The description of the new Apple iPhone 3G sounds like a slight enough upgrade over the previous generation that I’m a little confused. Apple and AT&T expect customers to pay more for equivalent service (3G is only available in a small portion of the U.S. — most users will be using the same EDGE network as before), pay for SMS, on a device whose major difference from before is having GPS. The new applications should run on the 2G machines as well as 3G (except, of course, ones that depend on GPS).
With Android getting ready to hit the market, the more-for-the-same strategy seems counterintuitive. Am I missing something, or is Steve hoping that his reality distortion field will extend beyond the conference keynote to all shoppers as well?