Apple announced yesterday that the 4GB iPhone will be phased out and the 8GB model will see a price drop of $200 bringing the device to the four hundred dollar range. For early adopters of the iPhone this may be a bit hard to swallow and possibly encourage these same people from being eager to rush out and buy new Apple devices in the future.

There have been many folks who spoke in doomsday tones about the move Apple was making to get into the cellular phone market, but the price cut is akin to the moves made by cell phone manufacturers across the spectrum. That is, release a new phone and slash its' price within a year. This runs counter to the typical Apple method of cutting prices on products only after a couple iterations of the device, but it seems a shrewd decision by Apple in time for the holidays to gain wider acceptance of the device.

The iPhone will be issued a software update that introduces the iTunes Wi-Fi Store. Using the Wi-Fi ability of the iPhone you can now wirelessly buy tunes direct from your iPhone and synch them with iTunes when you get home. But where to use this new service? Try Starbucks. Apple and Starbucks are rolling out a special service (complete with a bottom row button on the iPhone) that allows you to see what the last ten songs played at a Starbucks location were and buy them directly via the Wi-Fi iTunes store. Pretty darned cool.

What to do with those tunes? How about make a ringtone. For an additional 99 cents you can now create a ringtone on your iPhone with many of the songs in your iTunes library. iTunes now has a new tool to enable you to select a portion of a song (up to thirty seconds long) and create your own custom ringtone.

So a price drop, Starbucks partnership, Wi-Fi iTunes store and dropping the low end phone model. Big news. Just in time for the holiday season ....

Labels: iPhone, iTunes, Starbucks, Wi-Fi

I find it curious that the iPhone is not being rolled out as a 3G phone and will not offer connection to Cingular's BroadbandConnect service whichoffers connection speeds of 400 to 700Kbps. Why when the new Palm Treo 750 does?

There is still time for additions to the iPhone specs (afterall we only know what we are told) and I certainly hope the folks at both Apple and Cingular are paying attention. It may be that the target market is not in fact the business traveler, but rather the audience that owns both a phone and iPod currently. It may be they are more concerned with getting the devices into as many hands of these people as possible and less concerned with addressing the network connectivity issues of those on the road.

For the most part the Wi-Fi connection will allow for high speed data access, but the point of a cell phone with broadband capability is to have it available at high speeds at all times.

With EDGE network speeds similiar to those of a dial-up connection one has to wonder if Apple plans a later 3G version.

Of all the shortcomings of the iPhone this has got to be the one that concerns those of us who hope to see Apple gain strong acceptance in this market.

Labels: Apple, Cingular, iPhone, Palm, Wi-Fi