iPhone 4GB and 8GB, Coming in January?

[BWhaler]

No info regarding camera capabilities?

God, I hope not.

This is one feature that about 2% of the market care about--studies, not my opinion--yet every phone has one since the carriers want to up-sell you into data charges by sharing pictures between phones.

How do you make billions on a new cell phone?

Do what the handset makers cannot or have been unable to do:

1. Great reception
2. Great battery life
3. Great intuitive operating system with not one feature 90% of the population doesn't care about.

How do you own the market:

0. World phone. 4 networks
1. Integrate flawlessly with PIM info and media info on your PC
2. Great hardware design.
3. Unlocked

I hope Apple is smart here and didn't bow down to the US carriers. A unlocked phone which works on any network, anywhere in the world with all of the Apple magic is going to sell hundreds of millions of units over the next 5 years.

Come on Apple....we've got the money. The options in the marketplace suck. The cell phone is either the #1 or #2 most used/important digital device.

Give us what we want...and not one thing extra....

 

[info_javier]

Any image?????

There is no any one image of the iphone????
Here, in Argentina (Buenos Aires, Maradona) we are very excited waiting these arrive.


En Español:

No hay ni una sola imágen del iPhone?????? Aca en Argentina (Buenos Aires, Maradona)estamos muy entusiasmados esperando el lanzamiento del iPhone.
Espero que sea pronto.

Wi-Fi Conection
Bluetooth Conection
Camera
Mini OSX System
Mini Aplications an Sync with all OSX aplications

 

[ingenious]

Yeah but who uses CDMA? Talk about old tech.

I hope it's a 3G phone so it can make use of fast mobile internet in conjunction with a mobile version of the iTunes Store. Download to your iPhone on the go, come home and it will sync your song back to your computer.

Here on Telstra's NextG service (regular old 3G but on 850MHz for better range) they offer dual-downloads so when you download a song to your phone it simultaneously downloads a higher bit rate version to your laptop. Don't know how much it costs but knowing Telstra it'll be astronomical. Good idea though but I'd rather have a phone with good storage and the same bit rate on both laptop and phone.

But forget about CDMA, I didn't think anyone but the farmers out in the scrub used CDMA and even they gave that up ages ago when satellite phones became cheap.

My mind still boggles that your telcos can dictate access to the phone's features. You shouldn't need to worry about what provider you use when you consider which phone. Sure some providers may get exclusive deals but if a phone is offered by multiple providers it should have access to all the features that it would have if it were unlocked.

Ha... yeah CDMA is like the only thing that works where I live. Cingular and others work, but not if you're inside a metal building, like say, a gym...

As for the provider software blocking, didn't the government just rule that consumers now have the right to unlock their phones?

 

[rtharper]

As for the provider software blocking, didn't the government just rule that consumers now have the right to unlock their phones?

Yes, they can even break the system software to do it. I believe another suit has been filed for crippling features, as well.

 

[BWhaler]

I hope I can get one of these at a store that also sells phone service. I got a contract subsidy for my SE K750i, even though no U.S. carriers "officially" had that phone, because I went to a store that sold it and T-Mobile service. The store gets money from T-Mo for every time they get a contract customer, so they'll subsidize any phone.

Problem is, I don't think the bigger electronics chains––the ones likely to be carrying Apple's phones--offer this kind of deal. I think they only subsidize carrier-branded phones. So I hope Apple is actually working out deals w/some carriers. I'll be eligible for a renewal subsidy soon, and I can probably get a damn sweet non-Apple phone for $250-$450...

My bet is zero chance. I think the fact that every carrier has their own media and store shows there is no deal with Apple.

I have personally heard Steve speak about the carriers, and how they want to sell data and more minutes and so they force the creation of handsets no one wants.

I bet Apple hit a roadblock with Verizon and Cingular and Orange. So they went their own way.

The good news is it means it will be an unlocked phone and with no compromises.

The bad news is you're going to have to pay retail for it.

