High Speed Internet Access (HSIA): Mobile Internet

It’s getting closer to the much anticipated launch of the iPhone in Australia. So what’s the latest speculation on dates, features, carriers and costs?

Release Date
Reports today say that the 3G iPhone will be launched on June 9th and will be on sale immediately which means June 10th in Australia. This is supposed to coincide with the opening of the Apple store in Sydney.
My understanding was that the Apple store would open at the end of June and that would be the most likely date for the iPhone release in Australia so there’s still some uncertainty there.

Features
3G functionality
It’s extremely likely that the model released in Australia will be the 3G model. The 3G functionality may be able to be switched on and off due to the power that 3G requires. So it would also work on the 2.5G EDGE network.

Camera
The current iPhone has a mediocre 2 megapixel camera. It’s likely that the new release will feature at least a 3 megapixel camera and geo-tagging.

GPS and Google Maps
It’s likely that the 3G iPhone will incorporate Google Maps for mobile.

Carriers
Vodafone and Optus have confirmed that they will sell the iPhone in Australia so it will be multi-carrier. It’s unknown at this stage whether Telstra and 3 Mobile will be part of it.

Contracts
The rumours are that there will be no contract lock-in so the iPhone will work with any provider. This is good news for pricing and data.

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