Consumers around the globe will wait on long lines Thursday to get their hands on the newest iPhone, but far from the sidewalk frenzy, Apple Inc.'s smartphone is making inroads with business customers.

Companies like Bausch & Lomb Inc. are buying iPhones for their employees, in some cases replacing BlackBerry devices. Earlier this year, the eye-care products company made iPhone the standard issue device for its sales force. Now, about 1,200 salespeople have one.

Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry has long been the standard-issue smartphone for businesses, largely because RIM made it easy for corporate technology departments to manage and secure its devices. Information-technology professionals dismissed the iPhone as a toy, and many banned it from their companies outright.

But while BlackBerrys are still the most popular corporate device, with 70% of IT departments currently supporting the gadget, about 29% of businesses now support the iPhone, up from 17% last year and none in 2007 when the iPhone first launched, according to Forrester Research.

One catalyst is that employees are clamoring for iPhones, even if they have to pay for all or part of it themselves. AT&T Inc. CEO Randall Stephenson said in an interview last week that about 40% of its iPhones are sold to companies or individuals with corporate discounts.

AT&T said its salespeople aren't pushing the iPhone above the BlackBerry or other devices, but the carrier has taken steps to make the iPhone attractive to companies, including providing tools to build iPhone apps for homegrown software.

Bausch & Lomb adopted the iPhone because of the device's ability to access spreadsheets and contact-management software, although getting locked into AT&T's network in the U.S. was a negative, said Simon Woods, vice president for technology and applications.

Apple said in January that 70% of Fortune 100 companies were testing or deploying iPhones. While Apple's marketing remains focused on consumers, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said in January the company has added "sales staff to assist the carrier staff in selling the iPhone in several of the major geographies." Apple declined to comment further.

Microstrategy Inc., which makes business-intelligence software, plans to deploy more iPhones to employees and only replace BlackBerrys when they break. The company has 1,000 BlackBerrys and 400 iPhones, including 200 purchased by employees.

When asked whether it was concerned by the encroachment of other devices like the iPhone in businesses, RIM Vice President Tyler Lessard said, "We see other vendors coming in there but we keep expanding too." He added that RIM, which reports quarterly earnings Thursday, was also rapidly growing its consumer business.

In 2007, the original iPhone was short on security and management features that are important to corporations. But Apple took a major step in 2008 to make the iPhone more business-friendly by adding the ability to connect to Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange email program and to remotely erase an iPhone's content in case it's lost or stolen. An update last year added the ability to encrypt information stored on the device.

The iPhone 4, which goes on sale in the U.S. and four other countries Thursday, will include a few more sops to IT departments, such as the ability to distribute software wirelessly and more security features.

The addition of encryption is what convinced Joe Drouin, chief information officer at staffing company Kelly Services Inc., to offer iPhones to employees. Since January, the company has given them a choice between iPhones and BlackBerrys and more than half picked the iPhone.Setting up and managing an iPhone takes a little more time and effort than a BlackBerry, but not enough to act as a deterrent, said Mr. Drouin.

Business-software makers have also developed apps for Apple's App Store. Salesforce.com Inc., which has 500,000 mobile users for its contact-management software, says iPhone owners outnumber BlackBerry owners three to one.

Separately, Apple said Wednesday that white versions of the iPhone 4 won't be available until late July because it had "proven more challenging to manufacture than expected." Apple said the black version isn't affected, though it is also in short supply for the launch.

     The iPhone 4 is no small thing to review. As most readers of Engadget are well aware, in the gadget world a new piece of Apple hardware is a major event, preceded by rumors, speculation, an over-the-top announcement, and finally days, weeks, or months of anticipation from an ever-widening fan base. The iPhone 4 is certainly no exception -- in fact, it may be Apple's most successful launch yet, despite some bumps on the road. We've already seen Apple and AT&T's servers overloaded on the first day of pre-orders, the ship date for the next set of phones pushed back due to high demand, and die-hard fans in line outside of Apple locations a week before the phone is actually available. It's a lot to live up to, and the iPhone 4 is doing its best -- with features like a super-fast A4 CPU, a new front-facing camera and five megapixel shooter on the back, a completely new industrial design, and that outrageous Retina Display, no one would argue that Apple has been asleep at the wheel. So the question turns to whether or not the iPhone 4 can live up to the intense hype. Can it deliver on the promises Steve Jobs made at WWDC, and can it cement Apple's position in the marketplace in the face of mounting competition from the likes of Google and Microsoft? We have the answers to those questions -- and many more -- in our full review, so read on to find out!

