What’s so special about the iPhone 4? Not much, but if it’s made by Apple, it must be great, right?

Since Apple’s release of the iPhone in 2007, people have envied those fortunate enough to have one, gasped at the mention of a release of an updated version and waited in lines for hours just to claim one. The iPhone set the bar for all smartphones and, unfortunately, no other phone has been able to grasp that bar.

When it was first released, the iPhone was like the Ferrari of phones: fun, yet sleek and sophisticated. If you had one, people knew you were a big deal. Now it isn’t as unique and exclusive as it used to be, but that doesn’t mean it has gone out of style.

Apple broke its monogamous relationship with AT&T Feb. 10, when the iPhone became available through Verizon Wireless. Star News captured images of people lined up as early as 4:30 a.m. outside of the Verizon store on South College Road to get their hands on one. No other phone has received such a warm welcome.

With all of the iPhone hype in the air, it’s puzzling as to why the phone has remained so popular when there are just as powerful, if not more powerful, new —not seven months old like the iPhone 4— smartphones on the market. The Droid X, powered by Android, is arguably a better phone than the iPhone 4. It has better camera and video camera quality, longer talk time, WiFi Hotspot and SWYPE, a program that tracks the path of your finger to make texting easier. The only major difference between the two phones is that the iPhone 4 can make video calls, but I don’t think that’s the deciding factor that causes people to buy it.

The reason that no smartphone can seem to outdo the iPhone is because of Apple’s reputation of making the reliable, modern, high-tech products that everyone thinks are trendy. Apple’s iPods, Mac computers, iPads and iPhones are sought-after products that companies can’t beat because people want products with the Macintosh apple on them. People often mistake my Android phone for an iPhone because they are so similar, and I quickly tell them that it’s not an iPhone. It may look, perform and cost the same as an iPhone, but because it doesn’t have the Apple logo on the back, it isn’t quite as prestigious.

Basically, it’s Apple’s world, and we’re just living in it. Anything the company comes out with, people are going to buy because everyone wants the latest and greatest. People will continue to wake up at the crack of dawn and stand in line for hours to buy the newest version of the iPhone no matter how many times it drops calls or the “shatterproof” screen ironically shatters. The envious glares they get from other iPhone-wannabe owners are enough to outweigh any drawbacks the phone might have. Unfortunately for competitors like Android and Blackberry, no other smartphone stands a chance of knocking the iPhone off its throne any time soon.