• The new retina display is awesome.  Since you end up doing a lot of reading on the iPhone the new display makes this easier on the eyes.
• New processor and better battery.  Even if you have an existing 3GS phone this could be a nice selling point to upgrade.  While I don’t notice that much of a difference when it comes to the processor, I do notice a difference on the battery.
• The new iPhone 4 has the ability to record 720p video at 30 fps.  With this ability to shoot HD video, this could easily replace HD Flip cameras.  Grab the new iMovie app and things can get really exciting.
• New hardware design.  This phone is a lot thinner than the current 3G and 3GS phones and is more industrial.  The front and back are made of glass that is supposed to be 30 times stronger than plastic.  The frame is made of steel rather than plastic and should help with the durability of the phone.  I really like the feel of this phone over my 3GS and it just looks awesome.

So while all of these are great reasons to own the new iPhone 4 I am now going to play devils advocate and list some reasons as to why you may want to hold off on getting the new iPhone 4:

• If you are a current iPhone 3GS owner then you will already have access to some of the best new features of the iPhone 4 since some features are actually part of the new iPhone operating system they are calling iOS 4.  Multitasking, folder organizations, iBooks update, 5x digital zoom, home screen wallpaper, unified inbox, and over 100 other enhancements.  This update is available to you free of charge.
• No Verizon announcement, and if you want the iPhone you need AT&T.  Now while I have always tried to stay away from the cell phone provider debate, I know some people feel very strong about their hatred for AT&T, so this could be a big issue for you.  If that is the case it sounds like you will need to wait a bit longer for the iPhone to come to VZW.
• No more unlimited data.  AT&T recently announced that they were dropping their unlimited data plan option.  This means that you will have to pay for either 200MB or 2GB worth of data.  With the Netflix announcement at the keynote, the thought of streaming 2GB of data is a reality if you take advantage of that service.  Add on streaming radio and it won’t take you long to reach those limits.
• Lack of Google integration.  The fact that you can’t use Google Latitude or the Google Mobile features where you get turn by turn navigation for free is frustrating when you see all of your Droid friends using those products.
• Reception issues are pretty common.  A downfall to the redesign is the fact that the antenna is around the edge of the phone and when held a certain way you can lose your signal.  If you are a person that will end up putting your phone in some sort of case then this is a non issue, but if you go case-less then this is something to take into consideration.

I ended up ditching my iPhone 3GS for the iPhone 4 and so far I have been pretty happy with the device.  The camera, new retina display, the new OS, and battery life all make the upgrade worth it.  It even made my wife happy as she got to upgrade from the 3G to the 3GS, but she doesn’t know what she is missing….

Palm CEO: I’ve ‘Never Even Used’ An iPhone – I understand hating the competition but how do you know what your competition is when you have never tried the competition?

Exclusive: Qualcomm to Power iPhone – it has never been a matter of if the iPhone will land on the Verizon network, just a matter of when.  Sounds like that will be this summer.

iPhone wins touchscreen quality test – this is probably one of the things that I will always evaluate as new phones come out as I think the touchscreen and gestures are really important on smartphones these days.

Facebook’s iPhone App Gets New Push and Sync Features – this is the first time I have used the push notifications on my iPhone and love the contact sync.  The contact sync is a small feature, but its just nice to have the pictures automatically pulled into your contacts for you.

iPhone Runs Toy Helicopter Taking Off at CES 2010 – while the iPhone still has a little bit of a wow factor when you show off some of the funny/cool apps that you can run, this would definitely make jaws drop.  Especially the live camera feed while flying the helicopter.

Apple: Three billion downloads from iPhone App Store – the App store still gives the iPhone an edge, but the playing field will be leveled as the Android Marketplace gains momentum.  At that point, I think it will come down to the software on the phone.

1. The iPhone will land on Verizon.  This is just a matter of time and if the rumors are right the exclusive contract is up this year and some version of the iPhone will land on the Verizon network.
2. Android momentum won’t catch the iPhone.  Right now, Android looks sweet and is driving competition against the iPhone.  The main reason it has a lot of momentum is because Verizon users don’t have any other device that can compete with it.  Once the iPhone hits Verizon I think people will take the iPhone over a Droid phone.
3. Multi-tasking, Voice Commands, 5mp camera, LED flash will come to the next version of the iPhone.  You can thank competition from the Droid and Pre lines for this one.  I may even go to say that there will be a front facing camera with some sort of live conferencing capability.  The voice commands are something that is built into the Android platform and is pretty slick, the iPhone will need to catch up to that.
4. Storage is the next thing to increase but they still won’t support external storage cards.  Do they really need external storage if you have 64GB of space?
5. The App store will hit 350,000 apps by the end of the year and there will be an option for developers to expedite their approval process by paying extra.
6. Subscription services will come to the iPhone and iTunes.
7. Flash won’t come to the iPhone in 2010.  I know Adobe has the mobile version but I just don’t see Apple letting that run on the iPhone and take away from their game market.
8. The overall form factor of the device won’t change much but the screen and internal CPU compoents will get get an upgrade.  The screen should get an HD upgrade, while the processor will go dual core which will allow them to open up multitasking.
9. Major enhancements to the default maps application, even a move away from using Google.  Integrated Traffic and weather?  Better GPS?
10. Continue to dominate sales and be the best phone out there.

