iPhone 4 to hit Australia July 30

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Apple’s flagship iPhone 4 handset will be launched in Australia on Friday July 30, the company’s chief executive Steve Jobs revealed in a press conference in the US earlier in the weekend (the video is available online).

Apple had not previously revealed the exact timing for the device’s launch, only saying it would be available in July. Australia is to receive the handset as part of a second wave of countries such as Canada, Italy, New Zealand and Singapore, for example.

All of Australia’s major mobile telcos – Telstra, VHA (which operates the ‘3’ and Vodafone brands) and Optus and its Virgin Mobile subsidiary – have confirmed they will sell the iPhone. But exact pricing plans have not yet been released.

The news came as Jobs also announced during the press conference that Apple would give away free cases to iPhone 4 buyers who picked up the phone before September 30th – giving Australians some two months to buy an iPhone if they want to take advantage of the offer. However it remains unclear how and to what extent the offer will be available locally.

The news appears to be intended as some form of redress by Apple to iPhone 4 buyers who have been concerned about what some media organisations in the US have labeled as the handset’s poor mobile signal strength compared with previous models when held in a certain way.

However in a public letter, Apple said that it wasn’t the signal strength itself that was at fault – although Jobs said it was able to verify that handsets by other manufacturers had the same issue. Instead, it was the way that Apple was displaying the signal strength.

“Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong,” Apple said in the letter.

The iPhone 4 features a raft of changes compared with previous models, starting with the re-designed exterior, which features a glass front and back and a rejuvenated flat design. The iPhone 4 can film HD video in 720p resolution, and features a new, high-resolution display with a higher pixel count for greater viewing fidelity. Apple has also built in a new feature dubbed ‘FaceTime’ which allows users to make video calls via Wi-Fi using the iPhone 4′s new camera on its front.

The phone’s launch in Australia comes as many purchasers of the first Apple handset to be available in Australia – the iPhone 3G – are completing their two-year contracts for their existing handset.

However, the Australian market is also seeing a rash of handsets launch based on Google’s Android platform, which delivers similar functionality to Apple’s devices in many areas – and exceeding them in some.

Image credit: Apple

7 COMMENTS

  1. I’m going to be quite interested to see just how the iPhone 4 sells here. I don’t think it’s going to top the hype and hysteria that followed the original 3G launch.

    Add into that the fact that we’ve been able to sit back and watch this antenna problem (and it is a problem – regardless of the crap Steve said the other day) unfold and Apple’s piss-poor response to it. This will (or, knowing how Apple’s fanboys are – should) have left a very bad taste in the consumers mouths about both the design of the product and the company’s treatment of their customers.

    I, for one, am not interested. When my contract is up I shall not be moving onto the next iPhone (version 5 or 6…or whatever they’re up to in 18 months).

    • It will be interesting. I am personally in two minds about how iPhone 4 will be received in Australia.

      From a top-line perspective I anticipate that sales will be better than ever, because some people are still finding out about the iPhone and the requisite several years have gone past for the handset to now be considered ‘normal’ rather than a too-advanced thing for most people to have.

      However the early adopter crowd seems increasingly to be migrating to Android, and I believe Android is cannibalising a lot of the non-iPhone market as well. So I feel that while the iPhone 4 still has a lot of momentum in Australia, Android (particularly HTC) is growing much faster.

      I won’t be buying an iPhone as my next handset. I have an iPhone 3G currently.

      • The other observation I’ll make is that the problems with the iPhone 4 have been given a lot of mainstream press – so it’s not just an issue that’s going to be in the minds of the techno-people. So there’s going to be a lot of less technically minded people who may reconsider buying the iPhone because they will have heard pretty much nothing but bad things.

        Still, I guess we’ll find out on the 30th.

        • Just to give a different perspective, I’m an early adopter and smartphone geek who will be upgrading from a 3G to the iPhone 4 when it hits Australia.

          I was lucky enough to see one for the first time the other day as a friend of mine took the plunge and imported an unlocked handset from the UK. When you first lay eyes on the phone it would be very to not be impressed by its 960×640 IPS display. It wasn’t just the incredible sharpness that struck me, but the fine details when you hold the phone at a normal viewing distance are insane. It made me want higher pixel density on every monitor and TV I own… Contrast is also improved, as is colour definition (when holding it next to my 3G the iPhone 4 exhibits a warmer colour balance). Text on web pages when zoomed out is also perfectly readable. It really does have that “printed on paper” look that really has to be seen in person to be appreciated. I just wish it was 4″…

          Of course phone’s aren’t all about a sexy display, so we put the phone through its paces with a variety of functions – multitasking, viewing of very high res photos, music, 720p video playback (which looks sublime!), 3D games – all the usual, and the thing just flies! Even snapdragon or hummingbird based phones don’t have this kind of speed and general fluency with navigation of the UI, but in fairness that’s because Android’s menus, widgets and multiple home pages are admittedly more advanced (and I know Froyo is going to speed things up considerably if the manufacturers actually get around to actually releasing it). It’s sad that in 2010 Apple still can’t see the need for widgets on the lockscreen or better social integration with contacts. Sigh..

