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The 3G iPhone - the emperor's new price

By: Mobileshop.com LTD

It's finally been announced... The Apple iPhone 3G has been on a LOT of people's lips, recently, in the build-up to the official announcement, but what exactly is all the fuss about? How come so many people treat it as the second coming? And how, compared to the price of the first version, have O2 made it so much cheaper in the UK? I'll answer these questions and more, as we look at the most anticipated mobile phone for a very long time.
The new iPhone 3G - is this the future of mobile phones
Think back to summer 2007. A phone was released that wanted to outdo all other mobile phones. It set out to wow people with its fluid, intuitive interface, its amazing features, and its sheer beauty. That phone was the Apple iPhone. However... as much as obsessed Apple fans love it, it wasn't all that powerful, and despite its massive brand power, and the immense amount of promotion done in its name, a huge number of mobile phones, even older models, outclassed it on features. It had many flaws, and the fact is that, when you viewed it objectively, despite the proclamations of love from some groups of (mostly Apple-fixated) users, and weirdly-b flaming thrown about by both sides, it wasn't as good as the marketing made out. Yes, it had WiFi, and a massive screen, and iTunes as its music player, but it missed out a lot of the key things that we take for granted in mobile phones, like photo messaging and forwarding of SMS messages. Worst of all, though, it excluded one of the most used aspects of modern mobile phones, and that was 3G data speeds.
But, now, there's a brand new evolution of the iPhone, and it DOES have 3G. So, have Apple fixed all the problems that existed in the first iteration? Is this now the ultimate mobile phone? Well, in truth, no. It is a huge improvement over the previous version, though, as it's now got 3G. And that's important for three reasons... 1/ the web browser on the iPhone is stunning, but was ruined by the slow mobile data speed on the earlier version... 2/ yes, the first version had WiFi, but you can't get that everywhere, meaning you had to search round for a hot spot to get access... and 3/ EDGE, the mobile data standard that the first version had was and still is rubbish. So, the inclusion of 3G is something that's long overdue, and it at last means the iPhone 3G can properly fight it out with other mobile phones in terms of mobile internet. The inclusion of GPS is further icing on the cake.
Is it worth getting an iPhone 3G on O2?
The problem is, it's the things that Apple haven't fixed that stand out even more. The camera is STILL the really-very-poor one from the earlier iPhone, coming in at 2 megapixels, and WITHOUT autofocus or flash. You might claim that no-one actually needs a high-end camera on their mobile phones, but I'll just point at the LG Viewty, LG's biggest selling phone EVER, and not say any more. It's apparent that a lot of people DO actually want a decent camera phone. Add to that a list of daft design choices, like being unable to copy/paste or run programs in the background, and a distinct lack of a back button, and it all adds up. Good phone, yes. Perfect phone? No. However, there is one very big thing going in its favour at the minute, and that's the ultra-low price you can get the phone at, in the UK, through O2. You see, Apple have finally realised that for mobile phones to sell in huge quantities, they need to be subsidised by the network, or, to put it another way, the network needs to pay for the phones, so that they can sell phones to the customer at a cheaper price. And that's the 3G iPhone 3G's big secret: O2, having subsidised the phone, will be doing it for free, on a selection of calling plans. And that is why O2 should sell this version easier than the previous one. After all, a totally free iPhone may very well attract a lot of people who wouldn't buy the first one!

Article Source: http://www.myarticlesdirectory.com

Expert in mobile phones and mobile broadband, having worked in the industry for over 7 year.

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