Personally, I will gladly pay retail to have a quality cell phone. About a decade of spending a fortune for flawed by design phones has pushed me over the edge.

Bring it home Apple. Give us the phone that takes over the world...with no compromises...

 

[xfiftyfour]

gosh, i'd better start saving now...

i hope the 4gb is a smart phone as well.. $250 for a regular phone + iTunes seems steep, no?

At any rate, I'd never use my phone as my iPod.. I have a 60gb iPod and I like having all that space and the ability to cart around ALL my music with me.. 4gb/8gb just isn't enough to bother with, IMO. So if they're charging that much just because of the music feature, sadly, I'll be opting out..

 

[rtharper]

Personally, I will gladly pay retail to have a quality cell phone. About a decade of spending a fortune for flawed by design phones has pushed me over the edge.

Bring it home Apple. Give us the phone that takes over the world...with no compromises...

Agreed. A new cell phone every two years is nice, but wouldn't it just be simpler if the one you bought lasted 3 or 4 (or more) years instead without breaking or being so useless you hope the next phone will be better?

 

[joeshell383]

Most of the U.S. uses CDMA

Yeah but who uses CDMA? Talk about old tech.

I hope it's a 3G phone so it can make use of fast mobile internet in conjunction with a mobile version of the iTunes Store. Download to your iPhone on the go, come home and it will sync your song back to your computer.

Here on Telstra's NextG service (regular old 3G but on 850MHz for better range) they offer dual-downloads so when you download a song to your phone it simultaneously downloads a higher bit rate version to your laptop. Don't know how much it costs but knowing Telstra it'll be astronomical. Good idea though but I'd rather have a phone with good storage and the same bit rate on both laptop and phone.

But forget about CDMA, I didn't think anyone but the farmers out in the scrub used CDMA and even they gave that up ages ago when satellite phones became cheap.

My mind still boggles that your telcos can dictate access to the phone's features. You shouldn't need to worry about what provider you use when you consider which phone. Sure some providers may get exclusive deals but if a phone is offered by multiple providers it should have access to all the features that it would have if it were unlocked.

The only major carriers in the U.S. that use GSM are Cingular and T-Mobile. Sprint, Alltel, Verizon Wireless, and most other providers use CDMA/EV-DO (except the old NEXTEL network which uses iDEN).

 

[Zmmyt]

i was a bit ranting about iPhone rumours in the past, but this sounds good. A good source.

The two battery thingy sounds interesting.

 

[EricNau]

I don't get the two batteries... at all.

"Darn, I need to call 911 because I'm having a heart attack but battery number 1 (the phone battery) is dead. Good thing I can still listen to music with battery number 2."

I must be missing something here.

 

[BWhaler]

if is more compelling than the KRZR, I'll pay $600 for it. Go for the highend, Apple. Forget the twenty something who doesn't have disposable income, try thirty-something with some cash to spare (god I'm getting old) .


Cinch

I'm not going to make this an "age" thing, since I know a lot of people in their 20's making a lot of money, but I agree with the sentiment for Apple to not go for the cheap skates who will want it for free or dirt cheap.

And don't try to make the reviewers happy. The same people who demand a radio in the iPod, ignoring the fact that radio sucks nowadays and it hurts Apple's iTunes business model.

Go for the high end Apple. Bring us a super high quality phone that changes the game.

We will pay for it. $200. $400. $600. Yes, some of us will have to save more. But there is an enormous market segment that pay that type of money today for poor quality phones--because we have no choice.

I'm buying my MWSF ticket right now. I wanna see this in person.

 

[spicyapple]

I don't get the two batteries... at all.

Two battery compartmentalized power source is a good safety feature. I hope to see this feature on all cell phones that also act as mp3 players.

luv ya bunches! xoxoxo

 

[rtharper]

Two battery compartmentalized power source is a good safety feature. I hope to see this feature on all cell phones that also act as mp3 players.

luv ya bunches! xoxoxo

Why, you only need on the phone you WANT, which will be the iPhone, I'm sure =p

 

[EricNau]

There seems to be a lot of discussion about CDMA vs. GSM, so I thought I'd chime in with an interesting fact...

