iPhone 2.0 - It’s Official
June 9, 2008
By: Michael Price
Author's Website: http://www.mlbroadcast.com
Like many others today I followed live blogging of the Apple world wide developer conference today. Everyone anxiously awaited the moment when Mr. Jobs would announce the existence of the next generation device. He did not disappoint. I’ve followed most of the rumors leading up to the event. Most of them turned out to be true, including the fact that the new phone will be a full $200 less than the 1st gen. iPhone. That’s right, $199 bones will pick you up an 8 gig white or black iPhone starting on July 11, only $299 for a 16 gig. The new features and price point will all but guarantee a market share sure to have the competition scared to death. My wife’s Sprint contract is up and they tried calling her 3 times today to renew. They usually call once a week. It’s not just the consumer impact either. Apple is taking a shot right to the midships of many companies who sell enterprise mobile solutions.
New Features Overcome Old Objections
Price was the biggest objection. Apple didn’t stop there. The phone now supports Microsoft Exchange, which has been one of the biggest issues I have heard from folks who wanted to get an iPhone but could not use it to get their corporate mail. Problem solved. The other huge objection? AT&T’s edge network for connectivity. It’s painfully slow. The new iPhone, as expected is a 3G capable phone. GPS is also a big new feature.
.Mac To Be Replaced With MobileMe
Apple also announced a total revamp of their Internet service to be branded as Mobile Me and it’s all about the iPhone. Apple is calling it “Exchange for the rest of us.” Essentially it uses the cloud to keep all of your devices at home, work and on your iPhone always in Sync. It carries all of the standard features of the .Mac service including email, 20 gigs of iDisk space, calendar, gallery, contacts and more. The re-branding is clearly designed to capture PC users as well. With the success of the Halo Effect that iPhone sales have had on Mac market share, this move is should do well continue that.
3rd Party Apps and Application Support
Support for Apple’s IWork suite of business applications and support for the entire MS Office suite (including power point) will be included in the 2.0 iPhone OS. Third party applications will be available for download in a new App Store section in iTunes. By opening up the development of iPhone applications to third parties I think you will start to see some really innovative things in the near future.
What do you think of the next gen efforts of Apple with iPhone? Do you plan on buying your first iPhone? If you have one already, will you be replacing it with a new right away? Do you think with these innovations that the iPhone will become the Realtor phone of choice? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Update Wed 6/10: A video of the WWDC Keynote is up at Apple.Com
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- Categories: Company News & Analysis, iPhone
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Comments
11 Comments so far
James Shiner on June 9, 2008 4:31 pm
I spent most of the day following the event as well. Pretty excited for the new iPhone. But so that others don’t get disappointed like I did earlier today… the 8 gig only comes in black, you have to get the 16 gig to have the white / black option.
Michael Price on June 9, 2008 4:36 pm
I didn’t know that. I would venture a guess that you will see additional colors real soon though.
Good to see you here James, I hear Zipvo.com will be a sponsor at Inman this year. We’ll see you there!
Larry Lohrman on June 10, 2008 8:51 am
Besides being in love with the iPhone I am an ex-Realtor and my wife is still a Realtor. A major factor in using a phone to my wife and other Realtors is does it have software to open MLS keyboxes. Currently of coarse it doesn’t but the new SDK will clearly open that door. But keybox access will be the pacing factor for Realtor use of the iPhone. Just for fun, I think I’ll call GE-Supra (the main company that provides keybox systems) and ask them when they are going to support the iPhone.
Michael Price on June 10, 2008 9:19 am
It’s my understanding the lock box works with the Infrared on the Palm. It’s been quite a while now since the release of the 1st gen phone, so I would think they have some sort of a solution in the works. With the new price point I would guess that the pressure to come up with something will be pretty strong. I would be interested to hear what you find out from the folks at GE.
Brent Brown on June 11, 2008 8:07 am
I emailed SUPRA. They were sorry, but the iPhone lacks an infrared port necessary for accessing SUPRA keyboxes.
Cheron Lange on June 12, 2008 4:10 pm
Larry, I’m like you in love with the iphone, the down fall is that it lacks the infrared port necessay for accessing the SUPRA keyboxes. Just this week my husband put both our iphones on craigslist and sold them within the hour…I will sorely miss that phone. We purchased the blackberry pearl and curve. As far as I know at the end of the month the blackberry bold will be out and that will have the software and port for accessing SUPRA keyboxes.
Aria Schoenfelt on June 16, 2008 12:58 pm
Why should Apple include antiquated technology in the form of an infrared port? Why can’t GE Supra do us a service for a change and get out of bed with Palm?
Please, Realtors, call your board and call GE (1-877-699-6787) and request that GE update lockboxes with bluetooth compatibility. Our Boards hate having to make us all change lockboxes, but they would love to offer us the goods to be productive and successful.
Ask GE to create a bluetooth add-on for our iBoxes.
Bluetooth will bring this part of the real estate industry into the 21st century. The next step will be for Supra to develop software for non-Palm devices and the iPhone is likely to be in huge demand.
My Treo 680 is as antiquated as it’s infrared port. I am retiring it from use as a smartphone (as it is not in the least bit smart and is a horrible phone) in favor of an iPhone. I have not decided if I will set up a separate line for the Treo for eKey use or if I will go back to a d-key, but Palm will not receive any more of my hard-earned dollars for an inferior product.
While you’re on the line with GE, wouldn’t you like to see other ways of accessing lockboxes anyway? What about a lockbox that has several methods of access? Infrared, bluetooth, a swipe-card & pin combo…
If the demand is for a better industry, let those who provide us services know.
David Chappell on June 29, 2008 3:29 pm
Why is infrared so inferior to the bluetooth? Every time I use bluetooth to transfer data from my computer to my phone and vice versa it is slow as Molasses. I do agree however that since technology is going toward bluetooth and similar methods that Supra should update our lockboxes.
Just Curious!
iRealtyBlogs on July 23, 2008 6:05 pm
Although this is not a typical iPhone app, it is an iPhone friendly site. As I am frequently on the road, I need mobile access to all my favorite RE blogs, including FOREM. Check it out here: http://www.irealtyblogs.com/iphone/preview/
When you are on your iPhone, check it out at http://www.irealtyblogs.com. The page will display on any mobile device, but the iPhone is why I made it. It contains all the web’s great RE blogs including Inman, Zillow, Trulia, Geek Estate, Mike’s Corner, and many more.
The page allows you to share on Twitter, Digg, delicious, and your iPhone contacts.
Ryan Hukill on August 24, 2008 9:21 pm
I’ve been hearing that Blackberry has a solution coming out to make the Pearl compatible with the Supra lockboxes. Apparently, they’ll offer a dongle that will communication through the phone’s bluetooth signal, then send an IR signal to the lockbox. Wouldn’t you think that Apple would do the same if the technology’s readily available? I’m crossing my fingers.
Michael Price on August 24, 2008 9:48 pm
If it’s going to require a specialized hardware answer to make the iPhone compatible with the Supra, I doubt you will see anything in the near future. The potential sales probably wouldn’t justify it. You never know, there may be a third party company that can use existing components and sees a big enough market.