor against Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Furthermore, the iBooks app is now shipping in iOS 4 (iPads and iPhones), with an added functionality of saving/viewing PDF files. This might kill third-party PDF readers, but only time will tell.
Some apps were shown as well, including Netflix (shipping in the summer) and Guitar Hero (available now). But the most symbolic is Farmville, a popular Flash game on Facebook, now showing up in the iPhone – no Flash required. A clear message about Steve’s “thoughts on Flash”.
And the most important thing revealed today was iPhone 4, of course. As Steve pointed out on stage, “some of you have already seen it” (referring to the Gizmodo episode), but now we can actually see what’s that all about. First, the design is new – glass front and back (which hopefully will make the phone less slippery), with a stainless steel framing which is actually the antennas’ structure. It has a front camera for video calls and the new 5MP camera has now a LED flash (which is too close to the lens IMHO and will be a factory of red eyes). The camera also makes 720p video and you can edit on the phone using iMovie, which will be shipping soon. One cool thing is a second microphone on the top for noise canceling. The screen is all new: a 960×640 3.5” display, with 326ppi and 800:1 contrast ratio, which is way superior to the current 3GS screen. Internally, it’s powered by an A4 chip (like the iPad), it has 16 or 32 GB of storage, a bigger battery and a gyroscope. You can check everything about it at Apple’s official website here. Pre-orders start on June 15th in the U.S..
Next is iAds. Some demos were shown (nothing really new since the April 8th keynote) and Steve said it’s integrated into iOS 4 and will launch on July 1st.
And the last is FaceTime, the new video calls app Apple is introducing in the iPhone 4. Looks very neat and Apple is going to make an open industry standard, which means that other device makers may built-in the service in their phones as well.
So, summarizing:
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iOS 4 ships on June 21st, featuring everything that was shown in the April 8th keynote.
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iBooks has now a PDF storage and reader and will ship in all iOS 4 devices, including iPhones.
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iPhone 4 is a totally new smartphone and pre-orders will start on 06/15 in the U.S..
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iAds will be integrated in iOS 4 and it will make its debut on July 1st.
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FaceTime is the new video call service included in the iPhone 4 and will be an open industry standard.
And that’s my summary of the WWDC keynote. Hope you also enjoyed it!