iPhone 3Gs, a continuous revolution

The iPhone 3Gs is the third mobile handset released by Apple after the iPhone EDGE and 2007 and the iPhone 3G in 2008. It was presented last year by opening the WWDC developer’s conference, ending months of speculation.

There were numerous speculations to try and guess what Apple was preparing, ranging from a tactile tablet PC to different versions of the iPhone, and even a hypothetical netbook. In the end, it was only an evolution of the iPhone 3G that was announced, keeping the same aspect and adding a few hardware improvements.

Software advances have also been made
While fans of exotic designs will be a little disappointed, there is a movement at Apple that suggests they believe that their device is already complete enough to support their mobile strategy that the content on offer didn’t need to be greatly changed.

This is because accompanying the release of the iPhone 3Gs is a new updated version of the software supporting the iPhone OS 3.0, providing the iPhone with elements that have started to cause some debate: support for MMS, copy/paste, Bluetooth stereo… and extra options at the App store (extension of access to content, in-App Purchases, paired games…) and peripherals (control from the handset).


iPhone 3Gs, the mobile adventure continues
With the iPhone 3G, Apple has moved from an elitist handset to one aimed the general public. The iPhone 3Gs aims at widening their scope, this time by having an even greater catalogue which has been made available in record time (50 000 applications in less then a year, more then a billion downloads), notably in the mobile games field which is particularly dynamic.

These general public conditions have allowed the company to sell more then 1 million 3Gs iPhone’s in the first three days since its release in eight countries (other countries will be released later), which is just as much as when the iPhone 3G was launched, which was done in twenty counties at the time.

The consumers confidence is still there, which is particularly important since there are a lot of competing products now linked to download portals provided on other platforms.

After a lull in April/May, mostly due to the anticipated release of the new handset, analysts were looking towards a return by Apple with sales of their iPhone (all versions) which could reach 5 million units until the end of June, followed by 7 million in the third quarter.