Edible Apple

Needham & Company analyst Charles Wolf is endlessly impressed with Apple’s latest iPhone offering.

“The iPhone 4 is arguably the most disruptive product Apple has had in three years, or two years certainly,” Wolf explained, they’ve redefined what a smart phone is. Apple has always had a lead in software, but now with the A4 chip, they have one with hardware, as well.”

Wolf was particularly taken aback by Apple’s customary attention to detail and with the iPhone 4’s flagship new feature – FaceTime.

It’s not just the attention to the detail [in the iPhone], but it’s the unrelenting focus on the user that really distinguishes this company from the competition. Everybody is playing catch up [with Apple,]

FaceTime is going to be an app that makes this phone unique for quite a while. The overall impression of the competitors, Microsoft or Android, is that they are a generation or an upgrade cycle behind the iPhone. And they always will be.

That’s spot on because Apple is hardly a company that rests on its laurels and basks in the glow of their past successes. They’re constantly innovating to stay ahead of the curve, and just when competitors think they’ve finally caught up, Apple pulls ahead. Steve Jobs mentioned in his WWDC closing remarks that the iPhone’s front-facing camera and accompanying FaceTime feature was the result of “18 months of work to create software you’ll never even notice when you want to make a video call.”

In other words, Apple began working on FaceTime in December 2008, back when the iPhone 3G was Apple’s baby. It’s a slow, consistent grind, and Apple has it down to a science.