iPhone 3G: Is It Worth The Price?

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—If the first iPhone released 13 months ago was a revolution, today’s new iPhone is a laudable evolution.

The upgrade in features appears to be just enough to make people around the world line up and wait to get their hands on one.

A crush of customers flooded Birmingham’s Apple store at eight o’clock sharp Friday morning, clamoring for a chance to get their own iPhone 3G.

Alex Davidson’s mother, Sylvia, got in line at four in the morning because her son was stuck at work.

“It was fantastic,” Sylvia said.  “They were giving away water, food, and everything.”
   
Alex was among the first people in Birmingham to have Apple’s latest all-in-one computer, iPod, and telephone.

He made his first call moments after emerging from the store.

“Hey, this is Alex.  I just got a great new phone.  The iPhone,” he told a friend.

Apple’s hoping to attract new iPhone fans by dropping the price.

An iPhone with eight gigabytes of storage now costs $199.

Double the storage for $299.

But owning the iPhone 3G will cost you more than the previous version in the long run because the calling plans are at least $10 more per month.

Hard core fans don’t seem to mind.

“Apple’s able to produce products and make products that people love, that they use, and it becomes an integral part of their life,” Apple store manager Susie Williams said.

In some ways, the iPhone 3G is the most advanced smartphone available.

In other ways, it can’t match up with the free flip-phone offered by many cell providers.

New features include faster 3G internet speeds.

Information is now sent over AT&T’s fastest network, meaning web pages, emails, and videos download at nearly broadband speed.

IPhone 3G also features true GPS.

You can zero in on your exact location anywhere and use Google maps to get directions and find any type of business you’re looking for.

“I’m glad [GPS is] on the phone now so I won’t have to go to the computer and print stuff now, all that hassle,” Alex Davidson said.

Other “hits”:

-iPhone 3G supports “push” email, calendar and contacts either through your company’s email server or apple’s new “Mobile Me” service.  When you get an email, it hits your phone at the same time it arrives in your computer’s inbox.
-But the most impressive addition might be Apple’s “Apps Store”.
   
Right now, users can download more than 500 programs to run on their iPhones, and many of them are free.

Programs run the gamut from games and social networking to business applications.

“A lot of things you add on to it will really make it a lot of fun,” Williams said.

But with that said, the iPhone is not perfect.

Unlike some cheaper phones, the iPhone still can’t shoot short videos.

Users can’t send or receive pictures in text messages (MMS); they have to be emailed instead.

The iPhone has no copy-and-paste feature, which is useful if you’re emailing or texting the same thing to several people.

And the iPhone 3G’s battery has a shorter lifespan than the old model, and users still can’t swap the battery for a new one when power gets low.

If the battery conks out completely, you’ll have to send the iPhone to Apple and pay $86 for a replacement.       

Still, the iPhone 3G is the most advanced smartphone available in the United States today. 

“Thank you mom,” Alex Davidson exclaimed.  “Anytime,” his mom said as she gave Alex a hug.
     
Apple sold six-million first-generation iPhones.

Judging by Friday’s crowds, it looks like the company has another hit on its hands.

If you’re looking to buy a new iPhone, Birmingham’s Apple store get shipments of the device six-days-a-week.

The company’s servers crashed early Friday morning.

It took a half hour to get them back up, but things seemed to be moving slowly but surely later in the day.