3g iPhone anytime soon?

[Dannyboyayyo]

Hello everyone,

I remember around late December beginning of January there were rumors about a 3g iPhone coming out around April. Now I cannot manage to find any information about that. Did anyone hear anything about it?

 

[bigrash]

It's probably gonna be out 3rd/4th quarter this year, but they'll probably announce it at their June conference. I doubt it's gonna come out before that.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

It'll probably be in June, 1 year anniversary and such. Also, that is when the SDK is coming out.

 

[Phynaz]

Originally posted by: ChAoTiCpInOy
It'll probably be in June, 1 year anniversary and such. Also, that is when the SDK is coming out.

The SDK has been out for two weeks.

My vote is nothing until fourth quarter.

 

[pm]

I believe that Chaoticpinoy was referring to the launch of the "App Store" - which I believe is scheduled for June 1st.

As far as the 3G iPhone, I would guess May or June for the launch. I would guess that Apple will choose the Infineon "Tantus" 3G tri-band UMTS chipset. Fortune magazine pointed to a Broadcom 3G chipset, but I personally think that the Infineon chipset makes more sense given the EDGE iPhone design since it should be a good fit with the chipset that they are using now in terms of compatibility. Infineon released the 3G chipst in Nov. last year into production and there should be plenty of supply for a mid-2008 launch. A UBS article from a couple of weeks ago mentions this too:
http://www.intomobile.com/2008...ipset-in-mid-2008.html

"Consistent with these checks, our Apple analyst Ben Reitzes believes that 3G iPhones will be released by mid-year."

And, CNBC's Goldman also believes a mid-2008 release date:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/rum...y-june-2008-330934.php

We'll see. I'm highly unlikely to get one, so I'm not following it too closely.

 

[Dannyboyayyo]

Thanks for the in depth post. My birthday is coming up next week so I am thinking about a iPhone as a present. However I would hate to get it and in a month they would announce a newer version.

 

[pm]

Well, that's the hard thing - it's really hard to know if these rumors are true, or if the posters above saying the 4th quarter are right. If you buy it now, you have it now - if you wait, you don't and it's hard to know how long it will be before it's released. If you buy now, it might be vastly improved in a month, or it might not be until the end of the year. It might be a 6 weeks, or 6 months. And Apple is very good at keeping things quiet so it's very hard to know if rumors are true or false. I tend to be a "buy now, and Ebay later" kind of person, but that's me.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

Apple would have to release a prototype to the FCC for approval, and thus far (to my knowledge) that hasn't happened. We would atleast hear about it (though the details will probably remain under NDA). I think this is why they announced the iPhone in January but didnt ship until June 2007. They may do the same thing in June to December or Jan 2009.

In any case, the current iPhone is a great device. If you have the patience to wait for a 3G iPhone, you have the patience for EDGE!

 

[Imported]

Waiting for the 3G iPhone myself. My K790 can last until then.This year is gonna be expensive.. MGS PS3 bundle and the 3G iPhone already on my list.

 

[pm]

Good point about FCC certification, Wonderful Pork. I hadn't thought of that.

That said, when I google around at posts from the last time around, the FCC approval documents on the 1st generation iPhone were on roughly the 17th of May 2007, and then it was released June 1st. So, It looks like it can take just 2 weeks from when Apple gets FCC approval and when they release it. And the documentation wasn't released on the FCC website until after the iPhone was approved.

I'm still betting before the 15th of June (the 1st is a Sunday this year), it will be released. That's my guess, anyway. We'll see who is right.

 

[bigrash]

Originally posted by: pm
Good point about FCC certification, Wonderful Pork. I hadn't thought of that.

That said, when I google around at posts from the last time around, the FCC approval documents on the 1st generation iPhone were on roughly the 17th of May 2007, and then it was released June 1st. So, It looks like it can take just 2 weeks from when Apple gets FCC approval and when they release it. And the documentation wasn't released on the FCC website until after the iPhone was approved.

