Sam Masiello said he would wake up early today and drive from his home in Brighton to the Apple store in Park Meadows to be among the first Coloradans to get the newest version of the iPhone.
Masiello, director of threat management for Denver-based MX Logic, is dropping his current cellphone provider — Sprint — in favor of AT&T in order to take advantage of the faster data speeds promised with the Apple iPhone 3G.
“I’m ready to get up and stand in line at 5 a.m.,” he said Thursday. “I’ve been looking forward to getting an iPhone for quite some time.”
The phone goes on sale at 8 a.m. today at Apple and AT&T retail stores.
The new phone targets people such as Masiello, who will use the new phone to tap into his company’s e-mail network. This version of the iPhone lets users use a popular e-mail program known as Microsoft Exchange.
“I thought about getting a BlackBerry at the end of last year,” he said. “But then I heard about the next- generation iPhone, the 3G, and info about business integration.”
The $199 price for the new 8-gigabyte model and the $299 price for the 16-gigabyte model are available only with a two-year AT&T Wireless contract. But reviewers of the phone have noted that it isn’t quite as cheap as advertised in the U.S., since AT&T’s basic contract climbed $10 to $70 a month. That will cost users of the new phone more over the life of the contract than older ones.
Customers also will get access to Apple’s iPhone App Store, which sells all the programs available for the device. The App Store will be available on older iPhones and the iPod Touch, a media player that has the same touch screen as the iPhone. Apple will offer access to the App Store through a software update for first-generation iPhone users.
The store, which will offer more than 500 software applications, including games, educational programs, mobile commerce and business-productivity tools, may be a far more important development than the iPhone 3G itself. An abundance of software could make the iPhone’s operating system dominant among a host of competing phones.
Bloomberg News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Kimberly S. Johnson: 303-954-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com
The iPhone 3G: What you need to know
Skinny: A new touch-screen iPhone that offers faster, third-generation wireless-network speeds ideal for Web surfing and sending and receiving e-mail. The phone also has GPS capabilities and a motion sensor.
Cost: $199 for the 8-gigabyte model; $299 for the 16-giga byte model. Monthly plans (for data service only) start at $30 for access to personal e-mail, Web browsing or consumer applications such as games. The enterprise plan to access corporate e-mail and other business applications is $45. Text messaging and voice plans are available for an additional charge.
Where to get it: AT&T Wireless and Apple stores. There are five Apple stores in Colorado: in Denver, Boulder, Broomfield, Littleton and Lone Tree.
Additional features: Users whose businesses use Micro soft Outlook for e-mail can access e-mail accounts in real time using the iPhone’s Micro soft Exchange. That upgrade is also available for the first-generation iPhone through a software update. Apple is also introducing its iPhone App Store, featuring more than 500 software applications, including games, educational programs, mobile commerce and business-productivity tools, for an extra cost.
