Maxus digital lead Nico Abbruzzese reviews the iPhone 4

The latest and greatest iPhone out of the Cupertino design highway, lands in the market with the usual meteoric impact.

With the precision of a Swiss watch, Apple rolls out their yearly record breaking device right on time.

This time adding a new sleeker design, a longer lasting battery, a new OS and some interesting photo/ video capabilities.

The new screen sports a 960x640 pixel oleophobic coating surface (forget about fingerprints on the screen). With a stunning resolution of 326 ppi, it is clearly one of the sharpest in the category and considered nearly unbreakable (despite still failing the 'Will it Blend?' test).

The leading feature for this release is the video call feature that adds a high resolution camera on both sides of the device and a clever interface to swap between the two.

Lastly, the 5 mega pixel camera with led flash and the HD video capabilities, supported by editing apps as part of the base OS, are really turning the dial up of on-the-go content generation.

The real star in the iPhone 4 is the OS. A number of small but significant improvements have been brought forward, the most important of which is the multitasking capability. This feature alone brings back iPhone in the features race against Android.

The remaining improvements on the OS4 are again in line with the Apple philosophy of making software that is lighter and faster as opposed to the Microsoft view that each time you change your OS you should throw away your computer.

 

Is this really the next generation device?

Someone once said that a device sets a new generation apart when technology resolves an unanswered human need. The iPhone 4 might be the slickest device around, but it's certainly not inventing anything new.

Let's start with the lead feature video calls. Is it just me or I'm having a déjà vu. This is a 2002 circa kind-of feature: it didn't work then, so I find it a very interesting the decision to bring this back to the future.

Taking a gigantic leap, I have to compare, once again, Apple to Italy.

Italians are known world-wide for having the brand ownership on things like pizza and pasta however, none of the above is an Italian invention. They've just taken the boring Egyptian bread or Chinese noodles and turned them into something intrinsically associated with Italy.

Similarly the love-affair with Apple really started when iPod became the must-have MP3 player, and iPhone became the must-have smartphone.

So if there is someone that can take old concepts and turn them into a consumer success, that certainly is Apple.

 

What are the implication for the industry?

The most interesting aspect of iPhone 4 from a marketing and media prospective, resides in its multi-tasking capability. By that I don't mean that by having more applications active at any point in time we can slap more mobile ads in front of people (so don't rush out there quite yet).

Multitasking capability means that location based services centered around apps can be running in the background constantly. This is giving a real shot in the arm to the concept of Geofencing, the ability to interact with a device within a specific geographical context.

Imagine a customer that enters a Gap retail store with a Gap mobile application still active in the background. The app recognises that you are in the Gap store and sends you an incentive offer for product XZW based on a previous product XZW search or even product XZW ads that you've stumbled upon on your mobile phone.

For the accountability fans like us at Maxus this is really the opportunity to close the loop between online window shopping and offline buying behaviors.

More importantly from a media perspective this is empowering agencies to account for real conversion data and have an answer for the 98.9 per cent that didn't click on a banner, but still acted on a message.

For the consumer this means finding relevant messages and offers rather than irrelevant retail pop-ups right at the decision point.

So thanks iPhone 4, it might be the cause of a increasing number of divorces in the world, but certainly it is helping achieve a close loop marketing nirvana.