Apple's $199 3G iPhone, Due July 11, Wows The Faithful

The Crowd At WWDC 2008

Thousands of developers and Apple aficionados gathered at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on Monday to see whether their guru would indeed announce that the company's vaunted iPhone would be upgraded to work with 3G networks and get enterprise functionality this year.

Jobs Unveils New iPhone At WWDC 2008

Apple's CEO Steve Jobs did indeed deliver in his keynote address at the WWDC 2008. In addition to the much lauded 3G iPhone, Jobs unveiled features of a variety of iPhone software upgrades and made a few announcements that indeed surprised the eager audience.

Happy Birthday iPhone

Apple's iPhone hit the market about a year ago, and the company has said it expects to sell 10 million of the smartphones in 2008.

Here, Jobs pauses for a moment to remember the iPhone's first year before dropping a bomb on his audience.

8G iPhone Will Sell For $199

While Wall St. and Mac followers anticipated the 3G iPhone and several of the software upgrades and additions that Jobs announced, the crowd gasped and roared with excitement when Jobs announced that Apple was dropping the price of the 8 GB iPhone down to $199, making it more affordable the world over.

The 16 GB iPhone, which will come in both black and white, will sell for $299.

iPhone In 70 Countries

When Apple began the year, Jobs said, the iPhone was in six countries. Apple had expected to get it to 12 this year, with a long-shot goal of 25.

He told the crowd Monday, however, that the iPhone will officially be available in 70 countries in 2008.

Jobs also acknowledged that the iPhone has been making waves in many countries that weren't supposed to already be using iPhones, proving that if something is indeed cool enough, no carrier-exclusivity contract can keep iPhone lovers down.

3G iPhone Will Have GPS

The 3G iPhone will also have built-in GPS capabilities, allowing users to know exactly where they are.

Introducing iPhone 2.0

This summer also brings iPhone 2.0 software to the market. This package incorporates several features Jobs outlined at his MacWorld keynote in January, including the App Store, enterprise functionality, contact search, mass e-mail delete capabilities and parental controls.

iPhone Exchange Compatible

The biggest enterprise addition, often cited as a drawback to the iPhone's potential for business use, was the ability to sync with Microsoft Exchange. The iPhone 2.0 can push e-mail, calendars and contacts from Exchange to the iPhone. It also allows for remote data wiping and can run over Cisco IPsec VPN to keep corporate data secure.

Sorry Blackberry. You just got served.

Everybody Loves The iPhone

Among those there to hear what Jobs had to say was environmental activist, Nobel Prize Winner and former Vice President Al Gore.

While Gore serves on Apple's board, it would be like Jobs and company to make him wait for the July 11 release to get his hands on a 3G iPhone.

MobileMe Apple's Answer To Office Live

Apple's biggest non-iPhone related release at WWDC 2008 was MobileMe, the next-generation of its .mac platform.

MobileMe, which will begin selling for $99 in July, is an internet service that provides push e-mail, push contacts and push calendars to native applications on iPhone, iPod touch, Macs and PCs.

Exchange For The Rest Of Us

"Think of MobileMe as 'Exchange for the rest of us,'"Jobs said.

"Now users who are not part of an enterprise that runs Exchange can get the same push email, push calendars and push contacts that the big guys get."

Who Gets The 3G iPhone First?

The 3G iPhone is set to hit the streets in 22 countries next month.

Lucky users in 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 will be able to purchase them beginning July 11.