Today is the day that the third iteration of the iPhone was released to the masses and so far the reception appears to be positive.  This version of the iPhone doesn’t stand out much from its predecessor, the 3G, in looks.  In fact, the external appearance of the 3G S is identical to that of the 3G.  So what is the big fuss over?  Well, obviously it’s what’s on the inside that counts.  Click to read more…

The internals of the 3G S have changed a little to support greater performance.  A new 600 MHz processor, double the RAM, and an upgraded network data card supposedly provide a little more speed when opening applications and browsing the web.  The major hardware addition to this phone, though, is the 3 megapixel camera that can…get this…record VIDEO!!!  Haha.  I had to poke a little fun there.  Obviously every other phone and its grandmother has had video recording capabilities for a couple generations now, but the iPhone finally got it and it apparently works pretty well with autofocus and all (still no flash).

So hardware-wise, the 3G S is a souped up 3G.  It’s the Shelby Cobra against a standard Mustang.  Is it worth the extra cost for an upgrade?  That depends.  From most bloggers’ standpoint, if you don’t already own an iPhone, get the 3G S.  It’s only $100 more than the 3G, but it’s a lot zippier.  In fact, Engadget has reported that upon disassembly of the new phone they discovered that the processor is actually capable of speeds greater than 700MHz and recording up to 720p video.  This is both really cool and kind of lame.

On one hand, it shows that there is potential for growth.  The downside is that, yet again, Apple has decided to cripple the full capabilities of the hardware until they decide you can get the most out of it.  I can’t say I support that mentality, but it won’t matter for most people anyways.

Coming back to the question at hand about upgrading, if you already have an iPhone and are up for contract renewal in the next few months, you can actually get the upgrade now at a subsidized price (look at AT&T be nice for once).  But is it worth it?  This is how I would decide.

Ask yourself the following, “Is my iPhone experience too slow for my satisfaction?”  And be honest.  If you rarely complain about things slowing down because you don’t open many applications in parallel, if you don’t have a jail broken phone, if you don’t browse the web frequently, or if you just don’t notice any real lag that causes you to get frustrated then you might as well just hold on to what you have currently (assuming you have the 3G) and just upgrade to what makes a huge difference: 3.0 software.

The software is what makes the iPhone so great in the first place, and this update finally provides some long overdue features.  Top on the list would be “Copy and Paste”.  The fact that they got away with not implementing that out of the gate is pretty amazing.  That just says what kind of fans Apple has: devout ones.   So now you can copy and paste, plus there is a new compass feature for kicks, voice control, a landscape keyboard, and an enhanced spotlight search.  These are the real upgrade benefits.

Every day it seems like the iPhone’s customer base grows a little and with competition getting stiffer in the smartphone market thanks to Palm, Google, RIM, and Microsoft, they will need to keep pushing the pace so that customer base sticks around the next time contract renewal comes around.  If you want to check out a comparison of the two iPhone versions, Engadget has a good review.

Happy computing!