According to Verizon (CDMA) for every 1 tower they have, it takes 7 of Cingular's (GSM) to cover the same area.

This does come from Verizon, so perhaps it should be taken with a grain of salt, but I must admit, I'm never been in an area where Cingular had coverage and Verizon didn't... it's always the other way around. For now, CDMA has the better coverage.

 

[Elrond39]

I don't get the two batteries... at all.

"Darn, I need to call 911 because I'm having a heart attack but battery number 1 (the phone battery) is dead. Good thing I can still listen to music with battery number 2."

I must be missing something here.

I guess the way I see it, the phone battery will have a much longer uptime than the music one; so, the odds of you running out of phone-charge but still having music-charge seems unlikely.

There seems to be a lot of discussion about CDMA vs. GSM, so I thought I'd chime in with an interesting fact...

According to Verizon (CDMA) for every 1 tower they have, it takes 7 of Cingular's (GSM) to cover the same area.

This does come from Verizon, so perhaps it should be taken with a grain of salt, but I must admit, I'm never been in an area where Cingular had coverage and Verizon didn't... it's always the other way around. For now, CDMA has the better coverage.

Not so much in Europe... It's actually kind of depressing that every time the iPhone rumors flare up, there's mention of bad coverage and dropped calls and whatnot. I can honestly say that the last dropped call I had was about 4 years ago.

 

[rtharper]

There seems to be a lot of discussion about CDMA vs. GSM, so I thought I'd chime in with an interesting fact...

According to Verizon (CDMA) for every 1 tower they have, it takes 7 of Cingular's (GSM) to cover the same area.

This does come from Verizon, so perhaps it should be taken with a grain of salt, but I must admit, I'm never been in an area where Cingular had coverage and Verizon didn't... it's always the other way around. For now, CDMA has the better coverage.

Aye, that's true in the States, and generally most of the Americas, as I understand it. If you head across the Atlantic everything is GSM, which makes roaming and interoperability a hell of a lot easier. I'm not sure how good cell phone coverage in rural areas is there though. Perhaps someone from there could let us know?

 

[dontmatter]

Oooooooh boy!

That 8GB, $449 iPhone sure sounds swell! (Provided it's a smart-phone with slide-out qwerty-keyboard, of course )

The 4GB doesn't sound to shabby either!

I think what really strikes me most, though, is the concept of two batteries with one charger. It's simple - because there's only the one charger. But it's pure genius! There should be no reason for concern that you'll run out of phone-power because you've been listening to too many tunes. This sounds like something Steve would come up with Even if ONLY this is true, it'll be a breakthrough!

Hmm, disagree. Why not just make one battery twice as big? This introduces the annoying situation in which you've got battery power in your phone but can't actually use it because it's ipod power instead of phone power, or vice versa. Or you could switch the batteries? But then why not just make one and let circuts take care of it?

As for releases in january, it's exactly the right time for apple, and they use it. Not only are people broke in january, but also so are companies, because nobody's buying stuff. Introducing a big new model keeps the money coming in during an otherwise rough quarter.

 

[rtharper]

Hmm, disagree. Why not just make one battery twice as big? This introduces the annoying situation in which you've got battery power in your phone but can't actually use it because it's ipod power instead of phone power, or vice versa. Or you could switch the batteries? But then why not just make one and let circuts take care of it?

Two batteries ensures that you could never run down the battery using the iPod inadvertently. I'm sure they've thought of this situation. My guess? You can opt for either the player of the phone to use both the batteries should you desire.

 

[Elrond39]

Aye, that's true in the States, and generally most of the Americas, as I understand it. If you head across the Atlantic everything is GSM, which makes roaming and interoperability a hell of a lot easier. I'm not sure how good cell phone coverage in rural areas is there though. Perhaps someone from there could let us know?

