I'm glad I got the original.

And no, I'm not worried that I paid over the odds for it; the 3G contract is bound to be more expensive, and I'm suspecting that the new low price has something to do with that (I reckon they've bowed to operator pressure and will be subsidising the capital cost).

The one thing I'm hoping is that it has similar processing capabilities as the old one; I'll hate it if all the good apps are for the 3G version only.

Having had a look at their website, I also suspect that they've done to GPS what they did to Bluetooth; supporting it in the most basic way possible. The blurb says that your location can be found with GPS or triangulating using Wi-Fi spots and GSM towers; why would they need to do the latter if the GPS is fully-featured? Sounds a bit dodgy to me.

It all seems a bit of a damp squib. Why haven't they upgraded the camera or storage space, or made it thinner? Where are the other cool new features to keep it up to date with the competitors? But then... I'm probably just trying to justify my purchase of the original. It's no worse than the original, so it'll be just as lovely to use, and continue to polarise opinion.

Is that the real price? If so, its pretty good.

If that is the price after you lock into your carrier's plan, then it is completely meaningless without knowing the carrier's plan.

$199/$299 is a great price, but you can bet it will come with an 18 month contract and will be hard to get hold of without one.........

Bet you won't be able to take a 3G iPhone home without signing the contract before you leave the shop............looking at the Apple Uk Store, the only outlets are O2 and CPW, not Apple's own stores. This is likely due to the fact that Apple Stores aren't geared up for Contract sales.

Itunes activation will be to associate your profile rather than take your card details methinks.

Either that or the plan is to make it so cheap it puts everyone else out of business.

"Jobs promised that wherever you buy the 8GB model, you won't pay more than the equivalent of $199 (£101/€127)"

As if UK retailers won't be selling it for the US$ price, but with a £ sign in front...

... except it's still only O2 that carries it.

So no, thank you. :)

... what's still missing?? By my (quick) checklist, the iPhone is now perfect...

Anybody? :)

But only if it's available on PAYG. (Personally not bothered if it's locked to O2.)

I am pleased with this announcement, but disappointed by having to wait 5 weeks. 3G, GPS and decent battery life. Could they have done more? I'm not sure, maybe more memory and a better camera, but I reckon I'll be upgrading anyway.

Nothing too surprising and many will be disappointed. I'm not. Let's hope O2 are giving free upgrades for another 18 months in blood.

Who really cares

Paris because she stupid enough to buy 1

I'll believe that uk price when I see it. paris because even she's not thick enough to believe that

I want one, but will wait to see if it's network locked....

Even people who don't approve of apple smugness (myself included), have to be impressed at the iPhone 3G, I think it looks good enough to replace my trusty Vario III.

Mines the one with the fruity smell in the front pocket

Oh joy of joys I just couldnt sleep last night with the excitement of the new iphone

Paris because she's stupid enough to buy 1

Golly, with all this inclusion of 3G, GPS, better battery time, better price, what will all the whiners whine about?

Ah, but it's OK, as Apple caters to the whiners just like it does to all market segments. There is still no copy and paste, MMS, video recording.

Whine away.

I suspect that Apple may shift one or two of these.

OK, so as an N95 8G user of approx 2 weeks, I, like many others waited with excitement for the '3G' iPhone. While it may be priced affordably (consider that all other phones are free, even the N95 8g, HTC models etc on mid level and above contracts here in sunny England), and improves on the original, the 3G iPhone appears to lack a target market. So, it has some innovative games, but if that's the case, why no decent camera for youth to snap their friends with?

What good is the Mobile Me service if you cannot even take a flash photo to upload to Facebook/Mobile Me etc? And why no stereo Bluetooth for those of us who like a true wireless existence so we can hide our precious while jogging through the park of dark shadows? I use my great sounding Sony stereo BT phones with my N95 snug and safe at bottom of pocket. On a related issue of confused market: So iPhone now integrates well with the enterprise - great stuff Apple, however: a) Why no improved on screen QWERTY keyboard for mobile professionals? (Belkin? Kensington? Griffin? Why not make a clip on mechanical keyboard for iPhone?) b) There is GPS but no SatNav!

