iPhone 3G Weekend Special

We interrupt our regular programming to pay homage to the most popular mobile phone ever released. We’re referring of course to Apple’s phenomenal mobile phone - the iPhone 3G. The second generation iPhone has been met by tremendous amount of hype over the past couple of months. All the rumors we’ve heard about and have been circulating have been fulfilled and put to an end, now that thousands of iPhone fanboys and fangirls worldwide have their beloved mobile toy with them. Some even went to the extent of camping out as early as Monday at the Apple Store in New York, AT&T, Softbank in Japan, Rogers in Canada, in New Zealand and many other countries where the iPhone was simultaneously launched. So, here’s our own piece on the new iPhone 3G.

What do you get?
We’ve all heard and read about the iPhone specs, details and features. We know that it’s most important feature which was not in the original iPhone and which was the most sought after feature is the 3G connectivity. Early buyers and reviewers say that with a good location, the 3G-enabled browsing using the new iPhone is decently fast. Aside from the its 3G feature, the iPhone 3G is also loaded with some other useful features including; GPS mapping, Microsoft Exchange support, new Apps Store , better email management, better and faster internet browsing. The iPhone is three products rolled into one device – a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod and an internet device with full-featured HTML email and desktop-class web browser.

The Package cost.
Another most important factor that was the talk of the town for the past couple of months is the price tag that Apple and its distributors would put on the new iPhone. Fortunately, Apple allowed AT&T’s proposal to make the iPhone as affordable as possible by subsidizing its cost from Apple. And so news broke out that the iPhone will be offered for $199 with the corresponding service contract agreement with AT&T. Later on, AT&T also announced that the iPhone will be made available free of the 2-year service contract agreement, although at a higher price of $599. Other countries are selling the iPhone at varying prices. Rogers of Canada was even put into the limelight when it announced that it will be offering the iPhone at an extremely high price with an unreasonable service agreement. In Hong Kong, the iPhone 3G was being offered for $1 dollar with the corresponding mobile plan. But of course, price will not matter for iPhone fanatics. And price has become pretty irrelevant.

The First Owners.
Those who have been camping out outside of the different Apple Stores worldwide finally got their much desired handset and became part of the iPhone history as the first owners of the iPhone 3G. Engadget Mobile went as far as New Zealand to find out who are the first 10 iPhone 3G owners since their time zone is way ahead of the US release time. The first owners were Jonny Gladwell, Evert Bryuns, Annie Ryan, Luke Soules, John Ballinger, Brian Foose, Steve Simms, Ben Lilley, James MacFarlane and Khai Thay.

iPhone Apps Store.
A few hours after the iPhone 3G was released, a slew of other iPhone related services opened up more particularly the Apple Apps store. And iPhone fanatics were greeted with new applications which were just waiting to be downloaded. Some are being offered as free applications while some are priced although relatively cheap. Almost all possible mobile applications that you can think of started to appear on the iTunes apps store. Even Google has announced its own Google Mobile App for the iPhone. Top social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook also released their own native iPhone applications.

What’s next after this hype?
We expect more hype and buzz until a couple more weeks. Some are just starting to enjoy their newly bought device. Some tech journalists are starting to come up with their reviews of the new iPhone a few hours after they have played around with their iPhones. Tech bloggers and writers are outwitting each other trying to come up with the most fun-filled, engaging and exciting reviews that would solicit more page views, search hits, and back links. There’s no doubt that the iPhone is the most popular mobile device ever released. Apple has done a great job of marketing and advertising their mobile toy. And so now, they are enjoying the fruits of their labor. We can only thank one man for giving us this wonderful device, despite its flaws and limitation. On with the iPhone fever folks!

Source: cellphonenews.com