This was the moment every gadget fan across the world was waiting for, the Keynote speech at Apple’s Developer Conference, and initially it didn’t disappoint.  For the first 105 minutes, Apple waxed lyrical on new MacBooks, Snow Leopard and the iPhone 3.0 OS – which we had heard about several months back – leaving the final 15 minutes solely for talk on the new iPhone.

The 3G S, the S standing for ‘speed’, will go on sale on the 19th June this year, two days after the official release of the 3.0 OS and it differs from the 3G in the following ways.  A 3 megapixel autofocus camera with video, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, an improved battery – although not by much – voice control, a digital compass and a 32GB option.  Talk of a faster processor and more RAM has been rife, however Apple oddly have yet to confirm exactly what the figures are.

Pricing for a new contract by a new customer remains similar to the 3G – between £185 and £275 and a likely 18 months of your life – but upgrade costs vary greatly, especially if you have a contract with time to run!  The much talked about tethering service will also be an extra cost of between £15 and £30 per month, and one MMS will be four times the cost of an SMS!

It’s more interesting to see what the 3G S didn’t get.  No OLED screen, no Flash support, no new body, no FM transmitter and unlike the MacBooks, no cheaper either.  So, is the 3G S compelling enough to make existing 3G owners upgrade or more importantly, new users choose it over the HTC Magic with Android, the Nokia N97 or even the Palm Pre?    Once the post-announcment hype dies down, we can’t see many saying yes to this, as despite the Apple excitement, the 3G S feels very much like a simple refresh – bad news when their competitors are ready with some very impressive phones of their own.