When the iPhone http://www.apple.com/iphone/ first came out (June, 2007) I was excited about the idea, but the price ($599) was a little out of my league for a cell phone. I have been a fan and user of Apple products for many years, in fact my first home computer was a Macintosh SE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_SE back in 1991. I was excited to see the first iPones in use by those of my friends and colleagues who couldn’t wait and shelled out the cash for the first generation. The design was cool, with a touch screen LCD, an aluminum frame with black plastic accents, it could access the internet, be used as a media player, had a camera built in, and the operating system worked better than any other phone on the market. I knew I wanted one, but the price was too high, and I figured the bugs hadn’t been worked out yet. The first generation did well selling around 6.1 million units, so that was encouraging that Apple would be able to reduce the price fairly quickly.

I was excited that Apple made improvements and price reductions fairly quickly and the 3G http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G version was released in July, 2008. The faster 3G data speeds and assisted GPS were major improvements from the original units, and the prices had come down to $399 and $299 respectively for versions offering different storage capacities. When this happened, I almost had to go get one! I asked some people who had the newer ones if they liked the additional improvements and everyone who had one seemed to love them. What was I waiting for? Why didn’t I just go down and get one right there and then? The answer is simple, I looked at the rest of the phone market rushing to keep up and trying to compete with this new landscape of smart phone that Apple had proved was the next wave of portable devices. The reality was that the iPhone had created a portable computing solution where users could check their email, do a google search, visually look at the list of their voice mail messages, play their music, and even videos, take a picture, and many other just fun, or useful things without having to be at their desktop or even laptop computer. I knew that the competition in the market was going to push the envelope and that meant that Apple would not just sit back and let the iPhone remain idol. I was right, in March of 2009 Apple announced version 3.0 of the iPhone operating system and the iPhone 3Gs was released in June, 2009.

The latest iPhone sports some improvements and additions that make it nearly impossible to ignore. The faster speeds allow web pages to render in a fraction of the time, and viewing email attachments is much more robust. Launching applications http://www.apple.com/iphone/apps-for-iphone/ is very fast and the improved performance and updated 3D graphics make gaming even more enjoyable. The added video features are neat, you can capture, edit and share videos very easily with high quality VGA. I’m not sure how much this feature will replace some of the high end portable cam-corder market that has developed over the last few years, but the fact that you can do it on your phone is pretty handy. The standard camera features have been improved and the new 3-megapixel camera does take better pictures than the previous versions. The voice control and compass features are just a bonus, but the real improvement is the intelligent software keyboard that gets larger in landscape mode.

You can still get an iPhone 3G with 8GB of storage for only $99, but the new 3Gs with 16GB is now only $199. If you want the top dog 3Gs with 32GB you have to shell out $299. All of these phones require a 2-year AT&T rate plan, but that is pretty standard with any cell phone these days. I paid $199 and had to sign a 2-year contract to get my Motorola Razr http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details.jsp?globalObjectId=69 a few years back, so the price for the 3Gs with a two year plan doesn’t seem high at all considering how many more features you get, the additional available free applications available, and the fact that it’s an iPhone!

I know it may seem like I work for Apple, but I want to assure you that I am in no way affiliated. The reason I am so positive and excited about the new iPhone is simple:
Everyone I know that has one, either the original, 3G and now the 3Gs has told me that it changed their life. The basic conclusion is that the iPhone is what a portable device should be!