          However the main reasons I’m buying are for the superb quality camera, equally as impressive 720p video capture, and above all awesome battery life. I simply could not believe it when after playing around with the phone for a solid hour watching vids, taking photos and playing 3D games the percentage metre was at 92%. My 3G can be run dead with that type of usage.

          I also have paid for a lot of apps from the App Store, and just as many paid apps from unofficial app stores like Cydia (once jailbroken). I really don’t want to throw those investments down the toilet as they continue to be updated and will only get better with the iPhone 4.

          However I feel it is now my duty to point out I am NOT an Apple fanboy (I own no other Apple products!) and can also report that I was able to easily replicate the signal loss problem on my friend’s iPhone 4 when gripped so that the wireless and UMTS antennas were bridged (he hadn’t updated to 4.01 with the more accurate signal display so it dropped from 5 bars to 2). Did this affect calls or data flow in real world usage? Not one little bit. He had a Telstra sim in it (cut to size I might add as the thing takes a micro sim) and it’s insanely fast on their Next G network. It made me want to switch from Optus on the spot.

          I actually think it’s possible that a lot of the dropped call problems in the US would be associated with their ghastly AT&T network. A lot of people don’t realise how much better our networks are in Australia when compared to the flakiness of AT&T. Even Optus for all it’s coverage problems, re-compressed pictures and dropped calls is a far superior network to AT&T.

          I agree that Apple has behaved arrogantly and inadequately regarding “Antennagate”, and the bit where Jobs felt the need to bring the competition in and show signal loss on their phones was just cheap. However there is a little bit of truth to what he was saying. I can even get bars to drop on my 3G in a similar way when cupped tightly without a case. However to be honest I just don’t care about the whole thing. I don’t stop buying phones out of principle. The phone is still awesome and I was going to buy a case for it anyway (who wouldn’t with that stupid double sided glass construction?) so to me it’s a non issue.

          I should mention that I have nearly jumped to Android on several occasions. The Nexus One (I love stock Android) The Desire and the Samsung Galaxy S are all excellent phones but none of them are quite there for me. There are all lacking in areas that matter to me. Primarily photo and video quality which the iPhone 4 clearly wins by a significant margin.

          You’d have to be a fool not to appreciate the open nature of Android, and when Froyo based phones hit the market with 1.5Ghz snapdragons or hummingbirds, 720p screens, the ability to load apps from external storage, AUSTRALIAN APPS, a more constant and stable UI, a better range of quality apps that work consistently across devices, good quality games etc then I know I will be ready to jump to Android. All my other services are Google based (I sync Gmail, contacts and calendar to my iPhone using Exchange) so it’s only a matter of time before I make the leap. However as it stands I feel like Apple is the way to go for another generation.

          Feel free to flame me below :)

          • Flame? Hardly. You make very good counter-arguments. I do, however, have a couple of comments:

            Firstly, I see nothing wrong with avoiding a phone on principle. Apple may well have the best developer community going for smart phones, but their control over the platform and arbitrary restrictions on what I can and cannot do on their hardware isn’t something that I’m willing to support – so I’ll be getting out. The only way things are going to change is if people stop buying products that compromise what they want.

            “I can even get bars to drop on my 3G in a similar way when cupped tightly without a case.”
            Well, yes, but how often do you cup your phone tightly to use it? The problem with the iPhone 4 was that Apple – inadvertently or otherwise – made a basic design mistake that resulted in people having massive problems. Then, instead of acknowledging it and promising to make good they A) said people were using it wrong and B) tried to gloss over it with the “well it’s not just us!” line. It’s a poor atitude to have towards a loyal customer base and, to me, highlights just now little they think of these people that would defend them to the death. If they’d just come out and said “Well, we tried something different. It didn’t work. OK, we’ll take them back and replace them with a new version that doesn’t have this flaw in it” it would have been fine. But they didn’t and that speaks volumes.

            “(he hadn’t updated to 4.01 with the more accurate signal display so it dropped from 5 bars to 2)”
            You want to talk about “non” things. This update is utterly pointless. It’s been common knowledge for quite some time that the display of bars on a phone has absolutely little relevance to the strength of the connection to the cell tower. Saying that they could “fix” the issue with a software patch is just complete and utter bullshit. This is a nothing response to a critical design problem with their phone that has, in a lot of media, gotten them out of trouble – and it’s just shameful.

            “I also have paid for a lot of apps from the App Store, and just as many paid apps from unofficial app stores like Cydia (once jailbroken). I really don’t want to throw those investments down the toilet as they continue to be updated and will only get better with the iPhone 4.”
            This is something I can understand and it’s a problem I have with phones generally, not just the iPhone. Walled gardens suck when it comes to software development. Steam, as an example, is making a great leap forward since they introduced an OSX version of their client software. Now games that I buy on one platform can be played on both my desktop PC or my MacBook (yeah, I have a Mac…and an iPhone 3G[S]) without additional cost (provided the games are developed for both OSs.

