Highlights of Worldwide Developer Conference 2008 Keynote 6/9/08 (1 Viewer)

[Dave Scarpa]

Well that is their M.O. and anyone buying the 8gb can expect by Fall to have the ability to get a 16gb and 32gb for less money, as did the original buyers.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Wonder if the price will be coming down on the Touch. I realize AT&T is subsidizing the iPhone 3G, but suddenly $299 for an 8GB Touch doesn't seem like much of a deal anymore.

 

[Sam Posten]

Plus you will have a gen 1 iPhone in your hands still that you can jailbreak...

 

[Ken Chan]

There are reasons for holding them back and not throwing in the kitchen sink. When the iPod first came out, people were bitching that it didn't have an FM tuner. It still doesn't. I agree with Apple's approach: choose a compelling set of features, and package them together so that the total experience is as good as possible; leave stuff out that doesn't make sense.

Last year, 3G was too much of a drain on the battery. (Besides, AT&T's network wasn't built out yet.) Now they've tweaked the chipsets, improved the battery, and they've put it in. And yes, maybe next year they will add "one more thing", when it's ready. But how else should they schedule their releases?

 

[DaveF]

What are the missing features? (Ah, stupid work getting in the way of posting... ) It seems Apple needs copy/paste and maybe a ToDo app. But after that, I don't know what is critically missing. And since they seem on target to hit 10M sold, it seems most people are finding what they need in it.

Certainly, I'm looking for some applications not yet available, more PDA features and such. And a non AT&T service provider. But that's me -- most people don't seem to want a PDA anymore.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Many of those will be availabl in the APP Store

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Dave,

I agree with you. I think the APPS that will be made available to
us will make up for missing features.

I am going to start a thread in early July devoted to iPhone apps
so that we can share recommendations for some of the best apps
being made available.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Coremobile is going to release their great player so that Divx and Xvid files should be playable if we can figure out how to get Itunes to allow them.

So Ron are you getting a 3G or staying with the first gen?

 

[ErichH]

Apps will save or keep afloat the 3G, but the pile-on for Apple and AT&T starts now. I think they deserve every pin prick.

IPhone 3G Video Conferencing: Apple Introduces iPhone 3G Videoconferencing Kit, ZOMG!

 

[Sam Posten]

They REALLY need their asses kicked for hiding the $10 a month data plan rate hike.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I thought so too, but I found out today that all AT & T 3g data plans are the same price. So it's no different than any other 3g smartphone.

 

[DaveF]

Paul Thurrott, at WinSuperSite, has a preview of the new iPhone. He's Windows-oriented blogger with a reputation for being something of a Microsoft fanboy (I don't share that opinion, but I've seen some off-target comments on Apple). I was a bit surprised to see his comment on the new iPhone:

 

[Jonathan_]

It's not just 3g smartphones. Any smartphone that we sell is $30 per month because those type phones use more data than a RAZR. The old iPhone data pricing always surprised me because most people that had one used more data than other PDA users.

 

[Sam Posten]

Whoopee. Go back to the original iPhone launch keynote and you will see that ALL the plan data was there in black and white for you to make a choice about. I saw it and decided to wait for 3G. Then this week they launched the iP3G without saying a WORD about plan prices, hiding a forced change to a higher data rate plan that more than elimites any savings on the price drop.

As Jonathan notes the iPEdge used more data than other edge phones use. The iP3G will surely use more data than other craptastic 3g "smart"phones. There's no other plan that stays at the same rate. Apple chose to hide this data. Boo on them and they should be called out for it.

Sam

PS I'm still getting one.

 

[ErichH]

That's one way of looking into the distortion field.

Then again, the silly Boom sound effect each time Steve mentioned the price in the keynote stinks at this point. Why would they harp 199 as being some big deal?
Normally Apple is expensive with no mixed mssg about it. I'm not going to say Apple has been completely clean in the past. They've had their share of bad moves.
This was something completely new.

The keynote ends with no mention of in-store registration only. Perhaps the funny little map of where the iPhone is being used compared to where it's for sale was a subtle hint. We're fighting the hackers or we get our money from AT&T up front instead of plan share. OK, fine. Just be up front with it. Show the plans in the keynote, or at least hint to an offset.

People will still buy the damn thing. I will.

Sorry, but WTF happened to Apple. First the GPU killing candy stick LEO, and now this.

In this climate of lies and double speak, it's disheartening to see Apple play the same game, even if only for the few moments it took to learn the rest of the story from AT&T.

 

[Craig S]

No it wasn't. Steve's Jan 07 iPhone launch keynote only revealed the price of the phone itself. I don't believe any Apple keynote or event has talked about plan pricing. The original plan pricing wasn't announced by AT&T until just 3 days before the iPhone became available on 6/29/07. In fact, speculation up to that point was that even minimum plans might be in the $70-$100 range based on AT&Ts plans for smartphones at the time.

What's happened is this: because of the changes in the Apple-AT&T agreement (dropping revenue sharing), the iPhone is now being treated by AT&T just like any other smartphone. This means in exchange for the lowered entry price, we have to put up with in-store activation and their normal $30 data plan. I liked the old way myself, but what can you do??

Me? I'm still waiting on a 32GB model before I upgrade. The 2.0 software & AppStore will make my 1st gen phone seem brand new for awhile anyway.

 

[Sam Posten]

Craig is correct, sorry about that. It still stinks! =)

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

$30 for a service that I'll be using far far more than the crappy EDGE network is a no brainer for me. It's the same price Sprint is charging for unlimited data on my Treo. If there's anything I have a beef about with on the pricing is that I think $40 for only 450 minutes of talk time is too high.

 

[KeithAP]

It also appears there are no free text messages with the iPhone 3G. With the first gen iPhone, 200 text messages were included with the visual voice mail feature but now, as I understand it, 200 text messages will cost $5 per month. There are also more expensive plans for more messages should you need it.

So it seems the new iPhone will cost $15 more per month at a minimum, further explaining the $199 entry level price point.

-Keith

 

[BrianShort]

Are you sure about the text message thing? That would be lame. I don't text message currently, mostly because I'm not paying extra for it right now, but if 200 SMS messages were included, I'd sure use them! Hopefully that part of the plan is still intact.

Still getting the new phone though! Hopefully we'll see some cases come out soon... I just want a simple leather one with a belt clip.