Apple: iPhone gets speedier

With claims of being up to three times faster than the existing Apple iPhone 3G, the latest iPhone 3GS (where ‘S’ stands for speed) is all set to debut on June 19 in the US markets.

For all the chatter, the 3GS is interesting but not a game changer as competition has effectively narrowed the gap in terms of device features since the launch of iPhone 3G last year. Yet Apple is in the news since it has managed to reduce the prices of the current iPhone 3G from $199 (Rs 9,450) to $99 (Rs 4,700) for the 8GB model. The iPhone 3GS will hit the market with data capacities of 16GB and 32GB and is priced at $199 and $299 (Rs 14,189), respectively.

The Cupertino-based company has issued no timeline for the India launch of iPhone 3GS or its pricing. “The iPhone 3GS will also be available in more than 80 countries in the coming weeks,” was all that the official communique stated. For Indian iPhone 3G users, who have paid three times more than the price paid by an US user, iPhone 3GS could finally be a cheaper device to own. Extrapolating the same pricing strategy, the iPhone 3GS in India could cost up to Rs 15,000-Rs 17,000, which gives Nokia’s touchscreen phones like 5800 XpressMusic (retailing at similar price levels) a tough fight.

“iPhone 3GS is the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet and we think people will love the incredible new features including autofocus camera, video recording and the freedom of voice control,” says Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, at the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference.

It is the new software features in the iPhone 3GS operating system that take the cherry. In terms of actual phone capabilities, it is still short of the superphone league. The camera includes an autofocus and video capture/edit now, but is only 3.2 megapixels, a far cry from the 12 megapixels boasted by Samsung and Sony Ericsson. In form factor terms, the 3GS takes after the existing 3G device. Apple iPhone users can now use voice control features to manage their devices and also avail to the cut-copy-paste feature (users can shake the phone to undo this).

Just a case in point, the company’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, claimed that international sales accounted for 46 per cent of Apple’s quarterly revenue and this was its best “non-holiday” quarter in its history. Apple saw iPhone sales rise 123 per cent year-on-year to 3.79 million units on the back of broader availability worldwide, and this contributed to a leap in net profits by 15 per cent to $1.21 billion, up from $1.05 billion a year earlier .