Apple on Monday unveiled a new version of its popular iPhone built for high-speed wireless networks with faster Internet access and more features for business users.
“It’s incredibly zippy,” chief executive Steve Jobs said as he demonstrated the new mobile device at the opening of Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
“We’ve learned so much with the first iPhone. We’ve taken what we’ve learned and more and created the iPhone 3G; and it’s beautiful,” he said.
The iPhone 3G — for third-generation mobile networks — is designed for faster Internet downloads and longer talk times, and takes advantage of the high-speed network to provide GPS mapping built in, Jobs said.
Apple will begin rolling out new versions of the sleek smartphone devices on July 11 and make it available in 70 countries. The first-generation iPhone is available in six countries.
“The next time you are in Malta and need an iPhone, you will be able to get it,” Jobs aid.
IPhone’s software update features “many new languages,” including two forms of Japanese and two forms of Chinese, one that lets users draw characters on the device’s touch-screen.
“You can switch between languages on the fly,” Jobs said. “It’s one of the great advantages of not having a bunch of plastic keys for your keyboard.”
The crowd cheered when Jobs announced the iPhone 3G will sell for US$199 with 8 gigabytes of memory. Apple will charge US$299 for a model with 16GB of memory.
“It is a very aggressive price point and it is going to do some damage to the other players in the market,” Gartner analyst Van Baker said, listing BlackBerry and Nokia among competitors in iPhone’s crosshairs.
The 8GB iPhone 3G will be half the price of its predecessor and work twice as fast, Apple said.
Jobs said that iPhone’s second-generation software would let business users send and receive Microsoft Exchange e-mail, in a direct shot at rival BlackBerry.
The iPhone software update is aimed at a business market that is currently hooked on BlackBerry devices made by Canada-based Research In Motion.
BlackBerry handsets have long let people “push” work e-mail to the devices using the Microsoft e-mail system.
Apple worked with Cisco Systems to build virtual private network (VPN) services into iPhones so businesses can establish secure connections to protect data being transferred.
Thirty-five percent of US Fortune 500 companies and the US military have “beta” tested iPhone’s enterprise e-mail, Jobs said.
The iPhone 2.0 software update will be free to iPhone users and be available for iTouch iPods for US$9.99.
Apple also introduced a “Mobileme” service that lets people access e-mail accounts on iPhones, laptops or home computers via the Internet.
Investors may be frowning on Apple because most of the announcements were leaked prior to Monday and the improved iPhone won’t be available for more than a month, according to analysts.
“With the exception of Mobileme we knew everything else was coming,” Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle said.
“The only surprise is the thing is not ready yet. It came across like Jobs didn’t have it together,” he said.
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