I was extremely excited about the Worldwide Developer Conference 2008, and so headed off to macrumors.com for a live feed of Steve Jobs’ keynote.
After a rather slow build-up, the almost inevitable announcement from Jobs that the 3G iteration of the iPhone was made. And so, there must follow an end to the enormous amount of speculation in blogs and forums about the features of the second generation iPhone.
With an inevitability almost matching that of a self-service checkout announcing ‘unexpected item in bagging area’, there has been an iPhone price-cut in the UK. Whilst my post about iPhone predictions wasn’t the greatest prediction of all time, a price-cut is almost equally unwelcome.
The iPhone was launched in the UK a few months ago, and whilst waiting for my current contract to expire, I began wondering whether it was the device for me. Much has been written about it, and despite Steve Jobs’ ‘class-leading’ tag, it has its detractors, such as this guy.
Since that post was written, O2 have increased the basic, £35 ($70) tariff to include 600 minutes and 500 texts, but most of the other points are well made. I had been spoilt with a very good camera on my Sony Ericsson K800i, and truth be told, the iPhone’s camera is vastly inferior, but in so many other areas, it trounces over it wholeheartedly.
For me, the relatively poor camera and lack of 3G were (and still are) issues, but everything else is so well-designed, feels so right, that you forgive it’s drawbacks. The iPhone is a fantastic device, and I’m very happy that I’ve purchased one.
I was thinking of waiting for an improved second-generation device. Perhaps it will feature an improved camera, with flash, with video recording, and 3G support.
Obviously, I couldn’t wait, and went straight ahead and bought one, but you know what? Now that I have, you can bet that a second-generation model is going to be released real soon.