Perhaps the most notable change with the new iPhone is the drastic industrial design overhaul -- Apple seems to have completely rethought its strategy on how the phone should look and feel, and the results are nothing if not striking.

In his WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs likened the design of the iPhone 4 to that of a "beautiful, old Leica camera," and as we've said before, he wasn't off the mark. Instead of hewing to the curved, plasticky, silver-bezeled look of the iPhone 3G and 3GS, the company has turned the casing and face of the device into something decidedly more detailed and sophisticated. From the design aesthetic through to the actual build process, Jony Ive and his team have reset what we expect in an iPhone, coming up with something that clearly harkens back to the retro-future Braun designs of Dieter Rams. The iPhone 4 is made up of three basic parts: two pieces of smooth, strengthened glass, and a stainless steel band which wraps around the sides, top, and bottom of the phone. The effect is clean but not simple, and Apple has added little details, like altered volume buttons (what used to be a rocker is now separated into circular clickers labeled + and -), and notches in that metal band which serve to improve radio connections (more on that in a minute). The phone is noticeably thinner than the 3GS at .37 inches compared to .48 inches, but it weighs the same 4.8 ounces, making the whole package seem tighter and denser. It feels great in your hand, with good heft, although it might take a little time to get used to the lack of a rounded back if you're coming from the 3G or 3GS.

We can't overstate how high-end the design of the iPhone 4 is. The 3GS now feels cheap and chubby by comparison, and even a phone like the HTC Droid Incredible -- which just came out -- seems last-generation.

As we said, there are three main pieces of the phone, which together create an effect not wildly dissimilar to that of an ice cream sandwich. You know, but far pricier... and not edible. The face of the device is made up of extremely strong glass which Jony Ive says is "comparable in strength to sapphire crystal, but about 30 times harder than plastic." A small slit for the earpiece and the front-facing camera are embedded in the glass above the display, with the familiar home button towards the bottom -- a button we should note feels much clickier than on our 3GS. On the left side of the phone you've got the new volume buttons, a redesigned mute switch, and a small notch towards the base of the unit. On the right side is the Micro SIM slot and another notch in the band at the bottom, and up top there's the power / sleep button, headphone jack, another notch, and new noise-canceling microphone. Along the bottom is a speaker, microphone, and the 30-pin dock connector port. The backside of the phone is made from the same kind of ultra-strong glass as the front, interrupted only by the new five megapixel camera, its LED flash companion and, of course, the Apple logo.

We're not going to beat around the bush -- in our approximation, the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market right now. The combination of gorgeous new hardware, that amazing display, upgraded cameras, and major improvements to the operating system make this an extremely formidable package. Yes, there are still pain points that we want to see Apple fix, and yes, there are some amazing alternatives to the iPhone 4 out there. But when it comes to the total package -- fit and finish in both software and hardware, performance, app selection, and all of the little details that make a device like this what it is -- we think it's the cream of the current crop. We won't argue that a lot of this is a matter of taste -- some people will just prefer the way Android or Symbian works to the iPhone, and others will be on the lookout for a hardware keyboard or a particular asset that the iPhone 4 lacks -- but in terms of the total picture, it's tough to deny that Apple has moved one step past the competition with this phone. Of course, in the hyper-accelerated smartphone market where the Next Big Thing seems to always be just around the corner, it's anyone's guess how long they keep that edge.

