Apple iPhone 3G goes Global in 70 Countries

To tumultuous applause at the WWDC 08 conference in San Francisco USA, on Monday the 9th of June 2008, Steve Jobs announced the release of the much anticipated new iPhone, dubbed the iPhone 3G. The new iPhone 3G is being launched in 22 countries initially, on the 11th of July, including South Africa a little later, at a maximum retail price of $199.00 everywhere. Read More…..

3G, GPS, full enterprise support, a smooth sexy back, in plastic this time, and most importantly global availability, all at half the price, this is the phenomenon of the Apple iPhone. Steven Jobs summed it up in his address, “We’ve learned so much with the first iPhone. We’ve taken everything we’ve learned and more and created the iPhone 3G. It’s beautiful. This is what it looks like. “”Black back! “”Thinner at the edges. Full plastic back, it’s really nice.””

Steven Jobs and the iPhone (Picture Engadget)

Apple appears to have pulled out all the stops on this new phone. The basic specs include a flush headphone jack, so all headphones should now work. Full 3G support, built in A-GPS, using both satellites and Cell Phone towers, Wi-Fi, a huge variety of applications available on the iTunes store, which should be available in all countries the phone is sold in, including South Africa. Full mapping services with location based application are also featured, and Steve Jobs maintained that mapping and GPS is the next big thing, with huge potential.

World Wide Avaliablity (Picture Engadget)

Steve Jobs made much of the improved sound quality and the feel of the new phone, the Safari Browser which is built in, has been further enhanced, and the overall experience improved. Steve Jobs also noted that over 98% of all iPhone users browse the Web, a truly astonishing statistic. Apple anticipates that their new strategy will sell 10 million iPhones before the end of 2008.

The new version 2 software, included in the iPhone 3G, will be downloadable to all iPhones in June. The new software will incorporate numerous changes, the most fundamental being the ability to run third party applications on your iPhone, a huge range from 4000 developers will be available on the iTunes Appstore store shortly. The applications include games, with amazing graphics, training tools, shopping programmes from eBay and many more. Full enterprise support is also included, with Cisco VPN extensions and full Microsoft ActiveSync Exchange functionality built in.

New iPhone game (Picture Engadget)

iPhone 3G back view ( Picture Engadget)

Apple also announced the new online service called Mobile Me, which essentially replaced the current .Mac system, with a Web 2.0 based application which stores all your information in the cloud, a virtual hard drive hosted on the Internet, and makes this information available to any device with a web browser. The service will cost USD 99 a year, and gives users push everything, mail, calendars, and contacts, to your iPhone, and promises to keep all the information up to date on any device wherever you are. Current .Mac users will be automatically upgraded to the new service, and all new users can try the service out for 60 days at no charge. The visuals of the system shown at the Keynote address, looks enticing, and the ability to fully synchronise all your devices and your mobile over the air cannot be underestimated.

Mobile Me from Apple to Microsoft, don’t forget the iPhone (Picture Engadget)

The new iPhone will be available from Vodacom in South Africa in July 2008, and will be available in a 8 Gig and 16 Gig version, with the 16 Gig version being available in black and white

For more information head on over to the Apple Website at www.apple.com

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