What are your predictions?

Here are some things that I would think would need to happen before people start bailing on the iPhone for the Pre:

1. Device Maturity – this is a first generation device and based on the reviews and from my experiences with the device there is room for improvement. If you think about the changes from the original iPhone to the 3G iPhone, it was pretty drastic and I wouldn’t expect anything less from the Pre. The keyboard needs to be improved for sure, and the over all quality of the device needs to be improved. Visual Voicemail is missing, video capabilities, and what about the possibility of a virtual landscape keyboard? The good news is that most of these features, and many others will arrive through software and device updates.
2. Lack of SDK and App Store – so it appears that they followed the same model of the iPhone. The first iPhone was released without an official SDK and we know one will be coming from Palm. Palm knows the importance of this and once they release this they will have to then start a the process of trying to get developers on board. This is something that all the new smartphones are playing catch up on when it comes to try to tackle the iPhone. Because the iPhone was first to market with this, they were able to jump out in a huge way with their AppStore and this has given them a good advantage over the competition
3. Better Carrier – If people continue to bitch and moan about AT&T, people could be more open to looking at the Pre if it was on more carriers. It has already been confirmed by Verizon that the Pre will be coming to their network in 6 months, and once that happens there could be a chance that more people take a more serious look at the device. This will give a lot more exposure to the device and would rather choose a Pre than switch to a Blackberry or over to AT&T for the iPhone.
4. Need to innovate, not just copy – What also made the iPhone so successful is the innovation that was brought to the smartphone market. An awesome AppStore, full web browser support, gestures, touchscreen, a real OS and a real music player. Apple saw a lot of potential in the smartphone market that others like windows mobile and Palm have missed out on. The Pre has to come up with something that really makes it stand out rather than just playing catch up.

Out of all of the bullets listed above, I think number 2 is by far the biggest thing that sets the iPhone apart from the Pre and all of the other smartphones out there. The SDK and the AppStore is huge, and even with all of the complaints about how Apple micro manges the AppStore, people are still spending a lot of money there. I think for any smart phone to really compete with the iPhone, this is an area they need to target and develop quickly. They need to target the developers and provide an SDK thaty makes it easy to leverage the hardware in the device and help the developers create some really powerful apps for their device. Apps that are fun and comical, but also apps that will help the consumer be more productive by owning a smart phone.

What are your thoughts on what it will take to de-thrown the iPhone?

According to the T-Mobile spec page, the iPhone 3G S has 256MB of RAM, which is up from 128 in the current iPhone 3G model.  The new iPhone 3G S also has a faster processor running at 600MHz, compared to 412MHz found in previous models.

[T-Mobile Link]
[MacRumors]

After the keynote, AT&T announced the pricing and upgrade information for existing iPhone 3G customers.  Long story short, if you have owned your 3G iPhone for less than 18 months, it would cost you $399 for the new 16GB model and $499 for the 32GB model.  If you have had your phone for longer than 18 months, then you qualify for the $199/$299 pricing.

Based on various tweets and blog postings, people are pretty upset with AT&T.  I can understand being upset for not supporting MMS and tethering at launch, but I think people are overreacting to the upgrade policy.  When you got the iPhone 3G you signed a 2 year contract for that phone, so they are not required to let you out of your current contract just so that you can get the latest and greatest iPhone.  We can definitely thank phone subsidies for this as this is a pretty standard practice across the mobile industry.  When the Storm 2 comes out for Verizon, those customers are going to have to go through a similiar process if they want to get the newest version.

Could you imagine life without phone subsidies?  I sure wouldn’t want to?  Yes, I know we marry ourselves to a carrier for 2 years, but it gives us the option to own incredible “phones”.  I use the term “phones” losely because these days these phones are turning into mini super computers.  With this capability, comes a price that would prevent most consumers from ever even coming close to owning these devices.

So please, lets move past all the griping about AT&T and how they mis-treating loyal customers, and lets start focusing on the countdown to the new 3.0 OS that will give existing customers most of the new features that are part of the iPhone 3G S.