Apple announced its new 3G iPhone today. It is much thinner, much faster, and much cheaper than its predecessor. Starting at $199(with a two-year contract), you get an 8 gigabyte device with GPS that works on AT&T’s high-speed 3G network (as opposed to the slower EDGE network all previous iPhones are bound to). A 16 gigabyte version will go for $299. Considering that the current 8 GB iPhones cost $399, that is quite a steal. 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. The launch date is July 11.
Jobs claims that the 3G network approaches the speed of WiFi. What is really going to be a game-changer, though, is the higher speed in combination with the GPS chip, which will open up a whole slew of location-aware apps (some of which we’ve already seen). That and all the new iPhone apps that will be built for it by outside developers.
Apple has already sold 6 million iPhones, notes Steve Jobs. This price drop and the new features should put Apple over the 10-million mark without a problem. Here’s a video of Steve Jobs going over all the features from the keynote (taken, appropriately enough, on a cell phone):
And here’s one of the new ad for the 3G phone: