Apple is known as a company that doesn’t like to leave its primary products untouched or un-updated beyond 12 months. Lately however you may have noticed really long delays between updates for a number of its “core” products such as the Mac mini and Mac Pro.
Noticeably, these are not exactly hot sellers compared to the iPhone and MacBook series and these machines address specific markets that may not necessarily require frequent updates. Apple’s core drivers are now the iPhone 3G and MacBooks with 70% of Apple’s Mac sales coming from the recently updated notebooks.
The iPhone, is a brand new beast. Released in 2007 to a limited customer base in the US, it slowly expanded to parts of Europe later that year. Initially available in 4 and 8 GB capacities, Apple later dropped the 4GB model and added a 16GB version. And dropped the prices too, earning the ire of early adopters.
Within just over a year, Apple introduced the iPhone 3G. It addressed some of the shortcomings of the first generation model by adding a GPS unit and UMTS & HSDPA access for faster data connection. In essence, there is not much difference between the two generations especially when the software in the first model can be upgraded to match the new one. Even the internal model identifiers still refer to version one.
Now Telkomsel is bringing the iPhone 3G to Indonesia roughly 7 months into the life of the product. With the launch date more likely to be early March than late February, I find myself wondering. Is it really worth shelling out for iPhone 3G then when Apple is likely to launch a much revised model 3 to 4 months down the track?
Sure it gets me faster Internet but 3G and HSDPA is so unreliable here I may well find myself back in EDGE or even GPRS territory sooner than I can connect. So much for being faster.
Let’s say it comes out in March. Will they have enough stock for the reported 17 thousand people who preordered? Will it be staggered over several weeks? Will there be activation nightmares like in the US and other countries back in July ‘08?
Like many hot items it is very likely there won’t be enough for everyone who wants one in the first wave.
I’m not basing my concerns and predictions on the recent reports out of Dubai but on Apple’s own habits and the moves they made last year. They have invested in firms and technologies that may bring much improved iPhones in the near future. I’m saying the changes to the next version will be more significant than the last one.
From March, June is not that far away, just one more quarter before the iPhone 3G is a year old. At the moment this first generation iPhone is serving me well enough that I don’t see a compelling reason to upgrade. Yet. I can buy a battery pack in the meantime if the battery is failing.
On the other hand, the wife needs a new phone.
AuliaSays 