iPhone G3 - A Day Later

After processing all the aspects of Monday's iPhone G3 announcement, here's my take:

• AT&T decided to subsidize, or pay upfront for, the iPhone with $200, bringing the price down to what they feel is a magic price point of $199. On the other hand, they'll increase the month unlimited-data plan by $10 to $30. AT&T and Apple also agreed to end their deal to share the iPhone's monthly service fees. The result--Apple will receive more iPhone purchase money and no monthly share, while AT&T will trade immediate revenues for monthly money. Both hope they'll sell vastly more iPhones.


• By any measure, Steve Jobs looked thinner and more gaunt. Apple claims he had a "common" bug.


• Other people spent a record-breaking amount of time on-stage instead of Steve. And this wasn't just for technical reasons. Seems like we're entering an era to de-emphasize Steve.


• The amount of time given to developers on-stage was precedent-setting, even for a WWDC conference. I agree with some others who say it's an attempt to really emphasize that the iPhone is the platform of the decade.


• The audience (and everyone else) was certainly disappointed that the iPhone itself didn't include new hardware features beyond G3 speeds. The biggest reaction in the entire conference was when Steve showed the non-recessed headphone jack, and the mass delete and move feature in e-mail.


• The big news is really the number of countries where the iPhone will be sold, and the Exchange server integration. Those two factors will sell a ton of iPhones!


• During Apple's video of the keynote, why was there a quick dissolve during Phil Schiller's speech, and why was there no audo during the part where Steve showed all the countries where the iPhone would be sold?


• Lastly, where were all the other predictions: laptop and iMac refresh?