“The Eagle has Landed”..and well at half the price. The iPhone 3G is here and people it is up for grabs at half the price. The US pricing is : 199$ for the 8GB model and 299$ for the 16GB. The 8GB comes in black, and the 16 GB comes in black and a new white edition. But more than the design, and the added features, what has stormed me, you and every bloody geek around the world is “They did it, twice the speed at half the price”. The 3G means faster data transfer, faster downloads. And the new iPhone 3G capably promises all of these and more. Of course the suave touchscreen and Coverflow still remains. And with iPhone 2.0 you have access to the newest of what iPhone has to offer.

It is not surprising that Steve Jobs estimates that the iPhone will sell 10 million more by this year end. More so because the new 3G model makes its debut in 22 countries on July 11th. And more than that, later this year, the new iPhone 3G would be available in 48 more. That’s really huge. As they call it, the Lucky 22 are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US. Check out the post on EngadgetMobile for the entire List.

So what’s more to be offered. The UK users have something that they can celebrate on. O2 is the official carrier of iPhones in the UK and well, the new announced business tariff plans are well, more lucrative than the original 199$ price tag. O2 offers free iPhones on selected tariff plans which are:

For 8GB: Regular £35 contract (600 minutes, 500 texts per month), or a new £30 contract (75 minutes, 125 texts) would cost you £99 for an 8GB model. However, if you choose a £45 per month contract (1200 minutes, 500 texts) you get the 8GB phone for free. How’s that?

For 16GB: Regular £35 contract (600 minutes, 500 texts per month), or a new £30 contract (75 minutes, 125 texts) would cost you £99 for an 8GB model. A £45 per month contract (1200 minutes, 500 texts) gets you the 16 GB for just £59. And the £75 per month contract (3000 minutes, 500 texts) gets you the 16GB model for free. Pretty Neat.

The new iPhones will be available in O2 stores and Carphone Warehouse in UK from July 11th, the worldwide release date. Read Techcrunch’s post on this.Talking more about the WWDC Steve Jobs keynote, find out the pics and live blogging from Engadget here. Also check out the keynote on APPLE.COM’s official website.

As for Indian customers who have been keenly waiting for the iPhone to get officially launched here with a nationwide carrier, the news is out. Bharati Airtel will be the official carriers of the iPhone when they will be launched later this year. {Source: CIOL} .

Anyway, what new does the new iPhone has to offer. It has a plastic back (shiny and as prone to finger prints as its predecessor), a flushed headphone jack, the iPhone 2.0 firmware, same old lovely 3.5″ screen. The battery life promised is pretty impressive. 300 hours of standby, 8-10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 7 hours of video and 24 hours of audio. GPS is also enabled, and browsing with 3G is almost getting closer to Wi-Fi and is significantly better than EDGE .

Sadly though, the DIY activation is no more. Apple has planned for iPhone activation as an in-store event only. This will definitely keep a big check on the cracking of the new iPhone. And not to mention rake in more moola for Apple and their US carrier-AT&T. What is surprising though, that the entire AT&T share and earn revenue model was one of the reasons why iPhone did not have a widespread launch across the world in its previous version. That has changed dramatically. With its slated 70 countries launch, the iPhone could surpass any phone sales. Primarily because it is an innovative product, a piece of art and technology which comes at a price which makes it reachable and as affordable as a color display phone 2 years back.

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