The 3G(PS) iPhone Arrives

Apple (AAPL) announced its new 3G iPhone today. It is much thinner, much faster, and much cheaper than its predecessor. Starting at $199(with a two-year contract), you get an 8 gigabyte device with GPS that works on AT&T’s high-speed 3G network (as opposed to the slower EDGE network all previous iPhones are bound to). A 16 gigabyte version will go for $299. Considering that the current 8 GB iPhones cost $399, that is quite a steal. The battery is supposed to support 300 hours of standby time, 5 to 6 hours of Web browsing, 7 hours of video, and 24 hours of audio. But talk time is cut in half from 10 hours to 5 hours, when using the 3G network. The launch date is July 11.

Jobs claims that the 3G network approaches the speed of WiFi. What is really going to be a game-changer, though, is the higher speed in combination with the GPS chip, which will open up a whole slew of location-aware apps (some of which we’ve already seen). That and all the new iPhone apps that will be built for it by outside developers.

Apple has already sold 6 million iPhones, notes Steve Jobs. This price drop and the new features should put Apple over the 10-million mark without a problem. Here’s a video of Steve Jobs going over all the features from the keynote (taken, appropriately enough, on a cell phone), plus one of the new ad.

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Comments

[oregonduck:]

Man--the stock price today really took a dive!--But it should go way up tomorrow with this news! The conference announcements were kind of late and there was a lot of shorting going on. I hope to see at least $195 by the end of next week--$200 would be nice.

2008 Jun 09 05:11 PM

[gofer:]

Agree with oregonduck above. The 3G iPhone announcement came about as exected. But the $199 price tag is a pleasant surprise. So what hapened to the stock?? Seemed like a win-win situation all the way around.

2008 Jun 09 05:57 PM

[Beta:]

Seems like the stock may have dipped partially due to uncertainty about who is paying for the lower price on the iPhone. The lower prices are certainly encouraging from a volume perspective but wouldn't be good for Apple if it had to sacrifice margins. AT&T's press release clarified that they're taking most of the hit with a revised agreement with Apple (and passing some of it on to subscribers with the $30/mo data plan up from $20/mo).

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2008 Jun 09 07:12 PM

[King Solomon:]

Subsidized G3 iPhone + volume sales + larger market + Buzz + trojan-horse effect= ?

2008 Jun 09 09:52 PM

[pairadox:]

AAPL went down today as well as the last couple of trading days probably because Cramer said to sell up until the June 9th announcement. He said the hype of the new phone was already priced into the stock. It's hard to believe how many people listen and actually do what that guy tells them to do. Cramer was probably buy AAPL like crazy this afternoon when it dropped down to 177.

2008 Jun 09 11:43 PM

[mollytjm:]

AAPL in 70countries at year's end, at the olympics this summer, and with new lower prices and a great new iphone...all this is a reason to buy the stock now. there are A LOT of us just waiting to get out of our other phone contracts or waiting for a G3 phone... July 11 will be the start of a huge rush to buy iphones.

2008 Jun 10 01:32 PM