Apple unveils the iPhone 3G at WWDC

Reuben Lee | Jun 10, 2008

It's finally here. The much-anticipated 3G-enabled iPhone has officially made its debut at the Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote in San Francisco. According to Jobs, the new iPhone, which will be known as the iPhone 3G, will come with the additional 3G connectivity and HSDPA, on top of Wi-Fi. There is now confirmed to be true GPS and A-GPS built-in. Jobs added that standby battery life remains good at about 300 hours despite the new connectivity options. 2G talktime is about 8 to 10 hours, while 3G talktime is about 5 hours.

Aesthetics-wise, the iPhone 3G will be thinner at the edges, with a full plastic back (in black). The good news is that it now comes with a flush headphone jack (finally), which means compatibility to all headphones without needing an extra adapter. The iPhone 3G will also feature solid metal buttons, the same 3.5-inch touchscreen display and camera. Sadly, there's still no front camera for video calls. The new Apple handset will come with iPhone 2.0 which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and will also run the third-party applications developed with the iPhone SDK recently recently.

The biggest news on the iPhone 3G is really its price. The 8GB version (available in black) will retail for just US$199, while the 16GB model (available in black and white) is expected to cost US$299. (No word on whether there will be a 32GB version of the iPhone 3G, though.) Compared to the first iPhone which was going for US$599 (later reduced to US$399), this new affordable pricing will most certainly help Apple gain an even larger market share. The company plans to ship 10 million units of the iPhone 3G in 2008, which is definitely doable considering the lower pricing.

The iPhone 3G is expected to roll out in 70 countries over the next few months, though it is not expected in China or Venezuela. Twenty-two of the 70 countries will be the first to get the iPhone 3G on July 11. Find out which countries in Asia will be the first to get the iPhone 3G here.

Get our full coverage of the iPhone 3G launch here.

Filed under: Handhelds, Mobile Phones
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