The Draw of the 4S

The iPhone 4S, latest in a long line of Apple smartphones, is still selling by the bucketload, with four million of them sold by the end of last week. This is a given - it's an iPhone, and these wonderful phones are going to keep selling as Apple continuously updates and improves the iPhone with new features, software, and looks as time goes on. But why are people routinely choosing the iPhone as the number one option?

Well, for starters, whether you're a stockbroker, a www.Partypoker.com pro or a retail store manager, it's hard to give an example of where it wouldn't be useful. Not only is it a powerful bit of kit, it's also got the potential, via the App Store, to offer a lot more than it does as a base unit, from scanning barcodes to playing Angry Birds when you're bored on the train.

It's also got the potential to change what people expect from their phones - anything that isn't an iPhone now has an incredibly high standard to meet if it's retailing for the same price as an iPhone model with similar specs. Android and WP7 handsets are doing a good job, with Androids availability on almost every device making it a clear market leader, with iPhones doing extremely well given that iOS only works on Apple devices.

But this is good for the market, as competition breeds innovation, or alternatively, really high-quality copies, as Apple's many, many lawsuits would seem to indicate. What the future holds for this company isn't clear, as Apple may keep spreading further into touch devices and new tech (smartphones weren't one of its focus products in 2000, believe it or not), or it might end up keeping the iPhone, iPod, iMac and Macbook ranges as its primary tasks, as well as OSX. Time will tell, but for now, when it comes to smartphones, the iPhone tends to hold court as the most popular choice for those with a big budget.