The new iPhone 3G is harder, better, faster and stronger, and also has all of the new iPhone 2.0 functionality, including Enterprise support for Exchange, as well as the newly announced MobileMe service. Retailing at $199 for the 8GB version, the new iPhone 3G will be a smash hit when it rolls out on July 11.

The new iPhone 3G flaunts the same 3.5-inch display (480 x 320 pixels) and has grown around 1mm in width, length and thickness. Tri-band HSDPA support is all there, allowing much faster data transfers. But there is no secondary camera for making video calls (duh?). The iPhone 3G will pack a built-in GPS under its belly. This would open the door to a myriad of location-based services and applications. And unfortunately, the iPhone 3G has the same 2 megapixel camera as the previous model, it’s only that now it offers geo-tagging.

Battery life is preserved at a nice level, rated at 300 hours of standby time, 5 hours talk time. It will be able to allow 5-6 hours of 3G browsing, 7 hours of video playback and 24 hours of audio playback.

As starters the iPhone 3G will be available in 22 countries as of 11 July 2008 - Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US - and availability will be further expanded to cover up to 70 countries worldwide before the end of the year.

The price will be the same all over the world - $199 for the 8GB version and $299 for the 16GB version. The iPhone 3G 16GB variety will be offered in another color choice too - pearl white. We bet you’ve guessed it that there’s no way that these prices are SIM-free - you will most probably have to enter into a long-term pricey contract with one of the approved carriers in order to get it.

Also the new firmware is just around the corner (scheduled July 2008) bringing a number of new features plus the App Store, which would open the door to countless third party applications. iPhone 2.0 software will be available on July 11 as a free software update via iTunes 7.7 or later for all iPhone customers.