3G iPhone Going Into Production In May

A few folks noted the rumor mill churning over 3G iPhones coming soon. Apparently they might be going into production as early as May, and announced somewhere in the 2nd quarter. Hopefully they manage to stick a GPS and another 16 gigs of memory in this one.

Don't take away my storage, captain!

[by Anonymous Coward]

A few folks noted the rumor mill churning over 3G iPhones coming soon.

But my iPhone already has 8 gigs!

Will it have a Paris Hilton news blocker?

[Big Frank (921537)]

If it did, I'd buy it at any cost!

Re:

[Satan Dumpling (656239)]

I just want ads blocked on my iphone. I tried editing the hosts file on my iphone, but it didn't work. Any suggestions? I need a solution on the iphone itself that will work anywhere.

day early?

[Tom (822)]

Isn't this a day early?

WishList

[pinkocommie (696223)]

1. AutoFocus/Flash for the Camera
2. 3G
3. GPS

and I'm set, getting rid of a bunch of electronics for just one device :D
What else do you guys think could be added?

Re:why

[CockMonster (886033)]

Because the iPhone was a flop outside North America.

Re:

[Barny (103770)]

Also note, that in countries where the telecommunications system is in a stranglehold by a company dedicated to obsolete standards (NextG anyone?), the few providers of 3G are the only usable cellular data method, there is not EDGE so...

Or as you said, if a flip flop saves a flop, well, meh.

I stick to my nokia (edge, 3g, gsm, 802.11g) I think :)

Re:why

[morgan_greywolf (835522)]

Because the iPhone was a flop outside North America.

And you'll see a lot of comments from Apple fanboi's defending Apple all the way, but here's the truth, uncensored. (Go ahead, mod me down, fanboi trolls) what a lot of North American (like myself) readers don't seem to understand is that while we just got 3G services and phones rolled out within the last 2 years by the likes of Sprint, Verizon, etc., here in the States, abroad, they've had 3G for quite sometime and are completely spoiled by it. In the EU, any smartphone that's not 3G is immediately destined for failure, especially since they're already rolling out '3.5G' and '4G' in Europe, while we think 3G is the newest thing, Europe is already moving on.

Re:why

[Bedemus (63252)]

what a lot of North American (like myself) readers don't seem to understand is that while we just got 3G services and phones rolled out within the last 2 years by the likes of Sprint, Verizon, etc., here in the States, abroad, they've had 3G for quite sometime and are completely spoiled by it. In the EU, any smartphone that's not 3G is immediately destined for failure, especially since they're already rolling out '3.5G' and '4G' in Europe, while we think 3G is the newest thing, Europe is already moving on.

What a lot of North American readers (like yourself) don't seem to understand is that the population density in the countries where 3G coverage is widespread justifies that widespread deployment of 3G technology by giving companies a speedier return on their investment.

Such is the case for most of the connectivity technologies that see more rapid adoption overseas. There are large areas of the USA that are simply not densely populated enough to justify the expense of rolling out cutting-edge networks there. It isn't a matter of the US simply being behind the technological curve, as some like to assume.

Pardon the PHB nature of this next statement, but these are the types of differences that turn a 3 year ROI into a 10 year ROI, and slow down adoption.

Re:why

[Seahawk (70898)]

So - what is the reason for not having 3G on the east and west coast of USA? I would guess the population density there is comparable to most of Europe.

And don't think we have 100% 3G coverage over here(Denmark) - far from it. I would guess by area we're around 40%(Complete guesstimate), but coverage by population is at least 80% - I see nothing that prevents USA from doing something similar.

Re:why

[noewun (591275)]

There are large areas of the USA that are simply not densely populated enough to justify the expense of rolling out cutting-edge networks there. It isn't a matter of the US simply being behind the technological curve, as some like to assume.

This isn't true anymore. About 83% of the U.S. population lives in cities. We just aren't a rural country anymore. The simpler answer is that we have a de facto telecommunications monopoly in this country, and we all know how much monpolies love innovation.

Re:why

[MistaE (776169)]

I don't think it is so soon. It's already almost been a year since the original came out.
 
This isn't Apple's other electronic markets, cell phones are updated almost the time, and usually it's not just a "slap a stick of bigger memory on it and call it a day" sort of revision. They need and should be adding more features to compete with the rest of the market.
 
With that said, I don't understand why the hell people keep begging for GPS, I just feel that there are so many other better self GPS only products that get the job done that Apple shouldn't bother with that market. Besides, if you're shelling out hundreds on an iPhone, I have a feeling you may have a GPS system of some sorts already.

Because we one "One gadget to rule them all"

[PortHaven (242123)]

We're tired of...

