THE WORST-KEPT secret in the technology world was confirmed last night when Apple chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled a new version of the iPhone which runs on faster third-generation (3G) networks.
The phone will be available in Ireland and 21 other countries on July 11th. Mr Jobs said the price of the entry-level eight-gigabyte version would be $199 (€127) in the US.
Mobile operator O2, which has the exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in the Republic, was unable to confirm pricing details last night. The company is expected to make an announcement on availability and pricing later this week, possibly today.
"Just one year after launching the iPhone, we're launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price," said Mr Jobs.
As well as being able to access faster networks, the iPhone 3G is thinner and has improved battery life and navigation capabilities. It provides 10 hours of talktime compared to five hours for the current model. It can also support five to six hours of web browsing, seven hours of video or 24 hours of audio playback on a single charge.
"It's amazingly zippy," said Mr Jobs when describing the highly anticipated combination mobile phone, media player and internet device.
The iPhone 3G also has a built-in global positioning system (GPS) capability, which improves its ability to find a user's location on a map.
Mr Jobs said the phone was 2.8 times faster at downloading content from the internet than its predecessor, which runs on second-generation Edge networks.
He also said it was 36 per cent faster than comparable 3G phones such as the Nokia N95 and Palm Treo 750.
Apple said the new iPhone would be available in 70 countries by the end of the year. This confirms weekend reports that Apple is to drop its practice of seeking a share of revenues from its exclusive mobile partners. Negotiating these deals had slowed down the launch of the phone in new markets.
The iPhone 3G will run new iPhone 2.0 software, which provides a number of new capabilities. It also supports an Apple service called MobileMe, which enables e-mail, contacts and calendar information to be synchronised between desktop computers and an iPhone.
The iPhone 2.0 software will be available free of charge for people who bought the original iPhone.
The new iPhone was unveiled at an event in San Francisco for Apple software developers.
Mr Jobs used his keynote address to talk up its potential as a business tool. The iPhone now supports communication with corporate e-mail and calendar systems that use Microsoft's Exchange Server, and 35 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies have been participating in a test programme.
Much of the keynote was taken up with demonstrations of applications, including games, location-based services and news, from partners such as Sega, Associated Press and eBay.
The applications are developed using a software development kit (SDK) Apple recently made available for free download by software programmers. The SDK enables third parties to create iPhone applications, which can then be bought through the iTunes online store.
