I'm pretty sure Apple has a lot of iPhone 3Gs still in their warehouses that they want to get rid of. So they don't announce the 3G S's hardware specs during the conference to mislead people into thinking the only major differences between the 3G and 3G S was 8GB of space and a better camera. My friend almost bought an iPhone 3G thinking that the only difference was the 8GB of space and a slightly better camera, and not realizing all the hardware improvements. For any extra $100 (the cost of one month of service from ATT on your 2 year contract), you get twice the space, a much newer processor twice as fast, double the ram, a much more powerful GPU, a far better camera and videocamera and lots of extra features. So I posit that anyone who opts for the $99 8GB iPhone was suckered by apple. You spend that much on the phone plan with ATT in just one month! And I'm actually kind of pissed at apple for offering it as an option and not releasing all the info on the 3G S's hardware during the conference itself just to take advantage of people who aren't as techinically knowledgable as we are. My friend almost made the mistake of going for the 8 Gig thinking that the only difference between the two phones.
Before you disagree. Were you at the Apple forum during the WWDC. There were tons of threads complaning that the 3G S was barely an upgrade at all. It wasn't until the actual specs leaked by T-Mobile's screw up that this stopped somewhat. Even the people here though the 3G S was barely an upgrade as a result of WWDC. There were tons of news articles saying the same thing. What chance did people who don't that much about tech have. Thanks the T-Mobile's screw up, now the people who actually pay attention know that the changes are very very signficant. But I don't think apple wanted that info to get out until they emptied their 3G stocks. They even named it 3G S to make it seem like a small upgrade underneath the hood when it was in reality a huge change. No one who can't afford the $100 difference should be signing into a contract that has them paying $100 every single month for 2 years. If Apple wanted to offer a real budget option rather than just empty their old stock, they could have and should have offered a 4 GB 3GS for $99, instead of a phone with vastly inferior hardware under the hood, that makes it run twice as slow. I can point you to a ton of threads on this board, and articles on google news of people saying the 3GS was barely an upgrade. This almost all stopped once the actual specs leaked out. Coincidence. No, lots of people were given that impression by WWDC.
People who "don't know much about tech" and aren't obsessed with reading tech blogs and forums will not care that they got a dated product at a discount price. Most of them will be coming over from RAZRs and EnVs. It seems that the millions of people that own iPhone 3Gs are satisfied with them. I haven't heard of any accounts of old iPhone 3Gs bursting into flames as soon as the iPhone 3GS was announced. This must mean that these "slow", "inferior" products still work as advertised. Hey, just like my 2005 model car! I'm not sure what your point is, really. A person who decides to buy a $99 last-gen iPhone isn't a sucker. A person who bases his purchases on what some nerd says on a gaming forum is the real sucker.
Seriously. Two lengthy posts... and he went back and edited one! I hope he at least got a good hyuck out of it.
my friend wants an iphone to make around 2 or 3 calls everyday, is she a sucker for getting an 8gb, should I inform her to spend the extra money to get stuff she will never use?
He has a point. Example my employers at work use a computer to organize rosters and money etc. If they could double the speed of these machines for a very small price increase why would they not want to? There's a big difference in price between a 2005 model car and the latest model justifying getting the cheaper one, but an extra hundred bucks is a minimal amount if you compare it the said 2400 + 99 yearly contract, but getting a 3G instead of a 3GS isn't being suckered by apple, they're being suckered by there own stupidity. If you don't need the features of an iPhone why not get a Sony Ericsson or nokia instead? That's what I did.
It's understandable for Apple to not want to go into technical details on a phone. But they could of at least said it has a faster processor, double the memory and better graphics processor without going into detail. But for those that don't care to play games on their iPhone or do anything intensive the 3G for $99 is probably plenty and saves them $100. Not really a bad thing.
If they don't need an iPhone, why would they get one? There are plenty of better cheaper phones out there. Only reason why they'll sell the 3G is for people who want one just for the fashion statement, Apple saw this and found a way to profit from it. After all, apples just another company, and all companies just want your money.
I am not sure if this is the same person from MacRumors or what but holy cow half the people who post there live in some kind of alternate plane of reality that I think you need some serious hallucinogens to even come close to experiencing. My favorite is how every time anything to do with the MacBook Air pops up you have an army of idiots coming to chime in on how it's Apple's greatest failure. Such a great failure most Apple Stores have problems keeping them in stock...
The 8gb iphone 3g is the new Motorola Razr or Danger Sidekick If you don't have one you will be ridiculed by all your friends
oh ok. where I come from, people actually have a mind of their own (/sarcasm, not all tho). lol. friends, I'd ridicule anyone for not getting a 3GS and getting a 100 dollar (that really is not much..) less 3G. It's a no brainer. But whatever floats ya boat.