EDIT: Following the presentation of the new Iphone yesterday, today’s news are already changing the view of the whole thing. The $199 price tag, announced yesterday at San Francisco, seems today to be only valid trought the USA, and only following a contract with the carrier for a monthly plan.
This morning the international carrier Vodafone annouced the price for a Sim-free and prepaid Iphone in Italy (without a monthly contract): 499 Euro for the 8Gb version, 569 for the 16 Gb one. That’s really disappointing as this is nearly 4 times the price annouced yesterday, even if it’s still 100-200 Euros cheaper than the new Nokia N96.

“Today is the Day”. This is what some international blogs told about the WWDC event that took place today in San Francisco. During the morning, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs has officially presented the new Iphone 2.0, bringing stunning features at an exceptional price.

The new Iphone will have all the previous features, as the 3.5″ screen with the incredible Multi-touch control and Wifi, but will also have 3G connectivity, GPS with maps, and will bring an incredible 3D gaming experience, with graphic details at the level of a Nintendo DS. Plus, the new SDK will bring hundreds of 3rd party apps, just like now with the Symbian S60.

But the incredible thing is that the Iphone 2.0 will be sold at a “maximum price” of 199$ for the 8GB version and $299 for the 16 gb, meaning that, a device offering the same features as the Nokia N95 8gb, except for the camera, plus the really innovative multi-touch control, will be at 1/3 of the price of the Nokia device, and nealy half the price of a brand new Nokia N78.
Personally i’m very happy with my phone and I love the S60 interface, but I think that this new offer will be a great shaker for the market. The reality is that Nokia is not offering something really innovative since the launch of the first N-Series in 2006, and is still demaning unbelievable high prices for its new devices.

So, I hope that this new Iphone thing will be selling enough to make Nokia hurry up and develop a good multi-touch interface as well, and improve the S60 system that is still slow and buggy, and finally to raise down the price of their handsets.

In every case, I won’t change my Nokia device, but for $199 I would surely purchase an Iphone 2.0 in addition to it, to see if it’s really that exceptional product that looks to be.

Here’s the New Iphone Commercial

For more info visit the Official Apple Iphone page