Hot of the heels of the U.K. getting unlocked iPhones, Engadget notes that Canadians will get to share the same privilege. iPhone 4 in Canada will be available on Rogers, Bell, and Telus and this allows users to choose any carrier they like. The iPhone 4 is an international phone so the no-committment pricing allows you to throw in a SIM anywhere you are in the world as well. Just like in the U.K. and U.S. special carrier pricing with a contract will be made available for those who don't want to shell out in return the flexibility of an unlocked phone.

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The newest iPhone comes out in two weeks; the Android OS continues to deploy on better and better hardware; and both operating systems roll out exciting new features and innovations with each release. So which deserves your hard-earned cash? A Starting Point You can evaluate iPhone and Android devices from countless angles,[1] so rather than pretend that we've got the One True Comparison, it only seems appropriate to highlight that we're not necessarily your average user. For more specifics on how we judge these devices, read this footnote.

For our purposes, we're measuring each phone OS against 20 features we care about most, declaring a winner (or a tie) for each category, and adding it all up. The extent to which our measurements match up with what you most care about may vary, but we suspect that many of you share similar values when it comes to your smartphone.

Ease of Use; Winner: iPhone Android has come a long way in a short time, but from an ease-of-use perspective, the iPhone wins out. You can pick up any iPhone and quickly, easily understand what's going on. It's got one main button on the front of the device, and everything you do consists of tapping app icons from the home screen. Android devices have several buttons on the front of the device that perform a variety of functions, and once you unlock the screen (and depending on which Android device you have), you're confronted with many different possible home screens and ways of doing things from those home screens.

Openness; Winner: Android We really like that the Android operating system open source, but what's more important to most end users is openness in terms of what you can run on these devices. The operating systems themselves are clearly important, but one thing's abundantly clear: the applications make the phone. And while Google has yet to get in hot water for rejecting apps based on anti-competitive fear or censorship, Apple's has. A lot.

Battery Life; Winner: iPhone Apple has taken battery life extremely seriously in their careful development of the iPhone, and it's shown. While Android devices get a kitchen-sink's worth of features that you may consider to be a fair tradeoff for battery life, there's little question that the iPhone's battery life outlasts that of most Android devices. Battery performance definitely varies from Android handset to Android handset (the recently released EVO is taking big hits for its poor battery performance), but the iPhone's battery performance—particularly the new iPhone's performance—generally outlasts Android's.

Multitasking; Tie It's a big deal that the iPhone is finally getting some multitasking support in iOS4, and while it's still not as true of multitasking as Android users enjoy, the tradeoff in terms off battery life improvements is important enough that, overall, we'd consider multitasking to be a wash.

Software Keyboard; Winner: iPhone If you talk to anyone who's used both the iPhone and Android with some frequency, the general consensus is that the iPhone's software keyboard is a good deal better than Android's default keyboard. That's unfortunate for Android users, but the consolation is that you can install any custom keyboard as your default keyboard on Android, and we've seen some solid keyboard alternatives. Still, the advantage, if only by virtue of being better out of the box, goes to the iPhone.

System-Wide Search; Tie Apple's implementation of Spotlight on the iPhone searches contacts, media, email, applications, notes, and calendar. Android searches most of that (but notably not email), but also integrates with auto-suggest web searches; it also lets other applications plug into it, so the more supported apps you install, the more robust the universal search becomes.

Notification system; Winner: Android This may seem like a silly thing to care too much about, but the iPhone's modal notification system is particularly user un-friendly, especially for a device as friendly as the iPhone. You have to act on a notification, and you can only see one notification at a time before the next one dismisses the previous one entirely. Android's brilliant pull-down window shade notification tray, on the other hand, is a beautiful thing that could make any iPhone owner jealous.

Voice-to-Text; Winner: Android Nearly every text field on an Android device can be filled with a few words from your mouth, and it works surprisingly well. You can respond to emails by voice, send long text messages by voice while you're walking around Target, respond to your editor's IMs while you're at a graduation ceremony, and so on, as long as you're comfortable talking to your phone (it is a phone, so you should be). Apart from voice-to-text in third party apps, iOS doesn't support voice-to-text at all.

