Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, introduced on Monday the next generation iPhone at the company’s 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference which saw a record of more than 5,000 attendees.
The new phone will run on 3G networks and will provide much faster data service than the old iPhone’s 2G network. It is much thinner, much faster, and much cheaper than its predecessor.
Jobs said the iPhone would cost $199 for an 8-gigabyte device with GPS that works on AT&T’s high-speed 3G network and $299 for the 16-gigabyte version in the United States. Considering that the current 8 GB iPhones cost $399, that is quite a steal. The third-generation device will also be available in more countries.
The battery is supposed to support 300 hours of standby time, 5 to 6 hours of Web browsing, 7 hours of video, and 24 hours of audio. But talk time is cut in half from 10 hours to 5 hours, when using the 3G network. Jobs claims that the 3G network approaches the speed of WiFi. The launch date is July 11.
Additionally, Apple confirmed introduction of MobileMe Internet, a subscription-based service with 20GB of storage for $99 per year for individuals and $149 for a Family Pack which includes one master account with 20GB of storage and four Family Member accounts with 5GB of storage each. The service delivers push email, push contacts and push calendars from the MobileMe service in the “cloud” to native applications on iPhone, iPod touch, Macs and PCs. MobileMe.
“We need to sell iPhones in many more countries, Jobs said – according to International Herald Tribune “We need to make it more affordable.”
Apple entered the smartphone market last June for the first time and had made the iPhone second only to the BlackBerry in the category. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has sold about six million phones. The iPhone has settled down to a less-than-spectacular sales pace: roughly 600,000 units a month, according to the company.
Analysts reported shortages in May as the company appeared to work down inventories for the introduction of a new phone.
Jobs has stated that his goal is to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008. (This price drop and the new features should put Apple over the 10-million mark without a problem) Apple has been signing a series of deals with cellphone network providers around the world. It recently said it would offer the iPhone in Japan, Spain, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The only major countries without an iPhone distribution agreement are Russia and China.
Both Jobs and Randall Stephenson, the chief executive of Apple’s U.S. partner AT&T, had promised a new iPhone model this year that would run on a high-speed wireless data network. AT&T is building such a network, which uses technology known as 3G and is intended to support a range of new applications, including mobile digital video.
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