Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs has revealed the next iPhone, which will have a higher-resolution screen, longer battery life and thinner design.
Mr Jobs opened Apple's annual conference for software developers in San Francisco by demonstrating the iPhone 4, which will cost £137 (circa €166) and £206 (€250) with a two-year AT&T contract, depending on the capacity.
The iPhone 3GS, which debuted last year, will still be available. Some of the mystery surrounding Apple's latest creation had been punctured in April, when tech blog Gizmodo bought a lost iPhone prototype for £3,400 and posted pictures of the unit. Apple demanded it back and authorities have been investigating whether a Gizmodo editor broke any laws.
"Stop me if you've already seen this," Mr Jobs said as he started his demo.
The iPhone 4, which comes out on June 24, is sleeker and more advanced than the original iPhone that came out in 2007. Like the iPhone 3GS, it comes in black or white, though it has a more angular look. Its front and back are covered with glass and it is rimmed with stainless steel that acts as part of the phone's antenna.
It is about three-eighths of an inch thick; the iPhone 3GS is nearly half an inch. It can shoot high-definition video, catching up to some other smartphones. It has a gyroscope in addition to other sensors, to enable more advanced motion-sensing applications, such as games and mapping services.
The display on the iPhone remains 3.5ins diagonally, but Mr Jobs noted that it can show four times as many pixels - the individual coloured dots that make up an image - as the previous screen. That makes for a sharper appearance. One of the most noticeable changes is the iPhone's new camera on the front that can be used for videoconferencing, in addition to a five-megapixel camera and a flash on the back.
For now, the videoconferencing function, FaceTime, works only if both parties to the call have an iPhone 4 and are connected over wi-fi rather than a mobile phone network. Mr Jobs indicated that FaceTime would eventually work over mobile networks, saying Apple needed to "work a little bit" with wireless providers to make it "ready for the future".
The battery on the new iPhone will allow up to seven hours of talk time. The new phone will run the latest version of Apple's mobile software, now called iOS4, which Apple unveiled in April to offer such features as the ability to operate more than one program at a time.