My parents live in a rural area, and I've never had coverage issues there. And, yes, the fact that pretty much all of Europe (where I've been, at least) is GSM is quite nice: my phone just picks up the right provider when I'm in another country, no problem, and lets me know that it's switched to said network. Considering several providers here in Europe also cover multiple countries, there's not even necessarily the switch to another provider (like T-Mobile, for example, is available in most countries I've been in).

 

[inkswamp]

I stopped listening to Diggnation months ago because a) they use the word "dude" so much it's frickin' annoying, and b) they get incoherently drunk on the show (and have hordes of fanboys on Digg jumping at the chance to tell them how cool that is. )

So my question is: was he drunk and rambling during this "revelation" or was he having a rare sober moment? If it's the former, it's entirely possible he was just goofing off and everyone thinks he's being serious. IIRC, he's made some drunken comments on the show that people have taken wrong already. We've ruled that out, right?

Still trying to figure out the appeal of Diggnation.

 

[Sweetfeld28]

The biggest thing i like about this is that is will supposedly be carried on all the big three cellular carriers networks. However, I am not sure yet if i am a big fan of the keyboard idea.

But oh well, i just can't wait to buy mine.

 

[Rojo]

Damn, I'm getting excited now.

I was all set to get the low-end phone, because I hate most smart phones these days as they're usually way too big (and comfortability in my pocket is the most important thing to me). But if the 8gb phone is also super tiny, then I have to start saving for it now.

Looks like Top Ramen and Mac & Cheese for the next couple of months....

 

[h00ligan]

i will get one of these in a heartbeat, if .. and only if... it can sync with an exchange server in SOME fashion. I have to get my work email, it's a job requirement - and i won't carry 2 devices, it would defeat the purpose of an ipod phone.

 

[ingenious]

There seems to be a lot of discussion about CDMA vs. GSM, so I thought I'd chime in with an interesting fact...

According to Verizon (CDMA) for every 1 tower they have, it takes 7 of Cingular's (GSM) to cover the same area.

This does come from Verizon, so perhaps it should be taken with a grain of salt, but I must admit, I'm never been in an area where Cingular had coverage and Verizon didn't... it's always the other way around. For now, CDMA has the better coverage.

(Disclaimer: I use Alltel, which is CDMA2000, just like Verizon)

Okay, wait. I thought Cingular used three towers for each call... like a sort of triangulation... so your calls were clearer and tower hand-off was smoother? That would explain (somewhat) the extra towers (albeit not really mathematically if Cingular claims their three towers cover the same as Verizon's one... Cingular's must cover just under one or something).

Here there are many areas where I have (with Alltel which roams on Verizon) signal and my friend, who has Cingular, doesn't. There are more where he has more signal than me, though.

 

[kresh]

Unlocked doesn't mean a thing to CDMA carriers.

An unlocked phone will be great for GSM providers. You just slip in the SIM card and the phone activates.

It's going to be a different story for CDMA carriers. With those guys you have to call them and tell them the new hex serial number (Alltel & Verizon) or the dec serial number (Sprint) and then program the handset with the MDN and MIN (your phone number and designation number). All three of those companies have a policy of not allowing phones on their networks that they do not sell. Alltel even claims it's because of technical support and customer quality expectation issues.

I really, really doubt you will be able to buy an iPhone at the Apple store and use it with Sprint, Verizon, Alltel, or US Cellular.

And yes they can tell the make and model of the phone based on the serial number, so you can't just lie and say it's a Krazr or something else. (When I was an Alltel business rep, we tried this many times with tier 2 support).

Edit last years numbers:

Cingular 42 million customers
Verizon 40 million customers
Sprint/Nextel: 38 million customers
Alltel: 7 million customers
T-Mobile: 14 million customers

These are contracted customers, not pre-pay users.

So that's 56 million GSM customers and 85 million CDMA customers. It may be a little different this year, I haven't looked at market share much this year.