It's good to know that new iPhones are coming out to avoid wasting money on a non-3G iPhone!

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Guest wrote:
It's good to know that new iPhones are coming out to avoid wasting money on a non-3G iPhone!

The information could have been totally wrong, but at some point, I read (where, I don't know, so take it with a grain of salt) that the iPhone COULD NOT be upgraded to 3G through software because it was missing some hardware component needed for 3G. That being said, I ALSO read that Apple sacrificed the speed of the device by using software connections between components rather than hardwired connections so that future features could be added via software... so that they weren't hamstrung by any hardware connections.

Steve Jobs said that Apple chose to go with an EDGE data connection for the iPhone because 3G data kill battery life and they wanted to make the iPhone with 5 hours of talk time. He also said that a 3G iPhone was an eventuality when battery technology grows to allow 5 hours of talk time with the 3G data connection. I don't really see any huge improvements in battery technology coming in the next year. Yes there is fuel cell battery prototypes but they are still a long way away from mainstream use. The only other explanation that I can think of would be for Apple to cave in and finally put a removable battery in one of their portable devices in the same way that just about every other mobile phone has had since well,.... the beginning of mobile phones. GPS would be really nice too.

I hope Sling Media comes out with a Slingplayer for the iPhone. I pretty sure they will come out with one soon since the SDK has been announced for the iPhone if they aren't already working on it now. A 3G iPhone with Slingplayer would be a dream come true.

Improved battery performance is only one possible solution. If the 3G capable chip is somehow made to use less power, that could solve the issue as well. It was only a matter of time before Apple came came out with a 3G phone. However, if AT&T is correct, that could be sometime in December of 2008 (over a year away).

I will also say old iPhones will not be upgradable in this way. Part break downs of the iPhone do not reveal the required hardware. Upgrading software will not fix that.

For what it is worth, I think 3G will only appeal to some people. First, using the internet on the iPhone to view websites is nice if you really need information. However, it is not particularly comfortable to do versus a full sized computer. As such, I doubt many people spend a lot of time surfing the Internet on their iPhones. For email, 3G is a bit of over kill.

I can get by using Wi-Fi 90 percent of the time. I certainly wouldn't be willing to pay more for a 3G model.

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Guest wrote:
Steve Jobs said that Apple chose to go with an EDGE data connection for the iPhone because 3G data kill battery life and they wanted to make the iPhone with 5 hours of talk time. He also said that a 3G iPhone was an eventuality when battery technology grows to allow 5 hours of talk time with the 3G data connection. I don't really see any huge improvements in battery technology coming in the next year. Yes there is fuel cell battery prototypes but they are still a long way away from mainstream use. The only other explanation that I can think of would be for Apple to cave in and finally put a removable battery in one of their portable devices in the same way that just about every other mobile phone has had since well,.... the beginning of mobile phones. GPS would be really nice too.

I hope Sling Media comes out with a Slingplayer for the iPhone. I pretty sure they will come out with one soon since the SDK has been announced for the iPhone if they aren't already working on it now. A 3G iPhone with Slingplayer would be a dream come true.

Presuming that 3G eats power due to the local chips rather than requiring a higher power signal, the change will be increasingly lower power chipsets coming onto the market - just as happens with CPUs, GPUs, etc.

What I don't get is why this has affected the share price in any way. Did some idiots out there think that Apple - who revise the iPod pretty much annually - were never ever going to improve the iPhone on the original spec?