$199 iPhone 3G introduced by Apple
In his keynote address to open Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) on Monday, Steve Jobs officially announced the iPhone 3G. Perhaps the most important revelation was the price, which at $199 for the entry level (8GB) model is half the original’s current $399 pricetag. He indicated that the price was based on research where consumers who have so far passed on the iPhone said cost was the biggest barrier. Not surprisingly he didn’t talk about his previous prediction of 10 million iPhones sold by the end of 2008. Why is that significant? Maybe because at the current (pre-iPhone 3G) prices it appears unlikely to happen.
In fact despite “selling out some number of weeks ago,” Jobs said only 6 million have been sold in the approximately 11 months since the initial launch on June 29 of last year. Jobs showed off the speed difference between the iPhone 3G’s “amazingly zippy” performance on newer 3G networks, compared with the EDGE connection available to owner’s of the original. The same web page that took nearly a minute to load using an EDGE connection took just over 20 seconds across 3G. He also compared it to a Nokia N95 and Treo 750, which reportedly took 33 and 34 seconds respectively to load the same page (using 3G) while delivering it in a less complete mobile format. He also pointed out that 3G speed is “actually approaching Wi-Fi.”
Other changes include the use of plastic instead of aluminum for the back (presumably to bring production costs down), as well as the addition of a 2 Megapixel camera and GPS. Near the end of his presentation a map showed 70 countries where the 3G iPhone will officially be available while ‘It’s a Small World’ played in the background. By contrast, the original iPhone is only offered in 6 countries. The iPhone 3G’s initial launch, on July 11, will actually only include 22 countries, with the other 48 planned by year’s end.
Source: Afterdawn
Comments(71)
Apple finally got something right this time with the pricing!
The Jobs tax is minimal this time around. :]
So cheap. I hope they don’t make it 199 euro, or like 199 pund.
199 dollar – 1800 Swedish kr. I hope they don’t make it 2999kr.
glad I waited to get one…more features and cheaper! cant wait to get one now.
dudes… it always had a 2mpx camera… jobs is cutting costs now cuz ppl r 2 cheap 2 pay what 500 for a phone… cheepoz…
the sad thing is .. still 2 mpx caemera… while evri1 else has lk 5mpx and auto focus etc… still no video… no mms… no copy and paste… wtf r u doing jobs… no front camera… now evri1 will b rockin one so no resale value jus chuck it in the trash after 1 year when the battery dies…
stick 2 computers apple… or sell iphone 2 Nokia.. they;ll least do a half decent job with a mobile phone…
@4 exactly!
Nokia truly rules in cell phones..
lol didnt this use to cost $600?!
wow they cut the price by about 66%. i wonder if releasing this $199 iPhone was possible all along?
well i would never pay $600 for a cell phone that will become obsolete in a year or two. & i would never pay $600 for a easily breakable electronic device thats supposed to be carried around in my pocket all day, everyday. thats just stupid, specially since apple is so good at fixing your broken iWhateveer *sarcasm*
Don’t believe the price nonsense. It doesn’t cost ($/£/etc) 199, it costs 199 + a hugely expensive 1/2 year contract. In the uk having a iphone will cost you £35*24+199=£1039…think its cheap now?
I’ll stick with my £5 a month pay-as-you-go phone cheers.
@6: Apple doesn’t just get 199$ for it. They also get a cut of the money that customers pay in cellphone subscription fees to the phone companies.
Missing Features:
MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
Video recording
32GB Model
Red Color
Video Camera in the front
Copy/Paste
Better camera
Better Bluetooth
@7:
You dont need to sign up to a contract to use an iphone. Just source an iPhone off the net and then jailbreak it which will allow you to use it on any network even with PAYG sims.
Does this still only have headset support for bluetooth or can you transfer files via bluetooth now?
