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Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at the Worldwide Developers Conference ’08 has finally confirmed speculations about a second generation iPhone. The iPhone 3G is a formidable machine that–if the presentation can be believed–can do practically anything It’s practically a mobile computer at this point. What is more jaw-dropping though is the price. At $199, I can even afford to buy a pair for myself and my wife.

I think most of the talk has centered around the price quoted by Jobs. As my friend blurted out when we saw the price announced during the speech (we were glued to the online broadcasts) “he has declared war on phone companies.” And you do get that feeling if you look at the whole picture. Nokia and the other big phone companies, have not gone anywhere near the features of the iPhone 3G and yet their most feature-packed phones are usually priced at the $300 level. Here comes Jobs with his Jesus phone and drops the bombshell with a phone that costs just as much as mid-level phones from other companies. Who wouldn’t want to jump ship and buy his newest gizmo? I know I would.

I’d like to see how the other companies will react to Jobs’ challenge. Will they quicken the development cycle for their phones? How low will they price upcoming phones this year? This is going to be an interesting year for telecommunications and the funny thing is that one man has made it all happen.