If there's one thing Apple has perfected, it's its hype machine. Rumors are swirling about the release date of the new 3G iPhone and its features (possible video conferenceing, GPS, and mobile TV), and there's entire websites dedicated to the topic, complete with "spy pics." Talk is that Steve Jobs plans to announce the release of the new phone at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next week.

That funny thing is that admist all this hype, it's easy to forget that we're talking about a phone. If Steve Jobs and Apple actually wrote a business plan for the new iPhone, though, that hype and excitement would be a major part of the equation. It's actually an interesting lesson for entrepreneurs. While Jobs and crew did make some major changes to the standard cell phone (touch screen, etc.), they didn't exactly come up with a brand new, revolutionary device either. When the original iPhone came out a year ago, most people already had cells and convincing them to drop $500 required some genius persuasion that Apple was sufficiently able to pull off, judging from their outstanding sales last year. The business plan for the new iPhone, if it existed, would likely follow the same model. Capture marketshare from other smart phone manufacturers not only by adding a few new cool features, but by generating such hype that the release date of a second generation cell phone starts to seem like the return of Christ. While to a certain extent part of that hype is uncontrollable, as it's generated on the blogosphere, etc., Apple has carefully fed into that machine by keeping the 3G iPhone's release date a secret, etc.

What do you guys think Apple's business plan for the iPhone looks like?