Can think of quite a few phones albeit higher cost that I would rather have.. ie new samsung omnia, the htc diamond touch. The samsung has 5mp camera with flash. Rather have that then something that would just end up being disappointing…
so only 6M applegeeks got pwnd by the new price tag for the new device.
199$ omg , i will buy it if is 199$ , i hope here to will be 199$ , here in Europe , Romania
Thanks Steve Jobs
and RLSLOG TM to anounce us
@13 you dont really think that jobs is gonna sell it for 199$ in europe, dont you? probably its gonna look like this:
199 € + a big-ass contract, so he gets even more out of you… now compare it to the present price tag and it almost looks the same. nice marketing strategy apple, i must say
wow, thats really cheap !
199$ * 0,6422 = 127,8€
127,8 + (127,8€ * 0,22) = 156€ incl. tax
156€ + shipping 5€ + advertising 5€ + distribution 5€ = 171€
171€ + 29€ for the middleman ie. the seller = 200€
For some reason 1$ always equals 1€, even when dollar is doing rimjob on euro. 200€ = 309$. I don’t see how the phone can be 109$ more expensive here than it is out there – that’s over 50% more expensive! But I bet that’s how it will be. I’ve seen it on xbox, ps3, wii. Europeans always end up funding the american way of life. Europeans pay, Asians pay for them to prosper. No wonder middle-east hates America so much.
@12 Cremo so only 6M applegeeks got pwnd by the new price tag for the new device.
Yep, I bet Micro$oft wish they sold that many Zune’s
Im usually not into anything by apple… or following the majority of people who have the need to get down with the latest trend… but I mean, the functionality, the price, the innovativity, the accessability… Mass production makes things cheap, so it should be possible to get your own high tech cellular, but untill now it never really occured because we pay for the brand. A little while ago I read about the HTC Shift X9500 mobile phone… well basicly it is so hi-tech you can practically do anything with it, though the ability to use it to actually make mobile phonecalls had gone lost, seriously! :p With the current currency USD -> EUR the iPhone would cost about EUR 130,- now. Now that is good value for money I’d say.
Just cut the crap with the premium network supplier stuff, people will just hack it anyways. So , er, yer, and all the iPhone killers are actually just iPhone wannabe’s. Copycatting is not the way, unless you have same worth, less the money. Companies need be innovative if they do not want to drown in the succes of Apple. Because for now, if what I’m sensing is true, I probably get one myself now. 
any price 4 the UK???
You are a sick fuk @19 -name that iz-
Marry the iPhone interface, web browsing, and phone features with the fomat versatility and file freedom of the Cowon A3, and they’d have a true monopoly on the handheld phone/mp3/PMC market for years to come.
However, I’m still thinking about getting one of these as my next phone.
(Yes, I’m well aware that iTunes conversion helps cut down on loading times, battery usage, and component sizes/parts, but still, mutlitiple format support w/o conversion and a drag and drop file system would just be dandy.)
Is the HTC X9500/X9000 even a mobile phone? Mobile device – yes. Ultra mini form factor, but a phone? Looked at the pictures and appeared to be more of a Ultra mini form factor to me.
I think the HTC equivalent to the Iphone would be the HTC Diamond, HTC Pro, or HTC Touch Cruise – not the X9500. I think they are hard to use as a phone because realistically they are listed more as a laptop/ultra-mini equivalent then a phone.
Have actually used the Diamonds and Touch cruises and they are far better as a context based application device as all functions and applications tend to merge and mix data which is handy for the next generation GPS nav devices – more contextual semantic based information again.
On the other hand, this move by Apple to dissiminate more touch devices with high level applications/functions for the general public is an excellent move. More revenue is attainable for the use of services then a one off purchase of an Iphone. When first Iphone came into existence, I still favoured the HTC devices (contextual based applications). However this Iphone, and features, deserve a good looking at for the price factor
Lol. First, you buy the $199 iPhone. Next, the $99 AT&T price tag for service.
