AT&T CEO outs 3G iPhone: "You'll have it next year"
By Thomas Ricker 
posted November 29th 2007 4:04AM
posted November 29th 2007 4:04AM
Of course the 3G iPhone is coming, that's clearly in the evolution plan. As Jobs said himself, it's only a matter of time until improved batteries allow for it. Still, when AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson says, "You'll have it next year," well, our ears tend to perk up. The remark was made at a meeting of the Churchill Club in Santa Clara. He didn't say how much it could cost admitting that Jobs and Apple "will dictate what the price of the phone is." However, it wouldn't surprise us if fits back into the $599 slot vacated by the 8GB iPhone while toting a full 16GB of flash like the iPod touch.
I knew being an early adopter of the iPhone I'd have to take a few lumps. I expected a larger capacity version to quickly come out and I was OK with that because technically the phone would remain unchanged and firmware updates would keep the phone up to date. However, if they release a 3G version less than a year after the first version I will have purchased my last Apple product. The only acceptable solution would be to offer some sort of trade-up program where we pay the difference. It's one thing to improve on a product but to render a product less than a year old OBSOLETE is completely unacceptable.
How exactly will 3G make it obsolete? I'm sure it will still be worth plenty of money on ebay if you HAVE to have iPhone v2. Just look at the thriving older gen iPod market there.
I think you kinda missed my point in your attempt to call someone out. Sure the older iPods are still popular but do you know why? Because they can play music just the same as the knew ones. However, with the iPhone my brand new $400 device will lack a key feature that cannot be added, that the new version will have, in less than a year. How well would the "thriving older gen iPod market" be doing if the older models could only play AAC files and not MP3?
@Something -
Stupid analogy. The iPod saw countless functional improvements in revisions that left owners of first gen iPods out in the cold by your inane "cannot be added" standard of fairness - color, video, gapless playback, games, countless form-factor, capacity and battery life improvements.
No matter what Apple releases, you will have a fully functioning phone that can surf the web, play mp3s and videos, etc and will even see some significant software updates (allowing 3rd party apps). If you expect a company to not make significant upgrades to their products after you buy them, your money might be better spent on dolls or stamps than electronics.
No, the analogy was spot on. I bought the iPhone with the intent of making phone calls, listening to music, and using the browser. One of the existing features that I purchased the phone for will be technically inferior to the next model. However, the MP3 that you could listen to 5 years ago on an iPod cannot be listened to "better" on a new model. I don't care about added games, video, or any of the features that were added. Those only supplemented the iPod original purpose, to listen to music. If Apple added games or some other "feature" to the iPhone that I couldn't have I wouldn't bat an eye. However, I bougtht the phone to use the browser and in that regard I'm being cheated. An I mentioned that I expected the product to be improved, but not so quickly or drastically at the expense of their core demographic. Stop being a douche.
Jobs must be p155ed. AT&T letting this slip blows the cover on the tease tactics that apple usually use to market their products!!
If they make it a real smartphone with better 3rd party support and the ability to edit documents... I'd buy one.
Im ready for a new iPhone. rarely, if ever, have I kept a phone for 5 months.
I hope they do some exterior design changes on the next iPhone. I hope that version 2,3,4 dont all look the same like the powerbook to macbook pro.
Where do you work and are they hiring?
This isn't news at all. Jobs on two occasions has said, "There will be a 3G iPhone (original announcment)" and the "The 3G iPhone will come out in late 2008" when battery consumption has improved." All of this is just Jedi mindtrick semantics though, because 1) Anyone with a 3G phone knows you can turn the 3G radio off and just use the edge network to save battery life already, and the only real reason you won't see the phone before 4th Quarter 2008 is that they need time to complete the current iPhone rollouts (maximizing profits) before they can do a 3G worldwide release. The 3G 16GB iPhone is a no brainer for late 2008, because to release a new version any time before June means that the current phone will have had a shelf life of less than a year, and that's a rule that no company based upon todays economics ever breaks. The real question everyone should be asking is will the clearly obvious missing features magically appear to compete with the S60, Android and MS 3G touchscreen offerings?
We are still only talking about 3G, correct? UMTS data speeds are still too damn slow to be useful.
Until an iPhone has 3.5G, stereo Bluetooth, and a version of Slingplayer, I'll stick with my Tilt but too each their own.
What the.... That wasn't supposed to be a response to your post..
What is the T-Mobile EDGE internet option plan called, is it the T-Mobile Total Internet plan?
I've been considering getting an IPhone to use with my current t-mobile service, does it work well?
I would upgrade to a 3G iPhone if they offered a trade-in program. My opinion, Edge is so terrible that I rarely use internet features of the phone unless I'm near an open wireless router.
But as others have posted, there should be many more new features than just 3G.
GREAT. Does this mean i get to see a APPLE IPHONE post every 3 blogs for the next couple months.
Then have every DOUCHEBAG will flame every person that complains about it saying that they should use the NON APPLE FEEDS.
ENOUGH with the APPLE HYPE and TEASE marketing FUCK YOU APPLE for treating your customers like starving tech children who get NIBBLES of info on your products and OVERHYPE the hell out of everything you sell.
It wasnt till recently that i see big companies use marketing to personally attack their competitor like ALLTEL does with their CHAD commercials and APPLE does with their APPLE vs PC stuff. i thought APPLE was above that stuff and their products just spoke for themselves.
