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 JULY 2008 W2 ALERT Apple Shows Us How to Do It Again-Simultaneously Launches iPhone 3G & App Store Next generation phone and application store promises to rewrite telecom rules <July 10, 2008>Apple does it again! They launch a hot new product…the iPhone 3G…and a hot new “App” Store with over 500 applications to turbo-charge the phone…on the same day! And as if to further punctuate the launch, more than 125 of the applications available for the iPhone 3G in the App Store…are free.
In an industry with a long history of animosity between hardware and software elements…Apple has successfully straddled both worlds and uses that advantage to create whole businesses that leave many CE manufacturers in their dust. A strategy first employed with the launch of the original iPod, Apple was able to power past Sony as the predominant supplier of portable music products within a matter of months…a position that Sony had enjoyed for many years.
 But not only did Apple run rings around its competition in hardware sales, it built a huge business in music downloads. Apple announced just this past June that they have sold more than five billion…yes that’s Billion with a “B”…song downloads at 99 cents each. Apple is now the number one music store in America.
The new iPhone 3G will be available when you read this and Apple has made smart upgrades that will not only accelerate the popularity of the phone with casual users, but opens the door to the business user as well.
Take the popular original iPhone and add 3G networking technology which is twice as fast, put GPS on board opening up location based services, add updated software with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, and adopt an open platform that encourages outside software developers to create hundreds of applications for everything from games to business apps…and you have a potential powerhouse product that meets just about everyone’s needs.
The iPhone 3G in an 8GB version will carry a suggested retail of $199, and in a 16GB version will have a suggested retail of $299. Both are available at Apple and AT&T stores…AND require a two-year agreement. (Images: Apple, Inc.) |
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