1. Price
The original iPhone was innovative and groundbreaking. It also was an
expensive toy. Sure, around the country both technophiles and the
masses lined up to procure the original iPhone, but at $599 and $699
for the 8GB and 16GB models, respectively, the audience remained
somewhat limited. As time passed, as the models’ prices dropped, and as
the device’s reputation spread, the iPhone picked up more steam. But
even Jobs himself admitted that about 50 percent of people surveyed who
didn’t buy an iPhone said that they didn’t because of price.
With Apple’s iPhone price drop, announced today, you pay significantly
less money up front at the time of purchase: The 8GB iPhone will sell
for $199, just one-third the price that the 4GB iPhone sold for at
launch a year ago. The 16GB model will sell for $299.
Those prices put Apple’s smart phone into the reach of more consumers
than ever before. Only four handsets on our current Top 10 smart phones
chart–Palm’s Centro ($100 with a Sprint contract, $200 with an
AT&T contract), T-Mobile’s Shadow ($200 with contract) and Dash
($150 with contract), and RIM’s BlackBerry Pearl ($150 with a T-Mobile
contract)–cost less than the least expensive iPhone. And the iPhone
3G, with its integrated audio and video player, Web browsing, and GPS,
offers far more versatility than any of those competing phones
2. 3G Browsing Speed
One of the biggest drawbacks of using a mobile phone for Web activities
is the lag time. Much as point-and-shoot digital cameras frustrate
their users with seemingly interminable shutter lag, cell phone users
roll their eyes at how long it can take for a Web page to load.
The first-gen iPhone notably omitted 3G wireless in favor of the more
widely available–and significantly slower–EDGE connectivity. A year
later, 3G seems even more necessary than before, as Web pages grow more
graphically intensive.
Now that a 3G-capable iPhone has been unveiled, it’s hard to imagine
going back to not having 3G. According to Apple, Web pages will load up
to 2.8 times faster. That’s a compelling argument: I’ve waited for what
felt like hours for a PC World Shopping price-comparison page to load
on my old EDGE-based Treo when I’ve been shopping in a store, for
example. I’d much rather get the information I want sooner, rather than
twiddling my thumbs and reaching for a cup of coffee.
Unfortunately, 3G wireless service on AT&T has one catch: AT&T
Wireless’s service plans for the iPhone 3G will follow the company’s
standard pricing structure, which means that you’ll be paying for
whatever pricing plan you choose plus AT&T’s unlimited 3G data
services ($30 a month for personal use, $45 a month for business use).
Individual users will see their iPhone bill jump by $10.
3. Greater International Support
From a multilingual keyboard that you can change out on the fly to a
user-removable SIM card (a SIM-card ejector comes with the iPhone 3G),
new features in this model make it much more viable for international
use. Whether you need to access the Web while overseas, or you want to
swap out your SIM card (presumably, after an unspecified period of
time, AT&T will let its customers unlock the phone for
international use, as the company has allowed with its more standard
phones), this model is better than the original.
4. Applications Galore
Based on what I saw at the WWDC Keynote, Apple’s approach to
application development may pay off in spades. Developing applications
appears simple, limited only by the constraints of developers’
imaginations. Distributing the software through iTunes is
genius–turning to a single repository to procure content is far easier
than scouring the Web for random Symbian, Palm, Windows Mobile, or
BlackBerry apps you may want to download.
I see tremendous potential for useful–and downright fun–applications
to come out of the development process now that the iPhone software
developer’s kit is available. The potential for future apps, coupled
with the iPhone’s existing programs–its iPod video and audio
capabilities, its photo album, its easy e-mail, its Google Maps and
YouTube apps–makes the iPhone 3G a unique offering in the mobile arena.
5. iPhone: Still at the Head of the Class
A funny thing happened in the past year: For all the hoopla, for all
the assertions that the iPhone was a game-changer, the truth is, not
much has changed in the landscape of the cell phone universe in the
past year. It’s almost as if Apple is so far ahead in its innovation
and thinking that it has a seemingly insurmountable lead over its
competitors, and is in a realm of its own as a result.
The reality is, none of the so-called iPhone killers have come close to
challenging the iPhone’s media handling and ease of use. That could
change in the coming months as more cell phone vendors introduce
updates to their lines (RIM, for example, is rumored to be working on a
touch-screen interface, though its next flagship model, the BlackBerry
Bold, does not have a touch screen). In the meantime, however, Apple
will just be building on its solid head start.
Admittedly, not everyone will want–or need–to buy an iPhone 3G. For
one thing, the much-anticipated iPhone 2.0 software upgrade that will
enable the App Store for downloading applications, announced earlier
this year, will be free to all first-generation-iPhone owners.
Furthermore, some people may want to hold out for a more substantial
hardware upgrade, such as additional storage, a better camera, or other
heretofore unimagined hardware bonuses.
I may queue up for an iPhone 3G. Or I may be patient and wait for the
next big thing–which for me would be inclusion of features like 32GB
of memory.
