Other updates include an improvement to Safari’s address bar, a rating on applications before deletion and podcast downloads.
The update happens to coincide with today’s launch of the RIM’s BlackBerry Storm through Verizon Wireless, and the two could be mutually related, according to technology website CNET columnist Dan Reisinger, who writes:
“Is it a coincidence that Apple's iPhone 2.2 update was released on the same day the BlackBerry Storm hit stores with a touch-screen, 3G, and enterprise-friendly functionality that rivals anything Apple has on the market? I think not.
“Some might say that Apple's decision to update the iPhone is pure coincidence, but I don't think they are that naïve,” Reisinger writes. “Apple realizes that RIM is releasing a major offering that could shake [Apple] to its core and it doesn't want anyone to think it's not doing everything it can to continually update its own product.”
The iPhone supposedly has about 70 percent of the smartphone device market.