I Got my NEW iPhone 3G S!... But Why?

Finally, the latest iPhone 3G S is launched tonight at the Comcentre!

I got my Black 32G wonder amidst the queue that snaked in an endless fashion in front of comcentre. I figured that there must be more than a few thousand people in line, all waiting for the coveted new iPhone. The most surprising sight that caught my wife's attention was that of a mother with infant in arm queuing patiently. Singtel organised the event very well. Tired customers were given bottled water with launch event and music entertainment screened at various locations to help manage the psychology of waiting.

It is not hard to see the enthusiasm. Some people were sighted with their laptop and mobile broadband setting up their brand new iPhone by any corner they could fine. The excitement is too hard to contain even during the journey home! It must be set up immediately.

By now, my phone is fully set up! My 2000 songs on iTunes, 700 contacts, calendar are fully sync'ed on my iPhone and set up to be updated via the Apple Mobileme cloud on the fly. I downloaded the Straitstimes and facebook apps and found them to be amazing features. Most of all, the iPhone works so well with my Mac! I am right, getting the latest iPhone 3GS completes my transition from windows to Mac.

As my iPhone (not phone) is being charged, I am thinking about why is the iPhone so popular? To say the least, I have never seen any queue for any other phone before, certainly not the various Nokias that have come online over the years. Why am I personally excited about my latest acquisition?

I propose 3 reasons:

(1) iPhone is a indeed a beautiful phone with an almost perfect form factor

(2) iPhone is riding on the strong network effects from high ownership of iPods. Many people already have their songs ready to take advantage of the phone's feature. Plus, iTunes that is set up for our iPods is immediately ready for the iPhone.

(3) the wide variety of iPhone apps available eg. Straits Times apps, help to make ownership of the iPhone even more useful. One gets breaking news on the fly, update facebook status, view stock prices, etc etc on a very user friendly interface.

PLUS, Apple has made the iPhone 3GS even better! The voice command (it actually works), seamless synchronisation, video, sms forwarding, landscape keyboard, much more sensitive keypad etc makes this iPhone better than the 2 previous incarnations.

I am still not sure why I need the new iPhone 3GS, but owning it certainly feels good and cool!