Well, Apple finally did the official announcment, and the new iPhone will be released on July 11th. Notable pros over the older model are 3G, GPS, cheaper price point ($199 or $299), flush headphone jack (so you can use standard headphones without an ugly hack or adapter) and better battery life. Notable cons are increased data plan cost ($30 up from $20), and loss of text messages bundled in the plan.
People are bitching all over forums and blog comments about the increase in plan price, doing clever math like saying that $10 more a month for 24 months of contract + $200 for the phone actually ends up costing more than the current $400. I personally wouldn't even think of being so stupid, seeing as how the new data plan is FASTER. Obviously 3G adds value to the phone, value I'm willing to pay for. Saying the data plan price went up isn't an apples to apples comparison (no pun intended). Who are these cheap bastards that expect to get HSDPA for what AT&T charges for EDGE 's 2.5G offering? Better data plan = more cost for the data plan, nuff said.
AT&T DID drop the included text messaging, which is a bitch move; but its a 5 dollar cost to pick it back up, so in my mind the plan went up $5 on a phone that DROPPED $200 in cost. And lets not be assholes and forget that the phone has gotten more kick-ass while dropping in price.
UPDATE: Giz wrote a piece about this that was far more widely circulated than my humble blog. Check it out.