Extra $100 plus cases and new headphones and music and video. It’s way more than $199
at least apple got one thing right… the price of the phone. because it’s so cheap, it will probably sell alot, but all in all it’s still missing alot of features people were wanted (as mentioned above). the gps + camera and geotagging feature is really interesting to me, i wouldn’t mind getting my hands on one and a slook invite just to play around. maybe one day, but i won’t be rushing out to get one.
@22. Yer lol, I know, its a PDA mobile office, but you can insert a sim-card, which makes it a mobile phone none the less. Just the fact you can only use it for sms, mms and umts and not for phoning appeared kinda funny to me though. I’d rather get an Eeepc. Another one of those hyped-up gadgets
Btw. In korea and so on they have phones with like 10 Mpx camera’s and what not for just a few pennies. Can’t we get some of them around here in on the westerly side?
@25, haha Japan also has phones like that too.
Thank all of you guys who bought our first iPhone for $800. Now I can afford to install Windows XP SP3 on my iMac.
Well, I do not understand the obsession of high MPixel phone cameras. What good is that with plastic lens? For the kind of resolution el’cheapo lens of mobile phones allows, 2MP sensor is plenty enough. 10MP? What in the god’s sake for? Have anyone actually tried to download those over bloated 5MP shots into computer?
They sure look good on the mini mobile phone screen, apart from that … 2MP is enough for sending MMS and mail. And that’s what it should be used for. For everything else you have dedicated cameras with semi decent lens and features.
Does it still have wi-fi?
@17 i didnt know zune was a cell, rin
@30 all valid points. problem is that current photo lens lack the resolution to support higher MPs. It is also the issue with Canon new entry level cameras with cheap lens sets – camera chip supports a lot more lpi than supplied lens.
$199 for the iphone plus about $1600 for 2 year contract with At&T = $1800.
are u sure no front camera!?!? then how da hell we do video calls using 3G???….
No thanks. Looks great, probably great for web browsing and the like, but a 2Mp camera?, no MMS?, no proper bluetooth?, no video recording?. Come on Apple, add these features and sell it for that price and you really will have a Nokia killer. This is typical of Apple though. The next version will add a better camera, then the next proper bluetooth, then MMS then video recording. That way all the Apple fanbois will replace it every year because Apple are wonderful and great and brilliant and better than any other company in the entire world and they like to wear tweed and talk like idiots. And they say Microsoft try to ring every penny from their customers.
Well lets see, my little Samsung cost me 100 pounds, it has a 5Mp camera with glass lens, autofocus and xenon flash, has a 2Gb memory card, good MP3 player, does full bluetooth, MMS, video calling, video recording and everything else the iPhone does with the exception of full web browsing which to be frank, I can do without. As long as my wee phone allows me to send and receive emails (which it does), browse the mobile internet (which is far, far better than it used to be) and use mobile MSN (which it does)then that’s enough for me. Besides, I have a small, light laptop for full web browsing and it supports wifi.
Apple missed a potential killer gadget there I think.
Guys, for Christ sakes. Please buy one of my iPhones. Pretty please!
Thats a bargain, I paid £280 for my sim free Nokia N82, which I really like but an iphone for that kind of price is something which I would definitely get too. Buy it take it home, don’t sign a contract, jailbreak it and use your own sim.
$200! Sweet! I dont need no video talk or high megapixel camera. I just want fast internet on a decent screen. Cant wait. This is gonna blow everything out of the water.
Whens the uk pricing and release date? As allways europe gets f’d over
@16- let me guess you’re from an “old” european country? Bitter huh? I suppose your region never benefited from african, asian, or mideast countries (ie. slavery, imperialism, looting, puppet regimes, etc..)?? What short term memory these young europeans have. I’m sure Americans pay the exact same amount for all european items, as you do? Stop being blinded by your own failures.
http://www.o2.co.uk/iphone/paymonthly
Wi-fi and gps are probably more important for me than a camera, I use wi-fi and gps daily on my N82, so its good to see the new iphone with gps. Its one of those features you don’t really miss until you start using it, then you can’t live without it.