Syncing; Winner: Android iPhones can be incredible standalone devices, but they're surprisingly old-fashioned when it comes to syncing, requiring users to plug into their computers and connect to iTunes to do all sorts of syncing and activating that could be more conveniently done wirelessly. Android phones support pretty great over-the-air syncing with your Google account, so much so that if you were to lose your previous Android phone, simply entering your Google account into a new one can get you up and running with a usable phone in a jiffy.

Non-Google Sync; Winner: iPhone Android's great at syncing seamlessly with Google's servers, but it's not so keen on syncing with other popular sources of data—like, say, Outlook, Address Book, or iTunes. If you're a heavy user of any of those applications, the iPhone is the easiest option.

Tethering; Winner: Android The cost of tethering on Android devices varies depending on the provider, but so far the Android tethering situation is better off than what AT&T is offering on the iPhone. In the States, AT&T will charge you $20/month just for the privilege of tethering your iPhone's data connection to a computer—despite the fact that you're already paying for a metered data plan. The situation isn't necessarily much better across the Android-sphere (Sprint is also planning to charge for tethering on the EVO, for example), but currently most Android carriers are sticking with "unlimited" plans, versus AT&T/iPhone's 2GB limit. It's still a close race on this point, but Android edges ahead with the ability to turn your handset into a Wi-Fi hotspot that can deliver wireless to you and seven of your closest friends.

Release and Update Consistency; Winner: iPhone These days, your mobile OS is just as important (if not more) than mobile hardware, and Apple has set the consumer expectation to expect that their device will receive new feature updates even if it isn't the latest phone. To that end, it's extremely easy to keep track of what's going on in the iPhone ecosystem. Apple releases one new phone a year, and one major update each year. When an update rolls out, every phone receives the update at the same time (unless it's particularly old; the original iPhone won't upgrade to iOS4, for example). In contrast, Android runs on a lot of different devices, and when Google pushes out a new update, there's no telling when or if it's going to make its way to your phone. In the future Google is planning to change to yearly Android updates similar to iPhone OS updates, which will likely help this situation, but in the meantime, it's a source of frustration for Android users.

Apps; Tie A lot of people may disagree on this assessment, given that Apple's App Store has around four times the number of applications the Android Market does, but there's also a lot of crap in the App Store, and at this point, most popular, mission-critical applications have been developed for both the iPhone and Android. What's more, some potentially very popular applications end up locked out of the App Store for, if we're being generous, arbitrary reasons. At the end of the day, it may be a big deal that your must-have application X is missing from the Android Market/App Store, and those may end up to be dealbreakers for you, but overall we'd call them pretty even.

Web browsing; Tie The iPhone's Mobile Safari browser, while not without its faults, is a very nice, very usable mobile browser. Android's browser, while not as smooth an operator as Safari, supports (or can support) Flash. The extent to which that matters to you may vary, but it's big enough that we're considering it a tie.

Gaming; Winner: iPhone We're frugal productivity nerds at Lifehacker, so we don't really care all that much about gaming. And while the number of solid gaming options available in the Android Market continue to grow, it's still not on par with what's available for the iPhone.

Music Player; Winner: iPhone Android may do a lot of things well, but one arena where its users regularly voice complaint is with its default media player. Where the iPhone comes with a very solid iPod app, most Android users quickly go looking for alternative players. Google is hyping over-the-internet streaming of all your music from your desktop computer eventually, but until we see something great there, the iPhone still wins out.

Free Turn-by-Turn Navigation; Winner: Android After the Google Voice debacle from last year, it's looking less and less likely that Google will ever develop another new app for the iPhone. Unfortunately, that means that extremely cool applications like Google Maps Navigation, Google's free turn-by-turn GPS application, will never make it to the iPhone, and so far there isn't anything as good for the iPhone that's also free. The iPhone does have its share of solid for-a-price GPS utilities in the App Store (and some decent inexpensive-to-free options), but Maps Navigation is built into Android and outshines the iPhone's free alternatives.

