Apple has officially announced that CEO Steve Jobs will be headlining its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote June 7 and this should be the introduction of the iPhone 4G/HD.
The company has used its WWDC keynote to introduce the new iPhone for the last two years, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see it follow that pattern. What’s interesting about this year is that we may have already received the lowdown on what to expect. The stolen Gizmodo prototype indicates it will have a different industrial design that’s less round and with a flat back.
One of the most desperately-needed upgrades will be the screen, according to the leaks. The big display on the 3GS still looks solid but it pales in comparison to devices like the Nexus One, EVO 4G and especially next to the wonderful display of the Samsung Galaxy S. The next Apple smartphone will reportedly rock a boosted LCD display that can pump out 960 x 640 resolution. This resolution is why I’m betting on the “iPhone HD” name and it is also needed to be previously compatible with the more than 200,000 programs in the App Store.
Another fun wrinkle is that the iPhone 4G/HD is expected to have a front-facing camera for video calls. Beyond the hardware, we’ve seen snippets in the OS 4.0 code to support this. I’m not sure how great this is in real life, but it’s being pushed by competitors like the EVO, and you just know Apple can make some killer mainstream commercials about video calling. This feature also has the added ability to potentially bring AT&T’s network to its knees, so I wonder how it will be implemented.
The next iPhone is definitely going to be announced, but are we going to see an Apple handset on Verizon? AT&T doesn’t seemed worried but the rumor mill has been going crazy lately. I’d still bet dollars to doughnuts the handset remains exclusive to AT&T until next year but I’ve been wrong before.
One thing’s certain: no matter what surprises Jobs introduces, IntoMobile will be there giving you live, up-to-the-minute coverage.
[Via Apple]