So now you get your coveted 3G IPHONE and iam sure some how APPLE will find a way to brainwash idiots with their cute marketing into thinking that APPLE invented and revolutionized 3G technology in phones.
Hurry up and release the damn thing so i can stop hearing about it already.
BTW iam getting my ipod touch next week and i will HACK THE SH*T out of it and put a VISTA THEME ON IT. Not cause iam a MS fanboy but b/c i just like the look and i kno itll ERK every MAC fanboy i know.
gosh
"BTW iam getting my ipod touch next week and i will HACK THE SH*T out of it and put a VISTA THEME ON IT. Not cause iam a MS fanboy but b/c i just like the look and i kno itll ERK every MAC fanboy i know."
Dude. You're seriously off your meds there.
An Apple user must have kicked his dog or something
Hey put a vista theme on your touch, no mac fanboy will care!
If you want to spend £300 on a perfectly good product and force a Fista Theme on it then more fool you!
Oh by the way, I work for Microsoft in the UK and we use Macs all the time.
All these comments about software features people are "hoping" for...I don't think these will be exclusive to the new iphone. Hardware will likely change but I bet they will keep the same software on all the models, just makes more sense.
I had an imported phone for a while I used with Att. It was 3g capable, but i almost never had a 3g signal. a 3g iphone wont do much good if i cant get the proper signal. it would be good of att to coincide the release with a larger rollout of the 3g network.
I will happily fork over $599 for the iphone if it includes 3G and GPS. If it's just 3G, then probably not, but throw in GPS and you've got a sick little handheld.
Dude, why are they limiting their flash memory to 16GB??? 64GB Flash memory was introduced over a year ago! And they are even starting to have 128GB drives now!
I thought Apple was supposed to be on the cutting edge! At this rate other phones will have 1 terabyte flash drives before Apple sells us a 64GB iPhone.
The original iPod was out for only 9 months before the 2nd generation iPod was rolled out. Then 9 more months until the 3rd generation.
3G in 2008, just in time to compete with 4G! HA HA HA.
An AT&T store manager told me it would be out in Feb. and cost close to a grand.
So i'm guessing they are gonna slow ramp production and keep demand down by charging $899.
If it's $899, it best better be unlocked. And have 3G. And 16GB. And download support from the web. And 3rd party apps.
The last two are more of a firmware update, though.
@Someguy:
Add GPS to that, and I still wouldn't pay $899 for it.
If it has 3G does that means Verizon customers can use it? Or no...
No matter what changes Apple makes to the iPhone will not matter as long as AT&T has exclusive rights
I'm happy with my iPhone and while 3G would be nice, I don't miss it all that much because there seems to be an abundance of open Wi-Fi in my area. I will not buy a 3G iPhone until I break my current one.
Personally, I just hope the new version has some functionality that would appeal to business users, namely the ability the sync with work email.
Yeah everyone should just relax, apple is most likely going to say something about the 3G iphone at the MacWorld Expo in January. I hope that the 3G iphone will be out in the next 4 months because my contract is up with VZW in January and I have the $$$ for my iphone ready, I’m just not going to buy one and the 2 months later it's price goes down because the new 3G is out. + I want the 3G anyways.
'Bout time!
What the.... That wasn't supposed to be a response to your post..
LOOKS I"M GETTING A NEW iPHONE NEXT YEAR
so does this mean we should cross the iphone off our christmas list?
don't kill me over this but I'm just thinking since verizin us allowing any 3g phone that could work on their network, will this work? I'm just wondering
Errors and system failures on XP? Sounds like a classic case of PEBKAC to me.
Im from the uk and i am now wondering wether to take the iPhone off my x-mas list, if a few months later theres going to be a better version, apple need to come out and give us a release date for the 3g iPhone or tell people its not going to be out for a while.
Also hope new iphone includes gps and a better camera that can actaully record videos.
For the record, I would like to shake Mr. Jobs hand then kick him square in the pills! I applaude the technology and his hustle but as one of those minions that drank the iphone kool-aid I am pissed.
My HTC TyTN II gets 3 solid days of use from one charging, that includes a 1 hour call each day plus regular 3G and some Wifi use while at office. So the battery life thing is just a sham.
Any chance there will be a carrier other than AT&T that carries the phone? After the BS they put me through when they were Cingular, i will never go back to them.
Is is true that Apple requires an Iphone owner to send their phone in for battery changes? I heard this a while back and thought that would probably keep me from even considering purchasing an Iphone.
The iphone is a revolutionary product. However, enhacement is still needed for better use. The new version of iphone shall be having at least the following basic features:
1. Multilanguage Support.
2. FM & AM Radio.
3. 3G Front CAM
4. At least 5 MP Camera with flash.
5. Loud Speaker.
6. Long life Battery.
7. GPS
8. HSDPA
9. Increase built in Storage.
10. Memory Stick Support
And dear friends you may add more for brainstorming......
Regards.
Ameen i think you're aiming too high with that features , there's no way that the iphone could have even a 3mp camera bcs of it's dimension, apple team is struggling with battery issues and you would like a 5mp camera hahaha, perhaps in 2009, who knows?.
FM & AM Radio. just an acronym WTF . who the hell would use that???, i mean nowadays the iphone is capable of wireless connection, so witch person on earth would listen to radio if they can have unlimited radio stations on the web? . Well all this is applicable in a city with many wireless spots , if you live in the country yard , that feature would be considerate .
Well in the other spec's i agree with you.
regards.