The $99 iPhone and iPhone 3GS are Here
After weeks of anticipation over what new products would be launched at the Apple 2009 WWDC conference, the company did not disappoint announcing a new $99 iPhone and the new iPhone3G S. The new 3G S is focused on speed and is described as
The fastest, most powerful iPhone yet, packed with incredible new features including improved speed and performance–up to twice as fast as iPhone 3G–with longer battery life, a high-quality 3 megapixel autofocus camera, easy to use video recording and hands free voice control.
A 16GB model of the 3GS will sell for $199 while the 32 GB model will set you back $299.
However, the real excitement of the release was the launch of the $99 8GB iPhone which will really revolutionize the “high end smartphone” market. Apple hits a great price point with this phone that will surely drive up sales among business and casual uses alike. While iPhone price cuts have continuously made the device more affordable, hitting the $99 price point breaks the industry wide open and will most likely spur iPhone sales.
The $99 model is the exact some iPhone 3G model that had been selling for $200+ and gives Apple quite a price advantage over its competitors in BlackBerry and the new Palm Pre.
Still, while the pricepoint is convincing there is still the issue of being carried solely on AT&T which will discourage many buyers. Hopefully Apple will address this in the future.
Here is the full iPhone Press Release.
Apple also introduced a 13-inch MacBook Pro starting at $1,199, a $300 price cut on the MacBook Air (now $1499), and a 15-inch laptop with longer battery life (up to 7 hours and 1000 battery-life charges as compared to 250 for previous models).
Still, Apple shares fell during the announcement and are down almost 3% to just under $141 at the time of this post.
