Apple delivered a variety of hardware and software news today at the opening keynote for its Worldwide Developers Conference, but the company took its time building up to the big news: The new iPhone 3GS will be available in stores on June 19, and the current iPhone 3G will drop in price to $99 as of today. Unfortunately, I found the keynote offered empty calories: The lack of a significant hardware upgrade for the iPhone was especially underwhelming. (See the transcript of PC World's live blog report of the keynote)
The keynote -- the company's first marquee event since CEO Steve Jobs took a medical leave in early 2009 -- actually played out more like a MacWorld keynote than a WWDC keynote, back from the days when Apple actually participated in Macworld. This was the first year Apple didn't have a presence at MacWorld, and thus far, its product announcements have been minimal.
Smartphones for All
Apple's announcements today underscore the company's plans to expand its scope as a smartphone maker. NPD Group data puts Apple as the number two smartphone maker today, second to Research in Motion; surely, the company has its eyes set on that top spot.
"We want to reach even more customers," noted Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller, who led the presentation in Jobs's absence, during the keynote.
To achieve that end, Apple reduced the current 8GB iPhone 3G to $99, half the price it sold for when it was first introduced last year. "There really has never been a smartphone at this price," says Schiller. That price was long-rumored; now, it's confirmed.
Certainly, never a smartphone that's held wide appeal has carried that price tag. In our database, the iPhone's new price ties the Nokia E71x for the least expensive smartphone we've seen (street price, not including rebates). Though that phone has a reasonable degree of usability, it can't compare to the simplicity and sexy "It Phone" factor of the iPhone.
The new phone, the iPhone 3G S, will be go on sale nationwide and in select countries (including the France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom) on June 19. In keeping with previous trends, the phone's pricing tiers stay the same, only you get more memory for your money: 16GB for $199, and 32GB for $299.
You may need that extra space: Two of the big features for iPhone 3G S are the camera (upgraded to 3.0 megapixels), and the inclusion of video recording (finally) at 640 by 480 pixel resolution, 30 frames per second.
Modest Hardware Boost
The camera and the inclusion of hardware encryption -- a welcome feature for business environments -- are the only new features that clearly mark a hardware change, though. Even though Schiller said during the keynote that "everything inside" the phone had changed, when asked, Apple representatives declined to specify what hardware had actually changed, and instead pointed to the spec sheet on its Web site (an Apple spokesperson indicated that we could "infer" what had or hadn't changed based on those published specs).
As such, it's easy to point to most of the iPhone 3G S's improvements being in software and not hardware. Some, like the addition of white balance controls on the camera, are obvious. Others, like the inclusion of voice control, for example, are less so: Apple didn't indicate this feature would be available on earlier generation iPhones, but it also didn't say what specifically in the new hardware enables this feature.
Likewise, some of the performance enhancements could be attributed to the new iPhone OS 3.0, available for free download to any generation iPhone (and $10 download for any generation iPod Touch) on June 17. This is especially true if one were to assume that the new OS has the same kernel core as the
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