Well, the big day happened. July 11th. The release of THE 3G iPhone. Big whoop? Not really, if you ask me.
Between the original, and the new one, there's not much of a difference, and the carriers (in the US AND Canada) have locked Wi-Fi, apparently, so that we have to use their data package. Not a problem in the US, as it's unlimited there (coast to coast), but we have a limit of 6GB of data here, but what about roaming? When I go to the US with my iPhone, I can use WiFi. But if I'm roaming using data (especially on overpriced Canadian roaming) I'll have a very high phone bill at the end of the month. Am I ever glad I have an old iPhone!
Ultimately, this whole thing is just an excuse for 2 demographic factors. The first thing is to have a release to make the old iPhone obsolte, and get the millions of people who have iPhones to buy new ones, so that way they're no longer the loser with the old iPhone. What I want to know is, where will all those old iPhones go? I see liquidation on the horizon... eBay may get some substantial revenue for people putting their old iPhones up there.
The second thing is that, although the first iPhone was very popular in Canada, many (if not, more people than those who actually got the imported iPhones) people were afraid of dealing with grey market phones. They felt that it was "illegal" or Apple would sue them or something, or something would just go wrong - especially since there's no warranty. Not everybody is comfortable with the secondary market - which is a problem for electronics dealers like myself, and kept almost a year-long hiatus of no iPhones in Canada, with those users not succumbing to the temptation of getting one, even though people around them used them without problems. Such a release would not only get people to spend money on the iPhone's hardware, but sign on to new, very expensive service contracts - they're not thinking about it, because they just want the iPhone. Sure, they'll have to work a little harder, or make a few sacrafices, such as no food for a week. But now they're the cool kids on the block with their iPhone (of course, until the new one comes out, and our economy goes through an even more painful, if not, financially crippling process), putting more money in the pockets of Apple and Rogers. Will I ever be glad when the AWS auction is over and Globalive provides a little competition for the Canadian market.
If you ask me, the only real improvement that took place, was the 2.0 firmware. There were very minor differences physically, including a headphone port flush to the rest of the body, so you can use your own earbuds, GPS that doesn't project aural directions (I mean, seriously. We had manually proceeding, step by step instructions in 1.1.4 firmware! The only difference is the global positioning, and the equivalent would have been saving the trip when you're on the internet... won't go into detail, but it's not much of an improvement), a plastic backing, a choice of colors, and of course 3G (depleting your already miniscule battery life. We're going to need some pocket-sized electrical generators to go through a whole day with these things). The 2.0 firmware is faster, and more stable, and has software to support some of the new hardware features, but the biggest breakthrough is the application store. Those who used the original iPhones and had them jailbroken are likely familiar with the installer application - where there is a wide array of applications, from texas hold 'em, to labirynth, to matrix themes, to iSplit, the bill splitting tool for when you go out for a meal with friends. I went a little crazy downloading, and ended up getting a virus. Jailbreaking was a non-Apple certified process, and therefore voided the warranty. The application store is somewhat the official Apple equivalent, with legitimate applications, that are virus-free (which I REALLY love, on account of my second iPhone getting a really bad virus), and may cost money, but there are free applications too (and some more useful ones than installer provided. Hello, built-in Twitter, and Super Monkey Ball!)
But does this mean that the next generation of an iPhone will be even cheaper? Look at the $500 original iPods. People bought them readily, so that they would have a substantial amount of storage to store their music collection on. Then they got cheaper. And cheaper. And even cheaper - so much to the point that we have iPods the surface area equivalent to a quarter - hold 250 songs, and is only $55. Is there going to be an iPhone Nano? Or an iPhone Shuffle? Smaller, lower-caliber iPhones that are more affordable? Only time will tell.
Anyway - will be writing my review on it once the commotion dies down at the local Rogers store, and I get a chance to try out the demo model. Yes, there's only one demo model - downright petty compared to the "Mothership" that had 4 iPhones ready to go.
Also, thought I'd share this video... gives a new meaning to the word "iPhone" - and takes the word "Bluetooth" pretty literally.
