Now that the WWDC08 keynote has come and gone, we’ve learned very little that we didn’t already know. The iPhone 3G will be here on July 11, and will retail for $199 for an 8GB phone, $299 for a 16GB phone, available in white or black. OS X 10.6 will, as expected, be code-named “Snow Leopard,” additional details to follow for sure. The App Store will feature some amazing new software, and Apple’s new MobileMe is mere weeks away. Watch the “read more” link on this story for continued updates from around the web. If you’d like to read the play-by-play on the WWDC announcement, see Macrumors Live. UPDATED within.
Apple posted a press release on Snow Leopard, but it seems to have been taken down. Luckily, we grabbed a screenshot before it was pulled.
Click the image for a larger version
Well everyone got what was expected and the price difference is nice. I’ll keep with my iPhone first generation and who knows WiMax may be in it this time next year. Only wish they would had talked about some Mac updates. MacMini is hurting badly and Mac displays haven’t been updated since the 486 was released.
Don’t hold your breath for WiMax in the iPhone. When it does get next gen data, it’ll probably be in the form or 4G LTE.
Just remember,
it’s $199 with 2 years contract only… and who knows how much in every other country…
From Macrumorslive.com
11:46 am The iPhone 3G will be available July 11th in 22 countries. The maximum price around the world is $199 USD. Now showing an ad.
Maximum price around the world is $199 USD
Edited 2008-06-09 20:11 UTC
from Apple press release:
“In the US the new iPhone 3G is priced at a stunning $199 for the 8GB model, and just $299 for the 16GB model.**”
and then:
“** Based on iPhone 3G (8GB) and first generation iPhone (8GB) purchases. Requires new two year AT&T rate plan, sold separately.“
You can’t ask for the world price and quote the US pricing information.
According to all the live blogs they announced the maximum price worldwide is $199 (for the 8GB I am guessing).
I have no doubt that Apple will have carrier exclusive contracts in the 70 worldwide markets and that the phone will be locked and require a service plan.
Your question was answered accurately. Unless of course macrumors wrongly printed that info.
Edited 2008-06-09 20:33 UTC
“”The price is a maximum of $199 all around the world — we’re really, really excited about the new iPhone 3G. And as you might expect, we have a new ad! I’d love to show it to you.” Lights are down… spy theme.”
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/09/steve-jobs-keynote-live-from-wwd…
Edited 2008-06-09 20:43 UTC
I believe that his point was that $199 is NOT the total cost of the phone, after you factor in the 2 year service contract. According to sources that I’ve read, AT&T is going to charge somewhere in the ballpark of $30-45 per month for unlimited data. Put those costs together, and you have a very pricey little device.
Why would they suddenly change the current $20 unlimited data to $30-$45? I seriously doubt Apple will allow that especially after they just announced a major price drop to get more customers.
Why would that be different for any other 3G device that AT&T sells?
Edited 2008-06-10 03:43 UTC
You are right the 3G data plan is going to be $30 and $45 for business users.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080609/20080609006325.html?.v=1
In contrast the Blackberry dataplan is $35.
Edited 2008-06-10 05:38 UTC
Here’s the way it works. AT&T is subsidizing Apple as much as $200 for each phone so that it can drop the initial price of the iPhone to $199. That means the unsubsidized price of the phone is somewhere in the ballpark of $400. In order to cover this subsidy, AT&T is increasing the price of the unlimited data rate from $20 to $30-45 per month. So, in fact, when you buy a new iPhone, you are really paying somewhere between $440 to $800 ($199 + (30 – 20) * 24)… ($199 + (45-20) * 24). Apple is being very smart/sneaky here. They’re moving the costs to the cellular carrier, and betting that the average buyer will be too stupid to realize how much they’re paying (since spending $30 – 45 per month doesn’t seem like a lot, until you do the math).
To some degree, all phone manufacturers are subsidized by carriers — but Apple is particularly egregious. My advice to anyone who is thinking about getting one of these phones is to do a little math before you unwittingly lay down all that cash (unless, of course, cash is no obstacle). These devices APPEAR competitively priced compared to other smartphones, but in my opinion, they’re way overpriced.
Edited 2008-06-10 07:18 UTC
Where are you getting this information? It appears to be nothing but FUD.
It’s all over the place. But start here:
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=2009
AT&Ts smartphone plans start at $35 so I call FUD on that. So any smartphone with a data plan is going to be expensive in the long run. The whole point of having 3g is to use a cellular networks data plan. Last I checked there were no free data plans.
T-Mobile is $29.99-$39.99
Verizon’s basic smartphone plans with data start out at $79.99 with 450 minutes.
so no tethering? that sucks.
Not open to other carriers? that sucks
3g is still only in major cities. I live outside of town and they dont cover me.
It looks like i might have to go with a blackberry.
Why would I choose a worse network, a lockin and a slower speed over Verizon?
