Closeup on the iPhone 3G

So, the dust has settled on Apple’s WWDC Keynote. Was it good for you? The first half of the keynote really dragged. We all realise that apps are important on the iPhone. Mobile productivity will be massive and hearing from the devs in the pits is cool, but the demos could have been cut in half for expediency. I remain unconvinced on the AP app that pulls localised news to the iPhone. ActiveSync integration looked good though. I can see some cool scenarios for business customers, but it looks like early days for the iPhone for business to be honest.

I Am Here: Location-Based Services

The real meat of non-iPhone hardware announcements was the push of a core location-based service API into version 2.0 of the iPhone firmware. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to scroll through your address book, see that a friend is nearby, decide to drop them a text or a call. Sounds innocuous enough, but it’s something I think that people could adopt naturally. Presence and indication of local proximity on a mobile phone rocks. 

A thousand mobile social network companies sighed as it was announced, I’d imagined. Early adopters and technogeeks, heavy users of said social networks, will already have or are considering buying an iPhone. Smart move, Apple. Although, to be honest, the real proof in the pudding will be if developers can plumb applications working on other phones into the Apple location-based system. Say I have an iPhone, and my sister has a Nokia N95, wouldn’t be nice if she could find out where I was and vice-versa? A universal mobile social networking layer that we could all just plug into. 

iPhone 3G

First off, it’s great to see that iPhone 3G isn’t going to ship in faffy colours. Yawnworthy red? No. Scratch magnet silver, outta here. I’m on the fence re: white. Not a practical colour at all, but there’s a vague 80′s throwback vibe emanating off it. Smell the Brat Pack radiation. 

I loved the stats re: the speed of iPhone versus Nokia’s N95. Jobs’ claimed it was 36% faster for browsing when compared side by side with the N95 and Treo 750. Although, as Sinéad rightly pointed out, it would have been nice to comparisons with Blackberry too. As they’re undoubtedly the enterprise space incumbent that Apple have in their sights. 

People have already begun to write off the iPhone 3G, but they are missing the message. By lowering the cost barrier to entry, Apple are commoditising the device. Trying to make it ubiquitous. Lock in the location-based social networking, make cross-platform interconnects, and the offering is a lot more powerful. I wonder how the iPhone ecosystem will look 6 months, a year and two years down the line. People who sprang for the iPhone Gen1 must be prickling. Look at the early adopter tax they incurred. Now Tom, Dick and Larry can get cheapie iPhone 3Gs at a fraction of the layout. A gadget that’s much faster, lasts longer and has move oomphy firmware goodness built-in. Right out of the box. I’d be pissed too. There are people that big up the N95, but the iPhone 3G looks sweet to me. 

Where are O2 Ireland?

O2 Ireland’s site has no mention of the iPhone 3G after the launch announcement. Likewise for Carphone Warehouse. In contrast, O2 UK has details of the new phone. If it weren’t for the Apple Ireland IPhone site and the publicity storm, they’d be no official word about the new iPhone hitting Ireland on July 11th. Weird that these outlets are in a publicity blackout, right? Were I in charge of iPhone publicity for O2, I’d be making sure that the plans and pricing were going to hit the O2 site just after the announcement, just to capitalise on all of that free buzz being generated. 

I’m looking forward to seeing O2′s pricing ideas. It would be nice to see a more generous plan being offered to customers. Although, if Jobs’ promised of a $199 price worldwide on the new 8GB iPhone sticks, I suppose we should expect a long contract lock-in and similar pricing. Not exactly the manna from heaven that Jobs was offering. I suppose like many things, it’ll cost the earth here.

What would be interesting, is if O2 took a sliding scale approach to pricing the iPhone 3G. So, for example, offer the 8GB iPhone for free when people sign up to an 18-month contract, e75 for phone on a 12-month contract and so on. I suppose we’ll all have to wait and see what O2 Ireland have up their sleeves. C’mon O2, get publishing!

Edit: Pat has posted O2′s price plans. Interesting, I still want to see more details. 

June 10th, 2008 at 9:19 am • Filed in Geekery



Comments

12 Comments to “Closeup on the iPhone 3G”

  1. Darren Says:
    June 10th, 2008 at 9:40 am

    Loving the idea of Location Based Services.



