Steve Jobs has finally announced the new iPhone 2.0 at the WWDC. The previous iPhone, though revolutionary, was quite disappointing in many aspects. Unfortunately, the new iPhone again fails to deliver on most of the items on the wishlist of the old iPhone users.
Touted as being faster and cheaper, the only significant improvements in the new iPhone are 3G and GPS. But then for those regions of the world where 3G services are not yet launched the only new addition is GPS.
Apple has once again omitted features from the new iPhone which are since long standard features of other mobile handsets. Still missing is video-recording, bluetooth file transfers, MMS, A2DP bluetooth, copy & paste, ability to use iPhone as a modem for laptop, a better 3.2 or 5 megapixel camera, removable battery and many more.
Moreover the price of $199 which is being flashed as a cheaper iPhone as against the older $399 price tag for the 8GB version is also a hogwash as the new iPhone actually costs more than the older version.
The Apple fanboys are hoping that some of the missing features would be introduced via the upcoming new firmware, version 2.0 of the Apple iPhone SDK. And for the features which even the new SDK will not bring in, there is always hope that the iPhone 3.0 next year will fulfill those expectations. But going by Apple’s track records, it may well be the iPhone 10.0 after a few years time when everyone’s modest wishlist is finally fulfilled by Apple.
For a detailed list of FAQs on the iPhone 2.0 & its pricing in the US, read this article.
I cant understand how an ICON like Steve Jobs could miss out on such basic features. Apple products are usually very intuitive(like the ipods) and in terms of features atleast have the basics covered. I thought we would rectify this in IPHONE 3G. But my hopes have been dashed. Anyway, I’m a blackberry fan till Jobs gets his act together.