Good luck on hitting that 10million mark Steve.
10 million doesn’t seems too much to me. There’s more than 3 billion people living in urban area according to the UN.
Hi, did you know that there were countries outside of North America?
10 million won’t be difficult now that the phone is to be available in 70 countries, many of which are well covered with 3G data access of one kind or another.
I’m in one of the areas AT&T supports but I use my Sprint phone outside those areas and I tether it, so iPhone is still not a total solution for me.
People in Europe and Asia will be thrilled and the rush will look quite amazing. I can still wait, though, but I’m interested in how well it’ll support Japanese, Chinese, and Korean as my current Samsung phone doesn’t. Most phones, even those “world phones” don’t.
yes, I’m aware of other countries exist but didn’t think it was expected to do well there. Since nobody can know for sure how well it will take off in Europe since this is the first 3g iphone. American exports dont typically do well in Europe for alot of reasons. The fact the US is so unpopular there right now probably wont help either.
I’m on Satellite on private property so cable/dsl doesn’t run in this area. I was really hoping to drop Satellite and use a phone network at home. iphone will not allow that to happen so Verizon or Sprint is the only choice which im trying to avoid.
Tethering is a huge feature for many people. Why its not included is disappointing. Now i’ll have to pay 80 for my Satellite plus the $80 or whatever it is for the iphone/gps data plan.
But if I get a blackberry I kill two birds with one stone. There is a huge market for this if they wanted it.
Edited 2008-06-09 20:12 UTC
It must be hard to be US citizen, specially when new hardware is released that has functionality that USA has not yet discovered.
Here in Sweden all operators have 3G.
According to an article that was written about 3G coverage in Sweden, the TWO major operators gives 3G to 6 559 087 swedish people, in total there lives 9^A 182^A 927 people (year 2007). That is 71% coverage in Sweden only.
As someone else wrote, North America is not the center of the world and definitely NOT the only market for Apple.
True Sweden has great 3G coverage. But by your own data Sweden has a fraction of the population of the US and at a fraction of the size area wise. The US also has a lot of older infrastructure items and replacing them is a huge undertaking an order of magnitude higher than Sweden.
May I suggest you look at the legislation within the US which makes rolling out technology alot slower and more costly than most other countries. Take high speed broadband, it is illegal to role out the infrastructure in ‘wealthy suburbs’ first and neglect the poor ones – in otherwords, they’re forced to spend billions rolling out services in areas that provide no immediate return on investment.
Cripes, if we had that sort of monumental stupid legislation like that in New Zealand – there wouldn’t be a single DSLAM in any exchange in NZ; we’d all be using dial up. Same can be said for mobile phone infrastructure as well. Before you start ‘blaming’ the geography, how about looking at the stupid legislation that is passed.
OK, how about taking a state like Georgia as an example?
Sweden has about the same population as Georgia, but almost 10 times the area. So if the difference in 3G penetration is only because of geography, I expect you to find proof that Georgia has 100% coverage.
Australia can be a good example of 3G coverage.
Not the largest population but the area of coverage to hit +90% of Australian’s means a lot of towers. Apparently Optus has the best coverage at 96% of Australian’s aiming for 98% in 2009.
Most carriers here have very good 3g coverage and it’s become the standard especially in metro areas. There is no way the first gen iphone would have sold well in Australia.
From the looks of it it’s going to at least pack a punch with a lot of people now, especially for the price. Assuming there aren’t any archaic data plan’s it should be a winner.
As far as Aussie data plans go i use 10Mb a month on 3 mobile (Hutchinson) but there are data plans over 50Mb a month last i saw. for browsing in opera mini it’s nice and cheap. ($5 extra on my $49 cap)
I’m interested in seeing if HTC can hit the ground running or whether apple can get a foothold. If not, the world will move on back to nokia and sony.
That is because Australia can do gradual roll outs of infrastructure; the problem with the US, they have legislation that doesn’t allow for that. If you roll out, you have to roll out for the WHOLE area, not just selective parts – under the flawed logic that if they don’t force telecommunication companies to do so, it would create ‘technology slums’. Yes, it is flawed logic, but try explaining that to Americans on here, its impossible.
They are making great progress, but I still can’t see myself being locked into a 2yr contract for a phone that will be be outdated 1yr later, and is carrier locked. I will continue to hold out for a nice Android phone for now. That newly refreshed interface, and open platform has me all excited.
If I could scoop up the 8GB for $299 w/o contract, I might consider it. That price would be competitive with what you pay for decent unlocked phones.
Really? How many times does Verizon of T-Mobile or Sprint offer a new subsidized phone and a smidgeon of more minutes, if you just sign up for a new 2 year deal? I get at least one of these offers per quarter.
Can’t believe this thing is comes with a 480×320 display, the minimum for new smart phones these days is VGA resolution.
