The lines are shorter. The price is lower. The product is better. Yes, your iPhone is ready.
Well, almost. The latest model of Apple's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) smart phone and digital media player hybrid went on sale at 8 a.m. Friday in U.S. stores, offering customers a faster Internet connection, a link to the global satellite navigation system and a cheaper starting price.
The launch wasn't without a few glitches. There are reports Apple stores are having trouble activating the new phones. Even some trying to update the software on their old phones were running into serious speed bumps (see "iPhone Jams"). If you've waited a year after the launch of the original iPhone to make your purchase, you should probably just wait a few days longer.
The decision to wait has certainly paid off for amateur videographer and Barack Obama activist Taylor Barcroft. While Barcroft is a hardcore Apple fan who has used Macs since 1984, he waited until his Verizon flip phone went off contract to buy the new iPhone.
His reward: a faster phone for $199, a fraction of the device's $499 price when it first went on sale last June. Plus Barcroft gets the ability to hold forth to the press on everything from Obama's presidential candidacy to a fuel-saving technology that has caught his eye as he waited in line with a handful of other Apple fanatics in Palo Alto, Calif., on Thursday.
Apple's pricing of the iPhone makes it a serious choice for a wider swath of consumers. Its production plans, including sales in 70 markets around the world, make it a serious player at least in the smart phone category. Apple has said it plans to sell 10 million phones this year. By contrast, Research In Motion (nasdaq: RIMM - news - people ) sold 4.31 million smart phones in the first quarter of 2008.
The original iPhone, launched last June, was a wonder thanks to its touch-screen, easy-to-use software and media smarts. Without a connection to so-called 3G high-speed carrier networks, however, customers could only poke around the Web slowly as Apple added the ability to download fresh music for the machine, and hackers found ways to cram homespun software onto the device.
Now, however, the iPhone's speedier connection will allow users to fill the phone's enormous screen with Web pages when they move away from the comfy confines of a friendly Wi-Fi network. Built-in GPS, meanwhile, will turn the device into a truly mobile computer, giving users the ability to use the Web to find the nearest pizza spot, carve through traffic in unfamiliar cities or use social networks to do a little face-to-face socializing with nearby friends.
The new phone's capabilities promise to grow at a rapid clip now as well, driven largely by the cadre of outside developers.
All of this new software is available to users of the old iPhone. And if you bought the old model, you won't need to upgrade. Moreover, the pokier connection comes with a lower monthly data charge, offering some users yet another reason to stick with their old phone.
After a year of life in the public eye, the iPhone is finally ready for a mass market. For the iPhone-shy, your wait is over.
AOL Mobile
