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From today’s b, the paper

Louis Jay set his alarm Monday to wake up to hear the new iPhone announcement.

He slept through it, but then scanned multiple message boards and news sites (using his iPhone) to read about the new phone.

Apple fans are a loyal breed.

Last year, Jay was among the Apple faithful waiting in line to purchase the iPhone on its first day in stores. He shelled out $599 for the phone, and he’s been nothing but happy with it.

But come July 11, Jay will wait in line again, this time to pick up one of two new upgrades — the $299 16-gigabyte next generation iPhone.

“It’s a huge step forward,” said Jay, a 19-year-old rising junior at Towson University. “It’s another case of Apple really listening to the consumers.”

Apple Inc. revealed Monday that it has scrapped its premium pricing plan for the iPhone and unveiled the upgraded model, which works over faster wireless networks, addressing key criticisms about the device that have hurt the company’s foray into the cell phone industry.

The iPhone’s lowest price — for an 8-gigabyte version with the major new features — will fall to $199. The new iPhones will come with satellite navigation and faster internet access.

Analysts have said Apple needed to slash the iPhone’s price and upgrade it to the faster networks to hit the company’s target of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. Apple honcho Steve Jobs said the company has sold 6 million iPhones since the first model was launched nearly a year ago and 700,000 since March. That points to a steady slowdown in sales starting in the fourth quarter last year as customers waited for a 3G version.

Jay likes what he sees, in particular the inclusion of a GPS system. The addition of global-positioning technology improves the iPhone’s accuracy in locating users. Current versions use a combination of cell phone towers and Wi-Fi locations to help users figure out where they are. Apple said the 3G iPhone downloads data twice as fast as the old one. The company’s participation in the cell phone market has been hurt by complaints about the year-old iPhone’s data download speeds.

Like Jay, other iPhone devotees are enthusiastic about the news. “I can’t wait to get my hands on one,” said user “Aymad,” posting on a Chicago Tribune blog about the announcement. “I was setting my sight on the latest [BlackBerry] Bold, but this changes things.”

Not everyone is upgrading. Sara Murray, 22, of Laurel, has an original iPhone and has been anticipating the announcement ever since she heard rumblings an upgrade could happen. She’s researched the new phone, but can’t afford one right now.

“It sounds cool, but I’m not going to drop another $200 to get a second phone,” she said. “I bought my phone less than a year ago and I don’t really have enough money to run out and buy a new one right now.”

Evan Lambert, 19, of Owings Mills, has the original iPhone and isn’t ready to trade up either. “I’m not going to spend $200 to get a new one,” he said.

Although he knew a new version of his phone would soon be released, Lambert said “it’s upsetting it’s better and cheaper than the current version. I knew I new one was coming out, but I wasn’t going to wait.”

Lambert said “the coolest feature is the GPS.”

And some people on tech message boards were hoping for miscellaneous different features. “I wish it had the front facing video camera or video conferencing,” wrote “Yankees 4 Life” on macrumors.com.

AT&T Inc., the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iphone, said service for the phone will start at $39.99 per month, plus $30 for unlimited data. That works out to a $10 increase from the cheapest plan for the first-generation iPhone.

Jay isn’t balking at the new plan prices, though he would have liked to have seen a better upgrade plan.

“I’m OK with paying money for something that’s better, if it’s a true upgrade. If they would have come out and said, we just put a bit more memory in and put a couple things in here and there, I wouldn’t [upgrade].”

And Jay said he’s even up for another iPhone upgrade, even if it comes next year. “As long as prices stay down,” he said.

{AP, Jordan Bartel, Matt Vensel, B}

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