It's time for the much-anticipated release of Apple's third-generation iPhone, which goes on sale Friday. While we haven't yet seen or heard of people in the U.S. standing in line to be the first to purchase one (although we are quite sure it will happen), get a load of the folks in New Zealand.
Because of the time change, they get to the be the first people in the world to purchase one of these coveted phones. And they are braving freezing winter temperatures in tents and sleeping bags to be the first.
But exactly how good are the phones and are they worth risking hypothermia?
Being the marketing master he is, Steve Jobs released advanced copies to his favorite news people (read: those most favorable to Apple products) for review prior to the phone going on sale to the general public Friday.
But it may have backfired ~ The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today have all reviewed the phone and the results are actually rather mixed. One one reviewer gives the phone and enthusiastic review ~ we guess USA Today will definitely be one of the ones getting a fourth generation phone to review early. The other two were more mixed.
According to one, the battery life is lower; the second said the apps are faster, but that consumers won't have to buy a new phone to take advantage of it - apparently the software upgrade is free and can be done on existing iPhones. It's just simply not enough to make the 2g Apple iPhones obsolete. Hmmm... we guess this is not quite what Steve Jobs was hoping to hear.
For the crazed consumers out there who simply MUST have the latest in technology, these lukewarm reviews are probably not going to put a damper on their enthusiasm for the 3g. And we're sure that people are going to be snapping them up just as fast as they possibly can.
But it might just give some consumers pause ~ especially if they don't see the economics of a new phone that isn't apparently all that. And even though this is Apple we're talking about, in this economy, giving pause might just dent sales.
--Contributed by Deb












