3 Completes UK Lineup For iPhone 4

Mobile operator 3 has completed the list of major UK mobile operators – all of which will now offer Apple’s iPhone 4 after it launches on 24 June, according to a company blog post.

3 completes the set of British mobile operators offering the handset, after O2, Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile also announced they would stock the device earlier this week. O2 has also announced a limited time upgrade offer for existing customers to get their hands on the new iPhone 4G.

The iPhone 4 will also be available from Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U. This means that anyone with a mobile contract on any of the major networks will have the opportunity to buy the device.

However, UK pricing and tariff plans still remain a mystery. All of the operators have issued almost identical statements, announcing the arrival of “the thinnest smartphone in the world with the highest resolution display ever built into a phone”. Three says customers can pre-order the iPhone 4 from 15 June, but gives no further information.

Apple’s masterpiece

Apple boss Steve Jobs launched the iPhone 4 on Monday at the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco. New features include a larger battery, a thinner body, a proprietary A4 processor under the hood, a front-facing camera for video conferencing, and a 5-megapixel camera paired with a rear illuminated sensor.

“This is beyond doubt one of the most precise, beautiful things we’ve ever done,” said Jobs at the event, describing the device as “the biggest leap since the original iPhone”.

The phone’s final release follows months in which news and photos of prototypes leaked to Gizmodo in California and Taoviet in Vietnam. The eventual product matched the leaked prototypes very closely.

“We anticipate that the imminent arrival of the hotly anticipated iPhone 4 will continue to drive strong sales and market share which will be compounded by the arrival of competing smartphones to the market from the other handset manufacturers,” said Phones 4U CEO, Tim Whiting.

iPad tablet success continuestjh

The news follows the launch of Apple’s iPad tablet in the UK on 28 May. Hundreds of British Apple fans queued outside the tech giant’s flagship store in Regent Street on launch day to get their hands on one of the first iPads to be sold in the country. Latest estimates from Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall show Apple selling 10 million iPads worldwide by the end of 2010.

According to research firm IDC, the successful launch of the Apple iPad is likely to spark a compound annual growth rate in worldwide media tablet shipments of 57.4 percent. Hewlett-Packard has already announced plans for a tablet product, and Google and Sony are also both rumoured to be exploring the field. Dell launched its Streak tablet in the UK on 4 June on the O2 network.

“These are early days for media tablets, an altogether new device category that takes its place between smartphones and portable PCs,” said IDC analyst Susan Kevorkian. “IDC expects consumer demand for media tablets to be strongly driven by the number and variety of compatible third-party apps for content and services.”