Yesterday Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone 3G at the WWDC08 Keynote in San Francisco. For weeks there have been all kinds of rumours as to what would be announced during the event, but the more solid rumour was the new iPhone.
During the keynote which started at 6pm UK time, I was in an AIM/iChat with a few people from Twitter, including my favourite Apple Geeks. We decided to have a chatroom on the go as we suspected Twitter wouldn’t be able to cope with the extra traffic during that busy time as it’s been falling over for weeks without something as huge as the Stevenote bringing it to it’s knees. Most of us were also listening to the secret keynote audio stream through ustream.tv and getting deafened by the applause and whoops of delight, especially when the new $199 iPhone pricetag was announced! But, that was fun.
o2 were very quick to update their site with information about the iPhone 3G and how existing customers can get their hands on it come July 11th, with a list of the tariffs and prices. The other great news is the new iPhone will be available for business customers. This will please my other half as he is an o2 Business customer and late last year he held off upgrading his phone in the hope that come November/December he would be able to upgrade to the iPhone and slide across keeping his existing number. Sadly that wasn’t possible, and moving to the iPhone and changing his number isn’t an option. So, late December he begrudgingly upgraded his handset from an old and broken one and now won’t be eligible for an upgrade until Springtime next year, but I’m betting the iPhone will be his next phone.
The other exciting news, however, is o2 are going to offer Pay & Go customers the opportunity to get the iPhone without signing any lengthy contracts. I’m on a contract which I can leave at anytime as long as I give a month’s notice. I changed from my £14-99 a month contract last year to the £15 o2 SIMplicity contract which is just 1 month long, as long as I kept my existing handset. What I would like to do is buy the P&G iPhone and put my SIM into that. I have no idea whether that’s possible as there isn’t any details on the o2 website just yet, but I’ll most probably speak to someone soon at o2 about it to find out whether this is indeed a possibility. I really want the new iPhone and am fully prepared to pay up to £300 for the handset if Uncle Steve and o2 allow me to pop in my own SIM and keep going with my £15 a month tariff. My money is ready and waiting in the bank, just hope it gets to spend itself on the gadget of my choice 
I love o2, been a mobile phone customer for years aswell as an o2 Broadband customer since last November. I will love them even more if I can get in on the iPhone.
Then there’s something else I’ll be throwing my money at come July: MobileMe.
This replaces .Mac and current subscribers will be upgraded for free when the service launches mid-July…and what a fantastic service - well worth the £59 pricetag, in my opinion. Wherever you are, your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac (and/or PC) will always stay in sync via the “cloud”. You can watch the guided tour video here - well worth a look. I didn’t ever get tempted by the .Mac service, but MobileMe blows that out of the water.
10 Jun 08
3:41 pm
Hey Sam, some great news eh!? Thanks for your post - an interesting read.
I’m going to get the free upgrade and sign another 18mths away, and will also get by other half her first iPhone on the £35 per month tariff.
The only thing I am dissapointed about is no new screens or a 10″ MacBook Air!!
10 Jun 08
4:04 pm
Hi Jon!
Yes, great news to end the keynote with. We were bored to tears for the first hour and a half what with the app demos, but when Steve took to the stage again it all got a bit exciting
Shame there were no refreshed ACD’s or Mac Mini.
The new iPhone deals for existing customers and new ones are great! Really wasn’t expecting that. Looking forward to the P&G details coming through. I’d have pushed myself to a £20-£25 per month tariff dealio for the iPhone, but still can’t justify the £30 as I’m such a lightweight user.
10 Jun 08
4:51 pm
Hey Sam,
Wonderful article! Well written, and I am totally with you on the iPhone and MobileMe bandwagon. (My article is forthcoming in an hour or so.)
Thanks for the linky in the post, too!
13 Jun 08
3:10 pm
Thanks Chris *hai five*
The chat was so funny, especially when listening to the audio and the new iPhone price was announced but we didn’t hear it because of the intense clapping, ooh’s and ahh’s
Everyone was like “what was the price??” 
13 Jun 08
5:28 pm
It’s unlikely you’ll be able to stay on your current tariff. Normal o2 SIMs don’t work with the current iPhone - they use a special kind of SIM apparently, so I think you might be out of luck.
13 Jun 08
6:56 pm
That’s what I was thinking too, Graham. This is where I do some serious financial calculations to see whether I can push myself to the £30 per month tariff. It’s double what I pay now, but I *really do* want the iPhone as my next phone. Nothing even begins to come close.
13 Jun 08
9:29 pm
Well I just emailed O2 to see if the new 3G sim would work in my current iPhone (for festivals and stuff), and they said they didn’t know for sure, but probably not. So It looks seriously unlikely that what you want to do will be happening.
Don’t bother with the £30 one, go to the £35 - the £30 is a total rip off. Besides, internet anyway is really nice once you get used to it. See how everyone freaks out on twitter when EDGE goes down
21 Jun 08
3:44 pm
Thanks for the clarification, Graham. I did have a sneaky feeling that it wouldn’t be quite as easy as I had hoped.
Just an update to say I’m up and ready for MobileMe. I bought a discounted .Mac from eBay last week so I’ve reserved my username and will be waiting for the upgrade next month. Looking forward to it now.
21 Jun 08
9:46 pm
What will you be mainly using MobileMe for Sam? Will you be using the email service?
I was considering it quite seriously, but I like gmail too much.
21 Jun 08
10:28 pm
I’ll be using it for Mail, Calendar and iDisk for starters. Being able to sync my Macs and iPod touch (or iPhone if I succumb) will just be very cool.
When it launches you could sign up for the 60-day trial so you don’t have to commit right away