Apple announces the release of iPhone on July 11, 8 AM & It shall also be available in Apple stores other than At&T outlets.

Introducing iPhone 3G. With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips. And like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser. iPhone 3G. It redefines what a mobile phone can do — again.

Pricing

First, the pricing: Although Apple set the price of the iPhone 3G at $199 (8GB) and $299 (16GB), you won’t get that price if you’re a current AT&T customer and you’re not eligible for an upgrade. The good news: Anyone who purchased an iPhone 1.0 prior to the July 11 release date of the iPhone 3G will be eligible for upgrade pricing. If your contract is up, or almost up, you should also be eligible for the upgrade price. Also, all new customers will get the lower price.

But if you were unlucky enough to buy a non-Apple phone from AT&T, and you’re still locked into the contract for that phone, you’ll have to pay a steeper price to switch to an iPhone: $399 for the 8GB model or $499 for the 16GB model. Both require a new two-year contract, of course.

As expected, AT&T’s service plans for the new iPhone 3G are about $10 per month pricier than with the current EDGE model. The cheapest plan will include 450 weekday minutes, 5,000 night/weekend minutes, and unlimited data for $70/month (versus $60/month currently).

There’s a new surcharge for text messages, too, starting at $5 for 200 (versus 200 free SMS messages per month included in the current plan).

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