iPhone 2.0

From www.nytimes.com

June 10, 2008
Apple Unveils a Faster, Cheaper iPhone
By JOHN MARKOFF
SAN FRANCISCO — Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, announced a new version of the company’s popular iPhone on Monday with a raft of new programs, more powerful wireless Internet connections and a sharply reduced price.
The phone, available in the United States through AT&T and Apple’s own stores, will sell for $200 for 8-gigabyte model and $300 for a 16-gigabyte model. It will go on sale July 11 at a uniform price around the world.
As widely anticipated, the phone will run on so-called 3G wireless networks, allowing much faster Internet connections than the original iPhone introduced last year — speeds that Mr. Jobs, at an Apple conference here Monday, called “amazingly zippy.”
The phone, sleeker than the original, will also have built-in Global Positioning System capability to allow location-based services. It will also have a longer battery life and a 3.5-inch display.
Mr. Jobs also directly challenged Microsoft with a mobile Web service call Me.com intended to permit a user to integrate phone, calendar and contact information on multiple devices. The service, which will cost $99 a year and comes with 20 gigabytes of data storage, is similar to a service offered by Microsoft, but it comes with Apple’s consumer flair for Web design and seamless integration.
The announcements came on the opening day of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, at which the company also introduced a raft of new applications for the phone, many free.
Wall Street seemed less than overwhelmed by the announcement, however. During the Apple presentation, the company’s shares were off nearly $10 at one point before rebounding. At 2:45 p.m., shortly after the session ended, the stock was at $182.44, down $3.20, or 1.7 percent.
Apple entered the smartphone market last June and has made the iPhone second only to Research in Motion’s BlackBerry phones in the category. Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., had shipped about 5.5 million phones by the end of March, the most recent figures it has released. The iPhone has settled down to a less-than-spectacular sales pace: roughly 600,000 units a month, according to the company.
Analysts reported shortages in May as the company appeared to work down inventories for the introduction of a new phone.
Although AT&T stores still have phones in stock, according to a company spokesman, the supply has largely dried up in Apple’s retail outlets, and the phones are no longer available through the company’s online store.
Mr. Jobs has stated that his goal is to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008. Apple has been signing a series of deals with cellphone network providers around the world. It recently said it would offer the iPhone in Japan, Spain, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
The only major countries without an iPhone distribution agreement are Russia and China.
Both Mr. Jobs and Randall L. Stephenson, the chief executive of Apple’s partner AT&T, have promised a new iPhone model this year that would run on a high-speed wireless data network. AT&T is building such a network, which uses technology known as 3G and is intended to support a range of new applications, including mobile digital video.
Damon Darlin contributed reporting.