Integration with Google Apps; Winner: Android If you rely on Google tools like Gmail, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, and the like, Android just does it better. The iPhone's still no slouch, and can sync over-the-air with Contacts, Calendar, and even does Gmail push for instant new message notifications, but if you're a serious Google or even just Gmail user, the iPhone doesn't stack up to Android.

Google Voice; Winner: Android It may seem absurd to make this a separate point of comparison from Google Apps, but Voice is a very phone-centric app with potentially huge influence over how you use your phone. Apple had the option to approve a Google Voice app for the iPhone and completely blew it. And since we really love Google Voice, it only makes Android look that much more attractive.

Customizable; Winner: Android You may be able to add a wallpaper to your iPhone desktop when iOS4 rolls out, but beyond that, there's not much you can do to tweak your iPhone to exactly how you like it—without jailbreaking, that is. In comparison, Android devices are Mr. Potato Heads of customizability.

Overall Score: Android: 13; iPhone: 11 Clearly our scorecard is extremely subjective, so take this evaluation with a grain of salt, and consider how important the features we listed (and maybe those we didn't list) are to you and come up with your own assessment. If your priorities are similar to ours, you're likely looking at an Android for your next purchase. Frankly, it feels a little like a draw overall. (My ideal would be Android running on the iPhone 4, which is actually possible, eventually.)

In fact, in our recent poll on the subject, 66 percent of Lifehacker readers said they prefer Android; 30 percent prefer the iPhone, and 4 percent preferred neither. Whichever end of the spectrum you fall on, we'd love to hear more about what's driving your decision in the comments.

Pros:

• Multitasking – The big one, and what users have been clamouring for since the beginning, Apple has devised a way to allow programs to run as background processes in a way that doesn’t harm the CPU and battery. Really, their solution comes just short of true multitasking, allowing key processes for certain apps to run in the background while resources can be directed to apps in the foreground. So now you can finally run Pandora while checking your mail, or take calls from Skype while browsing while your phone’s performance won’t take a hit. Other implementations include backgrounded location for GPS and social media programs, Push notifications, and local notifications.
• Folders – A common niggling complaint among iPhone and iPod Touch users is that their devices just don’t have a great way to organize apps on the homescreen. In iPhone OS 4.0, Apple has created Folders as a way to organize apps that correspond to their respective App Store categories, or whatever the user wants them to be. Just drag an icon and hover it over another to make a folder on the fly.
• Wallpapers - Took them long enough.
• Enhanced Mail – In OS 4.0’s Mail app, you’ll now have a unified inbox that can handle multiple accounts, as well as threaded messages and attachments for third-party apps. Combined with multitasking, you can open an attachment in Mail that opens another app in what will hopefully be a seamless experience. Very cool.
• Enterprise – Deploying multiple iPhones over a business network is made easier and with security as a focus. Also, company-developed apps can be downloaded right from the jump, bypassing the App Store.

In just those five points, Apple has covered its bases pretty well: Again, multitasking is the biggie, but these address some of the biggest and most widespread user complaints about iPhone OS 3. However, not all is as rosy as seen through Steve Jobs’ glasses.

Cons:

• Support – OS 4.0 will be available in all it’s proposed glory for the iPhone 3GS and 3rd Generation iPod Touches. 3G and 2nd gen models of the respective devices will only have “many” features, with multitasking conspicuously absent from them. Jobs explained that the decision was a non-issue as older models simply don’t support these new features, but was vague as to what exactly might be missing. And if you’re an iPhone 2G or 1st gen iPod Touch user, you’re pretty much out of luck. This also begs the question of how OS 3.2 will be handled after this release. So, if you can’t pony up the dough for the new tech, you may have to keep on jailbreaking keep on dutifully abiding by Apple’s TOS.
• Unsigned Apps – During the Q&A session after the event, one audience member asked if users can expect a future app store that didn’t hinge on Apple’s approval, citing Android and WebOS’s offerings. Jobs’ response was a flat and unsurprising no. Apple’s control over the App Store hinges on their not wanting porn apps that might be downloaded by children, although it should be noted Mobile Safari already accesses plenty of porn sites optimized for the iPhone. Not a blemish on the OS itself, but yet more fuel to the App Store management fire.
• No Flash. Period. – Apple has made it clear that it will not budge on the HTML5 vs. Flash debate. How this will turn out is anyone’s guess, but what can be considered a con now might be a pro in coming years as sites slowlly embrace the new standard.