"Three PDAs for the Elven Lords
Seven cell phones for the Dwarf Lords and their halls of stone
Nine MP3 players for the

Three Cell Phones for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven PDAs for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine MP3 players for Mortal Men doomed to die,

We want...

One Gadget the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Gadget to rule them all, One Gadget to find them,
One Gadget to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

***

(ie: I don't want a separate cell phone, PDA, MP3 player, GPS and batman utility belt. Especially NOT when the technology is available to easily have all 4 in a single device. And the only thing stopping it from happening is BS marketing idiots.)

Why GPS on you cell phone.

[LWATCDR (28044)]

Because a GPS that network enabled is a great tool.
Traveling? Want to find a restaurant? Just use your cell with GPS and you can even dial the number and make reservations. Yes auto GPS systems have that but do you carry them in your pocket? When you travel you may or may not have a GPS in your rental car. Yea you could take your portable one with you but what if you don't have a rental car and are just walking? What if you are riding with someone that doesn't have a GPS?
Again it is always in my pocket. It is the same reason that I have web browser on my phone and a media player.
It is always with me and it is small and light.

GPS is incredibly useful

[sjbe (173966)]

it [let's find a restaurant!] speaks to what seems to me to be a pretty narrow market/lifestyle segment. Maybe for the itenerant road warrior type. For me, i know every decent restaurant within miles (west surburban chicagoland) or at least enough. ditto in Chicago.

You don't sound like someone who travels much. If you never leave the area where you live, no a GPS isn't going to help you much. But most of the population travels at least occasionally and some of us travel quite a lot. I have a Garmin nuvi [garmin.com] which I use all the time to find places to eat, hotels, parks, intersections, offices and of course for directions. I travel a fair bit (both work and pleasure) and a GPS is extremely useful when I do. I also just moved to a new city and it made it MUCH easier to learn my way around. If I could get the same features in my phone that would be even more useful. I never need directions anymore, just a destination address. It's great that you live in Chicago where there are wonderful options for dining all over the place. But I can tell you most of the country isn't like that. Even in Chicago it's often hard to find something if you don't know the city. (yes I've been there many times) Can you get by without a GPS? Of course. But just like you can get by without a computer it's still pretty handy if you have one available.

Re: GPS

[peragrin (659227)]

the locate feature is absolutely useless to me. there aren't enough wi-fi access points to be any good.

Besides i don't want GPS built in. As GPS uses a ton a battery power. I want a Bluetooth, or other dongle that occasionally sends GPS data. Why can't I get a car dock, with a built in GPS receiver? Just plug the iPhone in I can listen to tunes, hook up the bluetooth to my car's bluetooth headset, and have driving map to go by all from one device.

Unfortunately the SDK, and Apple's EULA's prevent exactly that from ever happening.

Re:why

[DrgnDancer (137700)]

Dude.. You live in Chicago, it's a grid, lucky you. Try to find your way around Houston or New Orleans without help sometime. It's a bona fide nightmare. New Orleans has streets that are parallel in one place and intersect in others, they call it a the "Crescent City" for a reason. It also has streets change names at random places for reasons that, while historically interesting, make no navigational sense. New Orleans is a bit unique by any standard, but most of what I like to call the "post-WW II Southern Cities" are huge sprawling things with little planning and often several "downtown areas" interspersed with residential subdivisions and bedroom communities. I've been to New York and Chicago, their well planned grid and awesome public transportation are things to be envied... Most of us do, because we don't have them.

Maps versus GPS

[sjbe (173966)]

we're integrateing hundreds of dollars of technology with a multibillion dollar supporting infrastructure to replace a FOLDED PAPER MAP that we might need to use for TWO MINUTES EVERY THREE YEARS.

When your folded map can:

• give you street level directions for every road anywhere in ALL of North America and Europe
  
• calculate optimal routes and detours
• find the closest Chinese restaurant in a city you've never been to before and give you its phone number so you can order ahead
• act as a speaker-phone via bluetooth for your cell phone
• play MP3s
• tell you that there is traffic ahead on the highway you are driving on
  

then MAYBE you'll have a decent argument about why maps are superior in every way. Maps are useful to be sure but GPS devices do a lot more than just show where streets are located. I use my GPS almost daily. Bet you I get a lot more value out of my GPS than you do from your map.

Re:Why does iPhone succeed?

[MistaE (776169)]

Never underestimate the power of the 'coolness' factor. Also, you write off the nicer interface as if its somewhat insignificant. That's the CORE component of any consumer electronic market. The public is going to interact with the most part through the interface, if it sucks, they're not going to spend the time to learn it.

Like it or hate it, you got to admit that the iPhone has a pretty nice interface and it's not too hard to learn. When my mom and aunts, who are in their 40s and not very technologically adept, decided to pick up iPhones and can use them as well as me, you know they're doing something right.

