It’s official: The new iPhone 3G is on the way and will start as low as $199. Steve Jobs revealed the news at Monday’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The iPhone 3G will be released July 11 in 22 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the United States. The black 8GB model will be marketed at $199, while the 16GB version — to be made available in either black or white — will go for $299.
The new phone will be a smaller and sleeker design with solid metal buttons and the same large display. The added 3G support will mean data downloads almost three times faster than EDGE speeds, Jobs said. The iPhone 3G is also 36 percent faster than other comparable phones like the Nokia N95 and Treo 750, according to Apple. It will also add integrated GPS support, which will allow for “tracking” — a moving dot on a real-time Google map showing your location.
The updated model is said to have 300 hours of standby battery life and double the amount of talk-time as its predecessor, with five full hours. It will offer five to six hours of high-speed browsing, seven hours of video, or 24 hours of audio without the need to recharge.
Jobs said the updated phone will include fully built-in enterprise support, third-party application support, as well as support for more countries than ever — now 70 total — thanks to the many added features in the upcoming iPhone 2.0 software package, also announced Monday along with a slew of new third-party applications .
Apple is hanging onto its goal of 10 million iPhone sales by the end of 2008 — a mark that will no doubt be made easier once the new phones hit store shelves.