        • I don’t think the “less technically minded” consumers will give a rats about the antenna hype.
          The hype will only serve to remind those people that the iphone4 is coming out in Australia soon.
          They will forget the issue and get excited about the new toy “I don’t want to be the only one in the office without the new iPhone!” “Free bumper?! Great! Does it come in double rainbow?” and so on.

  2. “Apple may well have the best developer community going for smart phones, but their control over the platform and arbitrary restrictions on what I can and cannot do on their hardware isn’t something that I’m willing to support – so I’ll be getting out. The only way things are going to change is if people stop buying products that compromise what they want.”

    I understand completely where you’re coming from. If I thought that enough of us banding together to take a stance against Apple’s locked down arbitrary platform would actually make a difference, then I’d probably be willing to switch to Android out of principle as well. However you as well as I do that the vast majority of people either aren’t aware or aren’t concerned by the problems surround iOS and the restrictions placed on developers and users. Even with the recent surge towards Android AND the antenna issues, the iPhone 4 has sold better than any previous Apple smartphone before it. The “our way or the highway” business philosophy is actually working extremely well for Apple and neither you or I choosing to buy another brand will change a thing.

    As far as actual restrictions that affect the way I use my smartphone, I’m not bothered by most of them. Censorship of products in the App Store (or unnecessary 17+ age warnings with web browsers – WTF?) give me the shits as does the inconsistent and downright unfair app approval process, but it simply doesn’t affect me 90% of the time. I guess I’m too selfish for it to be a problem! :) Many of the problems I have with iOS as a whole are overcome by jailbreaking which is something I’m almost fanatical about. If I couldn’t jailbreak the iPhone 4 to free it up to use it the way I want to, then I wouldn’t get one. And when the time comes to buy Android if I can’t root the handset (Motorola’s Droid X won’t function with custom ROMs for example) then I won’t be interested either. I like custom underground development and the innovation and creativity that stems from it. It’s a very liberating experience watching your iPhone boot with a pineapple logo :)

    “Well, yes, but how often do you cup your phone tightly to use it?”

    I meant when I cup it in the same way that the iPhone 4 has to be cupped to experience signal loss. The drop isn’t as dramatic (as we all the know the problem with iP4 is due to the bridging of the two antennas) but it’s still there. I’ve just never noticed it until this whole fiasco began.

    “You want to talk about “non” things. This update is utterly pointless. It’s been common knowledge for quite some time that the display of bars on a phone has absolutely little relevance to the strength of the connection to the cell tower. Saying that they could “fix” the issue with a software patch is just complete and utter bullshit. This is a nothing response to a critical design problem with their phone that has, in a lot of media, gotten them out of trouble – and it’s just shameful.”

    Ok, so it’s not a “fix” as such but I do actually believe it’s an improvement in terms of the accuracy of the bars displayed. If you doubt this I suggest you read the follow up review at http://www.anadtech.com. Anand has done a comprehensive before and after analysis of the method Apple uses to display bars (going as far driving around and taking signal measurements from a variety of locations with 4.0 and 4.01) and he shows quite conclusively that the update is an improvement. No one’s suggesting it fixes a thing with the antenna problem (even Apple) but it does gives a more accurate representation of signal strength (and signal loss).

    “This is something I can understand and it’s a problem I have with phones generally, not just the iPhone. Walled gardens suck when it comes to software development. Steam, as an example, is making a great leap forward since they introduced an OSX version of their client software. Now games that I buy on one platform can be played on both my desktop PC or my MacBook (yeah, I have a Mac…and an iPhone 3G[S]) without additional cost (provided the games are developed for both OSs.”

    I agree completely. There are plenty of developers who make the same app for Android and iOS. Why can’t they generate a unique key to be used with your email address that gives you ownership across multiple platforms? I guess there are two reasons. 1. They want to make as much money as possible. 2. Key generation leads to pirate key generators.

    Apple gets heavily criticised for it’s closed off approach to iOS, but in some ways this model does set a certain level of quality control, mean less crashes/incompatibility problems and deliver a more unified consistent UI. If anything I think we’ll see Google tighten up Android to solve a lot of the fragmentation and compatibility problems it now faces.

    With my PC I want an open complex system that I can tinker with and customise to my heart’s content. With my phone, for the most part I just want it to be fast, fluid and well, just work.

    Something worth mentioning is that I think Mircorosft are soon going to offer a very compelling experience with Windows Phone 7. They’ve certainly lost the ball and are a full generation behind, but the fact that they went back to square one and have built a new OS from the ground up has really paid off for them. It looks like they are shooting for middle ground in terms of the restrictions they are placing on app development and user experience, and I love the fact they have mandated a consistent UI across all devices. Android should really take a leaf out of their book as this multiple skins for different devices approach is hurting them in a big way. Stock Android 2.2 is way better than Sense/Blur/TouchWiz skinned 2.1.

    If development continues the way it has been with Windows Mlobile 7 and they deliver on time (and it doesn’t fail and get killed off like Kin did in less than two months!!) then it’s highly possible my next phone will be a Winmo device (never thought I’d say that after the horrors of Winmo 6, but it’s true).

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