The not so shabby Nokia Maps built into my N95 works really well once you get a sat lock - and the LOUD stereo speakers announce your next turn - and of course make the phone a great 'clock radio'/ beach music player too. Now, what Apple SHOULD have done was to launch TWO iPhones, a youthful iPhone Nano with without the enterprise features and (as per prev posting earlier today), an iPhone Pro with the features preferred by mobile professionals - such as those who use a Blackberry. (NOTE: typing on a glass screen a lot is something you NEVER get used to due to stress put on your fingers, unlike mechanical keyboards that absorb the impact.)

I love Apple, but feel they have lost the plot by pandering to everyone, but focusing on no one thanks to compromises in every area - including my last criticism, lack of wireless innovation such as 3.5G and WiMAX/ support for some P2P fon.com like providerless networking - a great op for Apple to undermine the old school telcos. I expect revolution from Apple, not catchup! So flame me! It's a free country, it's hot and I'm bothered. ;-)

no decent camera, or addon storage? Steve, you're gonna have to do better.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/09/samsung_launches_omnia/ give me those features with the iPhone UI, and I'll grab it like a pervert at the playboy mansion.

Untill then, I just can't justify that money for a 'pretty thing' (and yes, Im a apple fanboi)

"Jobs promised that wherever you buy the 8GB model, you won't pay more than the equivalent of $199"

[checks date, been in a coma?, no, it's not April 1st yet]

Yeah, and Santa Claus will bring me one of those too?

And to people whining about the camera: c'mon, you don't need more than 2 Mpix for this thing. With the ridiculous optics of those tiny lenses, it's already more than is useful. And even 2 Mpix is good for 10x15cm prints, let alone web posting. And don't even suggest many will have the patience to edit the pic (crop) on the phone before sending...

At those prices? Nokia, SE and the like had better start digging their own graves. I mean, thats only like 1500 bucks (about 20 pounds) more expensive than say, the SE K750i and cheaper than my W510i!!

£35 a month to O2 so a lock-in contract doesn't bother me and isn't what I'd get on any other phone.

So, for £100 I think I'm a convert.

Apple giving a fair price to UK customers?

Should I check myself into the mental asylum now?

I must be going funny in the head...

[Where IS the Paris Hilton Angle?]

According to this report, the iPhone continues to defy the laws of Physics and work miracles ;)

3G iPhone breaks petaflop barrier

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s5i36703

JG

Apple be praised... all hail the second coming of the iPhone and the salvation of all the heretics who indulge in the sins of other mobile phones.

and all the good shit is only for the jailbroken ones. I reckon its the best all round mobile platform for now but I also reckon Apple will pi$$ that up the wall by continuing to cripple it with network tie-ins.

And talking of convergent devices, isn't Jobs starting to resemble Ballmer?

O2 website confirms cheapest tariff £30 and £99 for handset.

You can get the 8gb 'free' if you are willing to pay £45 pm or the 16gb for £75. 18 month contract.........

so £700-800 pounds over 18 months then , which is probably as long as the battery will last before it packs up.

Paris- because being a jailbird, she can see a scam a mile off.

According to a just released report by Gartner Research, the Apple iPhony is in a dismal DISTANT Third Place in the World Wide Smart Phone market space behind Nokia and Research In Motion (Blackberry). This despite the year long barage of constant Apple iPhony TV and Print ads, all the Paid Off Media Whores and the reported 8 thousand iPhones that Apple has GIVEN AWAY to Media Hacks, Movie and TV show "product placements" and assorted celeb jerks to flash in public.

EAT THAT FACT, Apple Kool Aid Drinkers.

The count-down begins to all the Bugs and Flaws this iPhone has, just like the first one had and just like every other product Apple has their name put on by manufacturers with Chinese Sweatshop factories.

I gotta say, it's great you can type on that touch screen - well done.

