The iPhone has had an enormous impact in the three years since Apple’s original smartphone exploded onto the scene. Its fancy touch-screen established that a physical keypad or keyboard were no longer de rigueur for cellphones. Its dazzling browser proved you don’t have to compromise the way you experience the Web on a mobile device. And the App Store popularized third-party add-on programs on a handheld computer, to the tune of more than 225,000 apps and more than 5 billion downloads.
Even its most strident critics — folks frustrated by AT&T’s dropped calls, people who never cozied up to a multitouch display — must concede that the iPhone is the smartphone by which others are measured.
The new iPhone 4 I’ve been testing for about a week and a half — along with the major refresh of the mobile operating system software at the core of recent models — demonstrates again why Apple’s handset is the one to beat, even as it faces fierce competition from phones based on Google’s Android platform, among others.
Apple announced the iPhone 4 at its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month. After the customary hype that followed, iPhone 4 will hit stores Thursday morning, though some customers who have ordered the device will receive them earlier. Judging by 600,000 early orders, iPhone 4 is already a runaway hit.
Buyers won’t be disappointed. The killer feature is what Apple calls FaceTime video chat. The promise that you and the person you’re talking to on a phone can gaze into each other’s eyes dates back to when LBJ occupied the White House. No one has really nailed video calling through the years the way Apple has nailed it here, with certain limitations. FaceTime is as simple as making a regular call. To help to accomplish this neat stunt, iPhone 4…