Re:Why does iPhone succeed?

[ironwill96 (736883)]

It all boils down to this: what the iPhone does it does well.

I have used other smart phones such as the Motorola Q and the Blackberry, but the iPhone is the simplest to use for what I want: easy to access and read e-mail and web browsing and a phone. It also does simple things like work as my calculator, a calendaring system, take notes on it, do alarms, stop-watch, stock quotes, weather and whatever else you download for it now. And oh yeah, it is my iPod too and I synch it with Bluetooth to my car for use as hands-free.

As someone else already pointed out, the ease of use and interface are the key things that a good smartphone really needs - and Apple succeeded quite well with their first try. Yes, it didn't have 3G or GPS built-in for the first pass at it, but future versions most certainly will. Once they add the rest of those features, i'll be surprised at what people will find to complain about it then. It will probably never have enough memory for the complainers and i'm sure the DRM and device lock-down are also something to continue to complain about, but i'm happy with the phone now just as much (or more than) I was when I bought mine back in September after they lowered the price on it. Now if only AT&T could get some better coverage around where I live :-)

Re:Why does iPhone succeed?

[Admiral Ag (829695)]

The iPhone could be equipped with a perpetual motion machine and a love ray that instantly seduces any woman it is aimed at, and some people would still complain that it doesn't support MMS, and thus they would rather have their free flip phone.

Don't underestimate the power of the dark side.

Re:Why does iPhone succeed?

[Pretor (2506)]

I'll give you several

1: Ease of use.
2: High quality software - few software bugs
3: Ipod
4: Very good web browser
5: Some very nice third party software (if you jailbrake it)

I've also have a Nokia E90 - so I'm able to compare my iPhone to a more feature full phone. This is a phone that has almost all the features that you could imagine. 3.5G, GPS, SIP client, multi megapixel camera, keyboard and etc. This is similar to other expensive Nokia phones.

The problems with the Nokia phones are:

1. Several different confusing menus - the series 60 is awful to use
2. Lots and lots of bugs, several that freezes the phones
3. Terrible multimedia software
4: Good web browser with bad user interface. Nokia calls it Safari (webkit) based, but the interface is miles away from the iPhone

Yes my Nokia E90 has it bright spots. For example I bring it along on my travels because of it's GPS and its SIP client. Additionally the keyboard makes it nice using ssh to check problems with servers and etc. And it's really nice to have 3.5G Internet access. But since it's awful to use as a day to day phone it's mostly left at home.

BTW: I live in Oslo, the main capital of Norway. An area with very good 3G and 3.5G coverage. So I know what I'm missing with just the EDGE network.

Re:Why does iPhone succeed?

[mdwh2 (535323)]

The other reply got modded flamebait, but the spirit of the answer was correct - consider how it's not just marketing from Apple themselves, but from phone shops that promote it, and news media from Slashdot to the BBC. What's this - a news article not about the release of Iphone, but simply a new version supporting a feature that's long been a standard? Most phones don't get a story at all.

Apple appear to be taking advantage that many people are unaware how almost every phone (even cheap ones) can do Internet access as standard, so they are able to promote it as a new and wonderful thing (even on Slashdot, I see this happening).

(And it's not clear it has "succeeded" apart from in the sense of not flopping? Sure it's succeeded, but so has the Treo and many other phones, but if you mean been a success above all others, that's not clear at all to me.)

Re:Why does iPhone succeed?

[teh kurisu (701097)]

Apple appear to be taking advantage that many people are unaware how almost every phone (even cheap ones) can do Internet access as standard, so they are able to promote it as a new and wonderful thing (even on Slashdot, I see this happening).

I'm sure they're also attracting the people that have tried out the browsers on their phones, and found them so painful to use that they've just given up. I'm one of them - I never use the browser on my Samsung Z560 unless I really have to. In contrast, I'll browse the web on my iPod Touch quite happily - it's not as good as a desktop browser, but it's not that far off.

In fact, I was ranting to my boss just now about the fact that my phone browser forgets cookies when the browser is closed (which happens every time you close the clamshell, annoyingly). It's particularly apparent when using PayPal Mobile, which shows you a regular login page by default. You can opt to log in using your mobile number and a PIN, and if you've got the cookie you'll be automatically redirected. Mine, unfortunately, forgets the cookie.

Re:Why does iPhone succeed?

[dfghjk (711126)]

The Treo did succeed and it would be more successful now if its software wasn't of such poor quality. The iPhone does many things better than the Treo even ignoring the Treo's stability problems.

The Treo concept remains a desirable one so you answered your own question. The company that does the best job with this type of device will succeed. Right now it is Apple (among others).