Other points of interest:

• No clear release date or pricing, though we might be safe to guess at a similar scheme to previous iterations: Free for the iPhone, $10 for the iPod Touch. The developer copy, however, went live today.
• OS 4.0 for the iPad will be released this fall. Presumably to work out the kinks?
• iBooks – Jobs made a big deal about the iBookstore when the iPad was unveiled, and, with over 600k iBooks downloaded to date, it has been successful. iPhone OS 4.0 supports the iBookstore, which looks just as it did on the iPad. Only smaller.
• No mention made of the rumoured iPhone 4G.
• Game Center – A social gaming platform that will include achievements and leaderboards similar to Xbox Live. It will likely replace existing platforms like ngmoco plus+, but Jobs assured those in attendance that the same people who would potentially be in competition with them have worked with them on it.
• iAd – This is Apple’s foray into advertising, and Jobs wasn’t shy about saying they’re “babes in the woods.” However, this seemed to excite him a great deal. Going so far to say that mobile advertising “really sucks” right now (It kind of does), Apple has attempted to combine the interactivity of web-based ads with the emotionality of televised one. What this translates to is highly interactive, app-like ads that make use of HTML5 video and that hover over the app the user might be using. Simply click on an ad within an app, play around with it or even make a purchase, and then go right back to what you were doing. Apple plans on selling and hosting these ads, with 60% of the revenue going to developers. Pro? Con? App developers will surely like some extra cashflow, but it could still go either way from a user’s perspective, depending on how it’s actually used.

Apple has unveiled its new iPhone 4 after a couple wild, unprecedented months of leaks. Sure, it looks exactly like we expected it to (Steve compares it to an old Leica camera), with a glass front and back, but it's what's on the inside that counts, kids. The stainless steel band that goes around the phone is an antenna system, while also providing the main structure of the phone, though it's plugged into the same old GSM / UMTS radio you all know and love -- there's a reason they didn't call it the iPhone 4G. There's also of course that front facing camera we were all anticipating, a rear camera with LED flash, and a new high resolution display that doubles the pixels in each direction (960 x 640) for a 4X overall pixel count increase -- Apple calls it a "Retina Display." It's rated at 326ppi, which Apple claims is beyond the human eye's limit of distinction. Check out an example of the new screen up against the iPhone 3G after the break. Similar to the iPad, it's an IPS display, offering 800:1 contrast. Naturally, it's still the same old 3.5-inch size. Under the hood is the A4 processor that runs the iPad. Despite the new engine (and the 25% thinner chassis), Apple managed to make the battery slightly larger, and the new handset is rated at 7 hours of 3G talk, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, and 40 hours of music. Oh, and that WiFi? It's 802.11n now. The camera has been bumped to 5 megapixels, with 5X digital zoom and a "backside illuminated sensor," which now can also record HD video at 720p / 30fps.

On the software front, applications will automatically get high resolution text and buttons as part of iOS 4 (the OS previously known as iPhone OS 4), and with "a little bit of work" developers can make their entire app compatible with the new resolution display. Developers will also get access to a new gyroscope, giving devs "six axis" motion control between the gyroscope, accelerometer, and compass, with a new "Core Motion" API to deal with it all. Users won't be left out in the cold, however: they can mess around with that new HD video using a brand new iMovie app, if they shell out $4.99 for it. If anyone's feeling particularly frisky, iOS 4 even lets you switch your default search provider to Bing. Last but certainly not least, that new front camera is enabled for video chat using the new "FaceTime" feature.