Feature comparison: new 3G iPhone 2.0 compared to Windows Mobile phones
http://msmobiles.com/news.php/7413.html
I laugh at the way Apple can barely stay 1 generation behind general mobile phone technology but dress it up with the flashy facade and the fanboys will try and tell you it’s the best thing since sliced bread (because Steve said so!).
So apple produces ugly cheap crap nowadays?
@29 lol. of course it does. stupid question.
Can’t wait for the release, gonna get me one of those!!
I hate touch screens on phones!
Can be easily be broken if you are not carefull…….
Damn how many times I’ve dropped phone
wow wow wow, 3g phone!!! … um, oh, sorry. i’ve been using such for like 3rd year now, knowing no less than this, except for the touchscreen, which isn’t vital tho. ahem, no comment.
@43 – totally agree. it’s almost like that infamous quote, “90% of today’s teens would stop breathing if abercrombie & fitch told it was uncool” or some such…no comment.
It sseriously cant be that cheap ….. im sure the price will go higher by the time it is up for sale …
I have finally accepted the believe that our world ends in 2012….why?…an affordable apple product…how strange… apple and affordable in one sentence…even I, an apple hater, feel compel to buy one…a decent price to fit its decent feature…
@40
“@16- let me guess you’re from an “old” european country?”
Let me guess, you don’t get it up without animeporn. NO, my country is not very old and without a doubt, the age has absolutely nothing to do with the CURRENT issue.
“Bitter huh?”
Depends how one defines bitter. I’ve heard people taste like chicken, you tell me.
“I suppose your region never benefited from african, asian, or mideast countries (ie. slavery, imperialism, looting, puppet regimes, etc..)??”
At some point everyone has and still does benefit from someone/something else. However none of things you listed are very CURRENT issues in modern society, are they now. Nowadays we are at least trying to work things out in CIVILIZED ways.
“What short term memory these young europeans have.”
Define short, define young. You are making an assumption, just like government Bush did before attacking IRAQ. Where are the weapons of massdestruction? Ie. put your money where your mouth is and start displaying facts, instead of rambling from your forth of arrogance.
“I’m sure Americans pay the exact same amount for all european items, as you do?”
Instead of considering majority, you are trying to find ONE thing that costs more at america than it does at europe, to prove your point. Doesn’t work that way, does it now.
In general americans don’t pay as much as europeans do – even for the european products. Most alarming difference in prices really start to show when you start dragging in asian manufacturers to the comparison table. For some reason asian product that costs 199$ at america still costs 199€ at europe. How and why? Because europeans fund the american way of life. We are the american dream.
“Stop being blinded by your own failures.”
Please do define failure you are referring to, as I’m obviously too blind to see it. But before you do, please answer to this:
“I suppose your region never benefited from african, asian, or mideast countries (ie. slavery, imperialism, looting, puppet regimes, etc..)??”
You consider europeans americans slaves?
Figures.
I am happy with my current one but would like the additional features in the new one. I am not sure about the plastic back to the phone. I like the metal one that it has right now since its durable
This phone has a lot of potential, but one of the draw backs would be the hefty contract that you have to sign. If apple decided to throw away the contract, then the iPhone could possibly be one of the best sellers.
Im happy they are that cheap soon…hopefully they make it to canada and not end up being rogers only as i heard they would.
