iPhone 4 unveiled by Apple

"This may be the push I need to be fully Apple blooded"

Steve Jobs revealed the fourth version of Apple's smartphone, the iPhone 4, tonight and said the company was bringing its ebook application, iBooks, from the iPad tablet onto the iPhone.

In a move aimed at cornering the ebook market, Jobs unveiled the new version of the iPhone and showed off its display – which he said could show content so clearly it was virtually indistinguishable from text on paper.

That is a clear threat to Amazon's ebook reader, Kindle, which has struggled to win approval from book publishers despite being launched years before the iPad, which only went on sale in April.

"Five out of six publishers tell us that sales of their ebooks [through Apple] are at 22% right now," Jobs told the company's annual event focused on new technology in San Francisco.

While Amazon has declined to offer sales figures for the Kindle, despite starting international sales last year, Apple has announced sales figures for its iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad at every opportunity. Jobs told the audience that the 100 millionth of those devices would be sold this month.

That presents a huge opportunity for book publishers looking for a platform where they can control prices. Amazon has tried to set prices for ebooks against publishers' wishes, while Apple has given them freedom to set charges; it takes a slice of the retail prices in return for hosting them on iBooks.

The iPhone 4 is less than 10mm thick compared with 12mm for its predecessor last year, the iPhone 3GS. The screen has roughly four times as much detail as before. There is also a front-facing camera, which could be used for videoconferencing, in addition to one on the back for pictures. Jobs called it "the biggest leap since the original iPhone".

Apple is the biggest technology company by market value, having passed Microsoft at the end of last month. Though its shares fell by 1.5% before Jobs began speaking the company's stock has already gained more than 20% during 2010.

The iPhone 4 will be sold in the UK through O2, Orange and Vodafone. It includes a gyroscope and a faster processor similar to that in the iPad. It also offers longer battery life, Jobs said, and uses a ceramic case, giving it improved signal reception.

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