iPhone 3G - Do I Upgrade ?

iPhone 3G - Do I Upgrade ?
By Tao Schencks
At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this week, Steve Jobs rolled out the anticipated and predicted iPhone 3G to the hungry fans, developers and fanboys.
Whilst to some it has now become the best mobile device on the market by also adopting the use of downloading data via the 3G mobile network which has been estimated at being 3 times faster than the EDGE network and 10 times faster than standard GPRS, it does seem to lack certain features that other manufacturers of mobile devices have had for years. Also the inclusion of assisted GPS has not swayed the public towards the device as some predicted.
It could be seen that Apple are taking a Zen like stance on the iPhone by keeping the design and application of the phone simplistic.
It does email, and can email photos - so why would you need Multi Media Messaging?
Why clog the iPhone up with too many applications that do too much and cause general instability in the underlying operating system? It does make sense for the iPhone to have 3rd party applications and games developed for it, but it also makes sense for there to be some kind of control over the way the applications are developed and deployed to the iPhone. Keeping tabs on each application means that Apple can guarantee that the device will still be stable no matter how many applications you install.
I am sure that all the nay-sayers will be happy once the iPhone App Store launches in July 2008. They will be able to get their multi media messaging, video recording, bluetooth file transfers and copies of Nokia Snake on there to play with. Its all a matter of time.
A large tipping point for the iPhone 3G will be the price. In the UK, the iPhone 3G can be had for as little as £99 with a contract or even for free if the contract taken is worthy enough to deem it. It's a far cry from the launch price of the device which ran into several hundred pounds, plus the monthly contract too!
When the iPhone 3G is released and the app store is released at the same time, this will catapult the iPhone into being the best and most versatile mobile phone you can buy. I suspect that the majority of the popular applications available for the device will be free and this will certainly make it more attractive to people wanting to purchase the device.
For us people who are the early adopters of the iPhone 1G model when it first launched, what have we got in store? What future can we have without the 3G, the GPS and the slightly redesigned body? My answer to that is "everything". We still get the app store, we get the new 2.0 firmware that will update the iPhone with new features and allow the app store to work. We are not loosing out at all. We are winning too! If you want GPS then go buy a TomTom or Garmin device! The iPhone 3G with its built in GPS will do the job - but will it be worth the upgrade fee plus the cost of the TomTom iPhone application when it launches? I think not.
What we do get to keep is an excellent mobile convergence device with new firmware and new applications to play with.
My advice? Unless you have the money to burn? Stay with 1G!
Tao Schencks is an Apple evangelist, a PC and server technician and keeps is real on a daily basis. He loves his family and Microsoft Windows but also is in love with his Macbook Pro and other Apple products.
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