I guess I could get a jailbroken one of ebay.
for 200$ ill definetly get it. I do break my phones all the time, but i think ill be more careful with this one, and hopefully wont drop it in the toilet like i always do :>
It’s actually more expensive then the first gen iPhone. The phone itself is $100 less, but they increased the monthly charges by $10 so in actuality you are paying more than the 1st gen iPhone. Good marketing as tons of people are already being suckered in to buying one thinking its cheap. $1800 is too much for a monthly plan and a phone for me.
i AM never ever never ever going to buy an appel product even if they give it for free(maybe then yes but)
they are money s44cking driping money hounds and i hate all apple software they always f44ck up my windows OS
and apple wants money for each fart they fart
The new iPhone unlimited data plan is $30/month… Old plan is $20/month… so you are getting 3G and GPS… but you are paying $40 more for the phone and service over the two year contract.
as often… apple delivers a wonderfull product
but what the crap is up with the 2-year contract
there is always something wrong with apple’s pricing
I actually started thinking I should go back to the microsoft-side
@ 14:
I hear that it’s gonna be £100 in the UK on release – that’s almost _exactly_ $199.
HTH
HAND
kthxbai…
@62 lets only hope not get ripped off again by this silly $/€ conversion. and im not sayin i ever bought a mac product, but generally…
all i have to say is: Verizon.
You’re paying $40 more over the course of 2 years (dollar and change per month), and you’re getting a much faster wireless experience. Forgive me, but I dont mind spreading that extra 40 out over 2 years for something thats going to work a lot better.
For all that you could ask more of in the hardware, I think they got a lot of it right. For me personally, I’m not spending ridiculous amounts of money on MMS when I can send an email over 3G for free. I think that what got left out truly doesnt affect too many people. The Touch OS though is what makes the thing great. Honestly, just about every phone UI i’ve used before is terrible. Even Windows Mobile is a pain is the ass at times. This is an accessible smart phone. Its got arguably the best mobile browser around, and these are the reasons people are in love with these phones. You can get around not being able to send a picture message, you’re not going to get around a crummy UI experience.
This is the best cell phone available today (finally with fast internet and GPS). However, as some people mentioned, the real cost of new iPhone is about $2,000+ for 2 year contract. This sh1t is like gaming console market I hate. They will give you console under production price just to sell you games. No way, I’ll keep my money and invest the difference between my sprint plan and iphone’s AT&T in symbol: AAPL. chears
Now I definitely won’t get this…i mean, a PLASTIC bottom!!!….without many of the features the Samsung ‘look-alike’ has, which was posted here yesterday….and had all the features i’ll be needing….
besides, 8gb won’t even fit half of my library, and i’ve already got the biggest ipod there is…but gotta thank apple for trying.
o2 are giving away the iPhone free in the Uk as of july 11th on selected tarrifs, check it out here http://www.o2.co.uk/iphone?cm_mmc=GUK-_-IPE-_-SIE-_-Iphone
heres some text from the o2 website—
—–
iPhone is now free on selected Pay Monthly tariffs*
There’s only one thing better than an iPhone. The new 3G iPhone.
*Best of all, the new 8GB iPhone won’t cost you a penny on our £45 and £75 tariffs. And it’s just £99 on our £35 tariff and new £30 tariff.
All tariffs include unlimited browsing on your iPhone, unlimited Wi-Fi access, visual voicemail and reduced roaming rates with our International Traveller Service and are subject to a minimum term contract of 18 months.
More information on the new iPhone will be available shortly so come back in a few days or visit http://www.apple.com
Handset subject to availability. Connection subject to status, 18-month minimum term contract, credit check & direct debit. Data usage whilst roaming not included. Unlimited Wi-Fi is available at any of the 9,500 Wi-Fi hotspots from our partners The Cloud and BT Openzone (available from 11 July 2008). Excessive usage policy and full terms apply.
—-
I hope iPhones will “Officially” be available here in the Philippines. Filipinos are crazy over gadgets
@25- Thank you, someone with some sense… Apple is a joke, this thing will be outdated in a few months and then everyone will want the next one. Like 25 said, get a Eeepc!
Waiting for stereo bluetooth. Apparently Apple has crippled the iPhone so that they can come out with their own wireless stereo headsets. That’s fine, but where are they?