That's disappointing given that iPhone customers have been waiting anxiously for the software which represents a dramatic advance in the state of the art of software for smartphones.
The new software paves the way for a new generation of iPhone applications including peer to peer gaming on smartphones. It also leaves competitive offerings like Palm, Blackberry, Android and a bevy of products that run Microsoft's Mobile operating system once again playing catch up. That's no small matter given that Palm and the others have released new products in recent months aimed at slowing down the runaway iPhone train.
Among the new features in iPhone 3.0 OS are cut, copy and paste functionality that allows consumers to select entire blocks of text or images and easily move them from application to application; an ability to send MMS messages and include video and photos and even shoot a video inside an MMS message; and a new voice memo capability.
Apple iPhone developers said the iPhone OS 3.0 software, which includes more than 1,000 new application programming interfaces (APIs), opens the door for new and innovative applications. A new push notification software capability, for example, is expected to lead new applications that provide audible or visual notifications to iPhone users.