Apple's new iPhone groomed for world domination

The wait is almost over. On Monday (US time) Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to take the wraps off the new iPhone in a calculated show of bravado intended to wow the world.

All Apple will say is that on that day, the opening of its Worldwide Developers' Conference in San Francisco, the keynote address will be given by "a team of Apple executives led by CEO Steve Jobs".

Everything after that is a big black hole of informed guesses, rumour and dot-joining.

To meet Apple's stated target of selling ten million iPhones by the end of the year, Jobs needs to show off a device that has the looks, the feel, is chock full of new features and which is priced just right.

When the iPhone made its debut a year ago, it was first launched in the US before becoming available in five European countries. This version - one that will use the faster third generation or 3G mobile network - is being pitched at the world.

True to form, Apple has not given any hints about what's in store. Remarkably, it has managed to keep details about the phone, its price, and its features tucked away under a heavy veil of secrecy.

Apple works on the principle that the less you tell them, the more they will talk about it. And over the past few months, news outlets, bloggers and pundits have obliged.

Availability:
Announcing the product and getting it onto the shelves are two different things. The first iPhone was announced in January 2007 and went on sale the following June. This year, theMacBook Air was announced in January and went on sale in early February.

It's likely that the phone won't be available until later in the month. That gives Apple time to milk the free post-launch, publicity as well as complete the arduous task of worldwide distribution without the handicap of over-the-top secrecy.

June 29 is the first anniversary of the release of the first iPhone, so there's a lot of talk that the 3G iPhone won't be going on sale until later in the month.

Global Reach:
Until now, the iPhone has only been officially sold in six countries: the US, UK, Ireland, Germany, France and Austria.

Come launch day, it will be available in some 50 countries. A US analyst, Gene Munster of PiperJaffrey , made the point last month that the iPhone will go from a "total addressable market" of about 150 million subscribers to almost 600 million.

And that was calculated before yesterday's announcement that Softbank Mobile, Japan's third-largest mobile operator, had signed a deal to bring the iPhone to Japan.

Australian availability:
The iPhone is unlikely to be launched in Australia before the opening of the new flagship Apple Store in Sydney. Why would Apple pass up the opportunity to cash in?

So when does the Sydney store open? The only two dates with any currency are Tuesday, June 10 and Thursday, June 19.

Most of the talk is about June 19 because that's not the Tuesday after a long weekend, and in the same news cycle as the iPhone launch. It also dovetails better with the theory of the late-June time frame for iPhone sales to commence.

Where to buy it in Australia:
Apart from the new Apple Store and Apple's online store, the iPhone will be also distributed by Optus and Vodafone which are the only two local mobile operators to announce that they've signed up.

There's a strong suggestion that 3 mobile will also be in the frame because its parent, Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications, announced last month it had clinched a deal with Apple to offer the iPhone in Hong Kong and Macau.

The Optus and Vodafone announcements were part of wider distribution deals announced by their respective parent companies.

The reason 3 Mobile hasn't joined the party yet is because - unlike Optus and Vodafone - it only operates on the 3G network. And as Apple - officially - doesn't have a 3G iPhone yet, it can't very well says it's getting the iPhone as that would give the game away.

Apple resellers in the US didn't get to sell the first iPhone and they haven't been informed yet whether they will be able to sell the new one. The feeling is they won't be getting the 3G iPhone either.

Price:
There have been some rumours that base model of the iPhone could be as low as $US200 (or 100 pounds in the UK). If true, that would put the Australian price at around $250 - given the roughly 20-25 per cent price differential between Apple'siPod touch in the US and Australia, based on the current exchange rate.

But with the existing models selling for $400 (for the 8GB model) and $US500 (for the 16GB model), that would seem way too much of a sudden price drop for Apple.

The phone resellers will all presumably offer package deals, discounting the cost of the phone in order to attract customers to sign up to long-term contracts.

Features:
The juiciest leak to date has come from Wired.com's Cult of Mac blog which quoted sources saying the 3G iPhone would be 22 per cent slimmer than the original; that it will come with GPS functionality; be sold in 16GB or 32GB versions and will feature better battery life.

Some pundits are almost banking on a camera with more than the current measly 2 megapixels.

The iPhone 2.0, the firmware upgrade unveiled in March also indicates that the 3G phone will let iPhone users add third-party applications to their devices and allow the phones to be used with corporate email systems. This would make the phone more appealing to business users as an alternative to the BlackBerry.