Steven Levy outlines the greater benefits of launching the Iphone 2.0.
But though the low price will dominate iPhone chatter between now and July 11, there is actually a much bigger iPhone story to tell. Today marked the official transformation of Jobs’s original vision of the iPhone—from a world-beating product to a contender for the first big operating system of the 21st century. Much of Jobs’s keynote consisted of demos of some of the hundreds of applications that either will ship with the new iPhone or will be available in the new iPhone App Store (which sells apps in the same manner that the iTunes store sells songs and videos).
Jobs took pains to trumpet, before this audience of software developers, how easy it was to create applications for the iPhone that take advantage of its built-in features like motion sensors, multitouch control, maps, and voice technology (since this is a phone, too). He even unveiled a scheme whereby people could distribute miniapplications to small groups (like a teacher creating an app for his or her classes).
Steven Levy on the New Apple 3G iPhone | Newsweek The Technologist | Newsweek.com