What the heck are you talking about? QVGA (320×240) is still the most widely screen size available, with few 320×320 around.
Only a handful of smartphones are going as up as 320×480, so what’s the problem?
Perhaps he envisioned a holographic display that expands out to a comfortable distance from the eyes [through proximity sensors] and manages to reproduce an S-IPS quality panel?
Thanks for the Sarcasm, see my post below with examples of links to decent smart phones. Understand that outside of your dream world, the things we talk about are reality even if they are too hard for you to believe!
Let me get this straight. I provide sarcasm and you are calling Sarcasm my dream world?
The point I’m referring to is sarcasm to mock your dream world.
http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=46278
http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=49518
They’re both beautiful and have 640 x 480 resolution displays. If you want a qwerty you can have it or if touch is enough then pick the first. They both ship with Opera mobile. TouchFLO 3D also gives the UI eye candy.
2 models from HTC is a far cry from being a standard for smartphones.
A 2.8″inch screen is tiny. With VGA resolution that would make text very hard to read. From the pictures the amount of screen real estate seems to be about the same or less than an iPhone.
I can easily say that a multi-touch display is now a standard requirement for smartphones but that would be equally flawed.
My 2 years old Sharp Zaurus SL-C 1000 has a beautiful 640×480 display too… Didn’t have to wait for HTC or Apple for that.
Anyway, iPhone 3G will released on july 17th in my country and there will be one for me…
The Zarus was a smartphone. That’s news to me.
Never pretended the Zaurus was a smartphone….
We were talking about the display resolution on mobile devices, the fact that those devices have (or not) a GSM chip is irrelevant since, again we were just talking about screen resolution.
My point is that mobile devices have 640×480 display for years !
The OP mentioned smartphones in particular.
Never mind…
“A 2.8″inch screen is tiny. With VGA resolution that would make text very hard to read.”
Thankfully, smartphones actually take a sane approach to resolution vs. screen size. They understand the concept of DPI. Fonts on a 2.8″ screen at VGA resolution in Windows Mobile are exactly the same size as fonts on a 2.8″ screen at QVGA resolution are. They’re just sharper.
Interestingly I get modded down by the uninformed, presumable those who don’t realise there are markets outside of North America which technologically don’t live in the dark ages.
VGA has been standard on smart phones here in Japan for atleast 2 years, most smart phones coming out now are wide screen VGA (800×480). Incase this is too hard to believe here are some links;
http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/product/X/x01t/index.html#spec (800×480)
http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/product/3G/922sh/#spec (800×480)
http://www.willcom-inc.com/ja/lineup/ws/003sh/ (640×480)
http://www.willcom-inc.com/ja/lineup/ws/004sh/index.html (640×480)
http://www.willcom-inc.com/ja/lineup/ws/007sh/index.html (640×480)
http://www.willcom-inc.com/ja/lineup/ws/011sh/index.html (800×480)
http://www.willcom-inc.com/ja/lineup/ws/020sh/index.html (800×480)
Thats 7 smart phones and another poster listed the two new HTC phones. The unfortunate thing about these phones is the hardware is usually awesome but they are plauged with windows mobile.
Edited 2008-06-09 23:42 UTC
None else in the “World” will ever use those phones so sorry your point is still invalid.
Only in your little dream world no one else would use these, but you clearly are to arrogant to recognise that some of these devices are used in other Asian countries and even available in Europe (Toshiba G900).
The new iPhone is nothing special, in truth. The developments are welcome but were predictable from the moment the original iPhone was launched.
A lot more interesting is MobileMe. This and no doubt versions of the same idea offered by Microsoft, Google and the world and his wife will be a big new battleground over the next few years. Apple may have got in an early shot but I doubt it will be Apple that comes to dominate the business (as distinct from consumer) end of this market.
I think that the most interesting thing to come out of this developers conference is the (very small amount of) info about snow leopard
http://www.apple.com/macosx/snowleopard/
The part that interests me is Grand Central. Judging by the wording of “Grand Central also makes it much easier for developers to create programs that squeeze every last drop of power from multicore systems”, it makes me wonder if they have figured out a library or api that takes the hard task of parallel programing and brings it to the average programmer
What I find interesting about Snow Leopard is the list of performance enhancements. I wonder if they are keeping Darwin at all? Because a fast way to get all the things they want to have is to start using Solaris / OpenSolaris 10.
Crazy? I don’t think so. They already have ZFS and DTrace. It isn’t a stretch to think of taking all the rest.
Or they might be switching to some form on Linux. I doubt it though. They don’t want to get any GPL too close to them. It might stick.
why would apple go anywhere near a GPL kernel? they don’t want you to have anything let alone what they have to give you.
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//080609/480/5ce941a47…
Too thin
I know, rumor has it that his cancer may have returned. Hopefully the rumors aren’t true.
The HP HX-4700 (PDA-Only device) back in 2004 was also a VGA resolution device.