  2. Matt Says:
    June 10th, 2008 at 11:12 am

    I would be very, VERY surprised if O2 Ireland didn’t try to get rid of all their old stock of 2.5G iPhones before selling the new one, even though Apple have said that anyone who bought their 2.5G iPhone after May 25th is entitled to a 3G one.

    I would be even more surprised again if the prices weren’t €199 and €299, even though SJ said the prices would be $199 (€127) and $299 (€192), maximum.

    Also, no surprises here either: 18 or 24 month contracts, 1GB data limit, and craptacular voice and text allowances, just like last time.

    O2 Ireland are pretty good, compared to other Irish SP’s. Compared to O2 UK though, they suck ass.



  3. Alexia Says:
    June 10th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    @Matt: I can’t see anyone springing for one now, when the pricing is out in the open. They’d literally have to give them away.



  4. McAWilliams Says:
    June 10th, 2008 at 3:06 pm

    Well we knew O2 would continue to fleece customers and they have done so in gusto aligning the price with the tarriffs is a cheek.

    ok so you can get a 8gig one at less then steve said if you sign up to the 100/65 euro fee a month, but it costs more then 199 dollars when you get to the 45 euro tarriff.

    As for the 16 gig version they are fuckers. Matt got it in one and we even tweeted about it yesterday once again the only tarriffs keeping in line with what steve said are the 100/65 euro ones they have a fucking nerve going for 299 euro if you sign into the 45 euro tarriff.

    I am absolutley disgusted at this and I do believe that action should be taken, I am planning on writing to the consumer authority, O2 and Apple about this.



  5. Robert Synnott Says:
    June 10th, 2008 at 3:54 pm

    O2 prices are out now. 169 euro on the 45/month plan (18 months); cheaper on the stupidly expensive plans.



  6. Ben Says:
    June 10th, 2008 at 8:09 pm

    As iv already discussed with you, i cant see this big brother-esque location based networking a flier AT all!

    All well and good when you are lookin to see if that old secondary school chick you have the number of is floating about and you want to catch up, it sounds very little house on the prarie but i think it opens the door to a lot of privacy issues.

    I know when o2 launched their Locator service, people we’re adding their other partners with out their consent and it basically put a tracker device on them. You could triangulate where they were within a few feet.

    Not to suggest people would be lying about their location, why would i, but i feel it is an intrusion on people’s rights and privacy.
    If i saw a service like this social media based on gps location i would like to see a and opt in and out and clear guidelines on how it could be used. o2 know all about it, i think they cancelled their locator service as people were using it for the wrong reasons altogether!

    Also cross platform (iPhone / n95) would also have to be a runner if it did come in. Wubud anyone?



  7. Alexia Says:
    June 10th, 2008 at 9:15 pm

    @John: I’m disappointed with the plans.. Esp the data cap.

    @Robert: Agreed. It’s silly.

    @Ben: Hmm.. opt-in, of course.



  8. Hairyfish » Blog Archive » POS v2.0 Launch Date Released! Says:
    June 11th, 2008 at 10:07 pm

    [...] for everything else there’s This , This and This and of course you don’t want to for forget [...]



  9. McAWilliams Says:
    June 12th, 2008 at 10:21 am

    I have noticed that the O2 Ireland webpage with the press release for the launch has changed slightly from what pat copied and pasted instead of the 16gig version being 299 on the 45 euro tarriff it has changed to 229 euro.

    Maybe O2 are listening which is great to see and now the 16gig option has reopened for me again.

    Now just to work on the data cap!



  10. Alexia Says:
    June 12th, 2008 at 11:42 am

    @McAWilliams And the fact that the call plans are a premium on the regular O2 plans too.



  11. Robert Synnott Says:
    June 12th, 2008 at 1:28 pm

    Funnily enough, on their official message board, an O2 support person who moderates the thing seemed optimistic that something would be done about the cap.



  12. Alexia Says:
    June 12th, 2008 at 1:50 pm

    @Robert Oh, really? You have a linky for that Robert?



Leave a Reply