By now, you've heard that Apple has announced the "3G iPhone", which costs half as much as the original iPhone ($199 for 8GB model, $299 for 16GB), with "twice the speed" (ahem, we'll see about that claim) as it is now on the faster HSDPA network rather than the much-slower EDGE network. On July 11 (a Friday!) expect long lines and lots of hype at the Apple and AT&T (in the U.S.) stores.
Count me in as one of the people who might wait in line.
The best news from the announcements today was that Apple (and AT&T) seems to have listened to the enterprise. The new iPhone 2.0 software update, also available on July 11 and available to original iPhone owners, provides lots of things that have kept enterprise users (and enterprise IT especially) wary of the device over the past year.
First and foremost, the device will now support Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, which opens up the flood gates in terms of the number of users that will want to access their work e-mail. Not only will Exchange users be able to get their e-mail, but their calendars and contacts will update too. Second, Apple is promising support for Cisco IPSec VPN and wireless network services with WPA2 Enterprise and 802.1x authentication (remember, the device includes Wi-Fi on it). Those two features, missing from the first iPhone, are huge for enterprises.
For me, personally, the addition of built-in GPS is just as big. No longer just relying on cell towers for location information, the new iPhone appears to be able to become a handheld version of those in-car GPS devices like the TomTom, Garmin, etc.
The only thing that might hold me back is the possibility of spending more money on a network data plan – if I have to pay for this out of my own pocket, a $45 per month data plan (for the "business level" plan and apart from the separate voice plan) could get tricky. Hopefully we can convince the powers-that-be here at NW to buy me one and I won't have to worry about the extra expense of the data plan.
And with the announcement officially made, let the analysis begin!
Network World's product test editor and one cool dude.
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