It's finally been unleashed... The Apple iPhone 3G has been the talk of the town, recently, in the build-up to the official announcement, but what precisely is all the excitement about? How come so many people see it as the second coming? And how, when you consider the price of the first version, have O2 made it so much cheaper in the UK? I'll answer these questions and more, as we look at the most anticipated mobile phone for a long, long time.



The new iPhone 3G - the way mobile phones should be made?

Think back to summer 2007. A phone was released that wanted to outdo all other mobile phones. It set out to amaze people with its fluid, intuitive interface, its amazing features, and its awesome beauty. That phone was the Apple iPhone. But... as much as obsessed Apple fans love it, it wasn't all that powerful, and in spite of its huge brand power, and the vast amount of advertising done in its name, a large proportion of mobile phones, even older models, outdid it on features. It had many flaws, and the simple fact is that, when viewed objectively, despite the proclamations of adoration from some groups of (mostly Apple-obsessed) users, and oddly-b flaming bandied about by both sides, it was nowhere near as good as the advertising made out. Yes, it had WiFi, and a huge screen, and iTunes as its music player, but it excluded a lot of the simple things that we take for granted in mobile phones, like MMS messaging and forwarding of text messages. Worst of all, though, it excluded one of the most common aspects of up-to-date mobile phones: 3G data speeds.

But, now, there's a brand new version of the iPhone, and it DOES have 3G. So, have Apple corrected all the flaws that were such a big issue in the first version? Is this now the best mobile phone in the world? Well, actually, no. It is a huge improvement over the earlier version, though, as it now has 3G. And that's important for three reasons... 1/ the internet browser on the iPhone is stunning, but was crippled by the slow mobile data speed on the earlier version... 2/ yes, the first version's got WiFi, but that's not available everywhere, meaning you have to search round for a hot spot to get access... and 3/ EDGE, the mobile data standard that the first version had was and still is rubbish. So, the inclusion of 3G is something that's well overdue, and it finally means the iPhone 3G can properly fight it out with other mobile phones in terms of mobile internet. The inclusion of GPS is further icing on the cake.

Is it worth getting an iPhone 3G on O2?

And yet, it's the things that Apple haven't fixed that stand out even more. The camera is STILL the not-particularly-good-at-all one from the earlier iPhone, coming in at 2 megapixels, and WITHOUT autofocus or flash. You may argue that no-one really wants to use the camera on their mobile phones, but I'll just draw attention to the LG Viewty, LG's highest selling phone EVER, and leave it at that. It's clear that a lot of people actually DO want a decent camera phone. Combine that with the list of silly design choices, like not being allowed to copy/paste or run programs in the background, and a distinct lack of a back button, and it all adds up. Good phone, yes. Perfect phone, no. However, there is one very big thing going in its favour right now, and that's the new price you can get the phone at, in the UK, through O2. You see, Apple have finally realised that for mobile phones to sell in massive amounts, they have to be subsidised by the supplier, or, to put it another way, the network needs to pay for the phones, so that they can be sold to the customer at a lower price. And that's the 3G iPhone 3G's big secret: O2, having subsidised the phone, will be doing it for absolutely nothing, on a selection of tariffs. And that is why O2 should sell this version easier than the previous one. After all, a totally free iPhone might very well attract a lot of people who wouldn't get the first one!