tl;dr

Hmmm, interesting. Writeup on Engadget here if you’ve missed the highlights. Some thoughts:

• No word yet on UK pricing, although Apple claim it will be “the equivalent” of $199 around the world ($299 for the 16Gb model) — representing a 50% price cut over the outgoing 2G models. The BBC claim that is £100 but if it sells here for £100, with the UK’s high import taxes and VAT, I’ll be exceedingly shocked. O2’s site just says “come back tomorrow”. Teasers.
• Also about pricing, it sounds like Apple are abandoning the business model they used with the iPhone 2G, where there were no operator subsidies on the hardware and you could walk out of the shop without a contract. Engadget notes “both pricepoints require a contract”.
• I’m very surprised that it didn’t get a capacity bump to 16Gb/32Gb but in light of the vastly reduced RRP this is likely a cost-cutting measure. It has been suggested to me that we may see a capacity bump in the usual late autumn iPod update window — that seems possible.
• The battery life getting longer is a welcome boost and not one I saw coming. Having gotten used to charging my current phone, a 3G HTC TyTN running Windows Mobile, every single day, the iPhone 3G’s 5 hours of talk and 300 hours standby sound like a very nice upgrade.
• The unnamed GPS manufacturer who said he was “shitting himself” about a GPS iPhone needs some new trousers — unless he works at TomTom, who are not taking this sitting down. Apple not supplying their own turn-by-turn navigation solution creates a good opportunity for these guys.
• Man, the iPod Touch is a terrible deal now! No wonder they are giving them away.
• Vaguely disappointed by the things they didn’t fix — no MMS still, no copy&paste (that anyone has found yet). Apparantly it can bulk delete SMSs now though.

Overall? I’ll see you in an O2 shop on July 11th! If hackers break it all the better — but if not, I’m out of contract and on an O2 SIM-only tariff anyway, so upgrading to the proper iPhone tariff isn’t a great hardship. At least then I’ll get that hella nifty visual voicemail.

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