In today's versus article I compare the iPhone 3G to the iPhone 3GS. Which phone made the biggest impact at launch? And is the extra S in the title worth the extra 100 bucks. You're about to find out.

iPhone 3G

The iPhone 3G was announced in Paris during the developer conference which took place in June of 2008. It's the second version of the popular smart phone which conquered fans from all over the globe. The 3G version was the first version for a lot of the countries including major European markets like the Netherlands, Turkey, Belgium and Portugal. The new features included a 3G antenna, GPS and an all black back made from hardened plastic for improved signal strength. The phone was really well received partly because of the lower price point, 200 dollars for the 16gb model. Mind you in 2007 the iPhone would set you back 600 dollars. But people were most happy about the faster internet functionality. The older iPhone was pretty useless outside of your own Wi-Fi area.

iPhone 3GS

In a period when Steve Jobs was on a leave of absence, Phil Schiller announced the new iPhone at the same event one year later in 2009. At that time the iPhone 3G left a mark and early adopters were keen to upgrade their model to the new iPhone 3GS. Its biggest selling point were the increased speed, better camera, compass and the 32gb capacity for the real movie collectors. But unlike the previous upgrade, not everything was great this time around. People complained that the 3GS looked similar to the previous version and it lacked major new features. Still it sold really well and it continued Apple's steady line to the top of the SmartPhone market.

Versus

And now the time you've all been waiting for. You know the contenders but you don't know which phone is going to win today's versus. And that's the only important thing right? No, well still it's pretty huge. For me the problem with the 3GS is that it didn't match expectations at all. One year after the release and the only thing Apple came up with is a faster processor, slightly better camera - but still crap - and minor hardware adjustments. The iPhone 3G was a real step up for Apple. It included pretty much everything people complained about in the first model. 3G was huge of course and so was the GPS chip. So while the 3GS is the better phone, this versus is going to the 3G model. It simply set a bigger milestone for the phone-market. It has almost everything and in 365 days time you'd think that Apple would come up with something really amazing. But they didn't. They released a great phone but it wasn't a big step up from their previous attempt.

And that's the iPhone battle of late 2009. Both are amazing and both deserve your hard earned money. But the iPhone 3G is a little more great because it really made a difference when it came out. It made the iPhone available for the general public and in a way that almost nobody could pass on the Apple phone which changed the way we think about SmartPhones.