I've used an iphone - for 2 months and found it beautifully annoying to use. By that I mean I'd have colleagues and friends playing with it endlessly but always happy to hand it back at the end of the day. Bit like a friends baby...

Managed to sell it for what I bought it for though - liked that alot.

New one sounds good - I think people would be more willing to suffer the inadequacies if the price comes in as the article says. Just not me...

...I've moved on & upgraded.

Oh heck , that was quick from launch in January 2007 to obsolete June 2008 from spyphone mark one to mark two model , that man called god really knows how to put the money siphon into all the Isilly fans wallets and bank accounts and spy on them at the same time , sweet !

But then again who really cares , as the other 1.1 billion or more users ignored the hype and brought other models instead in the preceding twelve months instead !

Or as they say a "An ifool and his money are easily parted !"

So simple - no more than $199. Unfortunately, there's no info on how much it costs without subsidy. Or whether they'll even sell it without.

The hardware is WOW - it's perfect in every way. I already have an iPhone and it's close to perfection but this is even better.

But why make pricing such a mystery? Why not just freakin' sell it unlocked AS AN OPTION to those who don't want to sign up with a carrier. It looks like Apple is going to take 3 years to get their sales model to where it's exactly the same as all others.

Here's some notable absentees from the list of countries where the iPhone is sold: China, most of SE Asia: Thailand, Vietnam, etc.

You guys aren't even trying now, the headline should have been "The Second Coming of the Jesus Phone"

By my calculation, twice EDGE speed is about 768 kbps. Roughly one-tenth of what it takes to make it a contender in the Australian 7.2 Mbps HSDPA market.

The 2 MP camera is 2/5ths of what the Sony and the Nokia offer.

And the talk time is still a bit short for Paris Hilton :-)

Experia X1 FTW!

On the Apple site it says "Twice as Fast. Half the Price*" notice the asterisk!

Read the small print at the bottom and bingo! - "*Based on iPhone 3G (8GB) and first-generation iPhone (8GB) purchases. Requires new 2-year AT&T rate plan, sold separately."

Perhaps not as great a deal a first impressions!

Here's why its still got the 2 MP camera. In the Book of Steve, expandable=bad. So no SD card slot. So you're limited by onboard RAM. Steve doesn't want you filling up that 8 or 16 GB of RAM with 5 MP pics of your friends when you could be filling it with iTunes tracks at $1 a pop.

So when RAM prices make a 32 GB model feasible, I bet we'll see that camera get a bump.

Now quite what they're smoking in Cupertino that they couldn't fix copy and paste I don't know...

The reason the Palm was such a success (and arguably the CrackBerry) is that it does (did?) the basics well. Contacts, Appointments, Tasks and Notes (and later email).

The iPhone does not yet handle Notes properly, and its too early to tell whether the Tasks are properly synched over the air (whether through ActiveSync or MobileMe)

Maybe the bit that Steve doesn't get is that those of us who don't have minions to remember stuff for us need to write it down somewhere..

Not that I'm a particular fan of apple - quite the opposite but one thing that seems to have been missed in this report (unless the Telegraph is lying) is that you can now connect to Exchange Server. As the majority of businesses use this for email this announcement should make RIM in particular worry as corporate takeup will rocket. Hopefully more on the other side of the pond though...

Well this has completely sold me on iPhone 3G - according to the O2 website:

"Existing iPhone customers can upgrade early to the new 3G iPhone for free*

To thank you for being an iPhone fan, we're offering you an early upgrade to the brand new version when it launches on 11th July 2008. You won't have to wait until the end of your existing contract, all you'll need to do is agree to a new 18-month minimum term contract."

Looks like we get the same deal as new customers (the "free*" is the same anyway) but are basically able to end our current 18 month contract straight away (by signing up to a brand new one).

Nice going Apple - now all that remains to be seen is whether MMS will be supported natively (not seen an official word either way yet), or whether there will be an app that can do it (and I'd be very suprised if there wasn't - as jailbroken iPhones have had an MMS app for ages). Also whether they have expanded bluetooth at all - though that isn't really of that much concern to me (nor is the camera).