iPhone 3G: Something Old, Something New

Those who thought Apple would introduce a new, less expensive iPhone at its Worldwide Developer Conference this week were partially right.

In this photo, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, makes his...

In this photo, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, makes his keynote address at the Apple World Wide Developers conference June 8, 2009 in San Francisco, Calif. In this presentation, Apple announced that it would soon release a $99 iPhone.

(Getty Images/ABC News Photo Illustration)

There will soon be a cheaper iPhone that costs only $99. While the phone itself is the same entry-level model that ignited sales last summer, though, it will have new software.

Among the software's improvements are support for cut, copy and paste; voice recording; and sending photos from phone to phone using a system called Multimedia Messaging Service.

The new software even adds a feature that lets you transmit stereo music wirelessly using Bluetooth.

The iPhone still can't run more than one program at a time, but Apple will enable a notification system that can tell you, for example, if someone has sent you an instant message.

Apple is not the first company to launch a $99 smartphone. Just last year, Palm had success selling the Centro for that price. But the Centro had old software that was on the verge of being phased out.