I'm still betting before the 15th of June (the 1st is a Sunday this year), it will be released. That's my guess, anyway. We'll see who is right.

My memory must be playing with me because I thought that the FCC approved the iphone not too long after the january conference last year. Normally it takes at least 4 months after FCC approval for a phone to be sold in stores.

 

[pm]

I believe what happened was that Apple requested that the FCC hide the details until the 15th of June:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/0...ality-until-june-15th/

Then submitted the documentation on the 9th of March, 2007 (see time stamps from the submission, and the cover letter has a date of 8th of March, 2007):
http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/oetcf...tion_id=268052&fcc_id=

Then the FCC approved the phone on the 17th of May:
http://www.pcworld.com/article...1988-pg,1/article.html
and released the supporting documentation (I guess the FCC didn't go for the June 15th thing).


To be honest, although I own one now, I had no idea that Apple was even working on a cell phone while all this was going on, so I have no memory and am just going off of Google. But it looks like submission was March 9th, approval was May 17th and release was June 1st.

 

[Dannyboyayyo]

any reason to believe that there will be more added features besides 3g?

 

[redice]

how easy/hard would it be to switch from an iphone to a 3g iphone for ATT? Just got my iphone beginning of the month (came from verizon), and edge really is slow.

 

[pm]

Danny, I have no idea. There are rumors of GPS's, and improved battery life, and a more detailed screen, but they could just be wishful thinking. About the only thing that is pretty much guaranteed is 3G.

Redice, it should be really easy... sell your iPhone on Ebay - hack it with ZiPhone and people will pay more than it cost you originally to buy it... and then buy a 3G phone like an N95 or a Blackjack or something.

 

[BarneyFife]

My contract with sprint expires on June 28 2008 so hopefully it comes out around then.

 

[bigrash]

Originally posted by: Dannyboyayyo
any reason to believe that there will be more added features besides 3g?

macrumors is also reporting front camera for video chat. That's sweet!

I'm sure there'll be many other added features.

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: BarneyFife
My contract with sprint expires on June 28 2008 so hopefully it comes out around then.

Man same here. My Sprint plan expires in July and after having a pocket pc for two years and fast internet I couldn't handle a non 3g iphone.

However for my usage which is mainly internet/e-mail reading and phone the iphone is perfect. I hope by July they will have at least announced release.

 

[pm]

Reuters is reporting that Bank of America analysts are saying that the 3G iPhone is readying for a Q2 2008 launch:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200...xj7WlW8_FwCce5s.YxVrIF

Fri Mar 28, 6:31 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is expected to launch a high-speed wireless version of iPhone in the second quarter and produce as many as 8 million of the devices in the third quarter, according to Bank of America. "Our latest channel checks point to a significant production build of a 3G iPhone beginning in the month of June after an initial small build in May," he said.

Still just rumors though...

And - before anyone gets excited - an article at CNet News that talks about how the above report is just speculation:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784...19-7.html?tag=nefd.top

Apple rumors run wild, slow news day confirmed
March 28, 2008 5:31 PM PDT

When it comes to writing about Apple, deciding what you should and should not cover can be tricky. You can take the machine gun approach: Anything said, written, rumored, or signaled via smoke should be dutifully blogged with a hint of snark and just enough insight to make readers think, "Heeeeeeey, that fella must know the inside dope." This, unfortunately, is what most of the tech press (mea culpa: sometimes including CNET) following Apple does these days. If you don't give readers their Apple fix, the other guys will.

And, an older detailed article from over a month ago:
http://blogs.computerworld.com/3g_iphone_best_guesses
his guesses summarized:

So with this information, I would peg the 3G iPhone release at around a May-June time frame.
I think $499 for 16GB 3G iPhone with $10-$20/month hike in service prices.

 

[Naeeldar]

IF they hike the service 20 bucks a month then I will probably go else where.

This rumor sounds about right when you look at everything else Apple had stated.

As long as price doesn't change much on service then I'll probably be purchasing iPhone in July/August.

 

[Dannyboyayyo]

now the rumors starting coming out. according to macrumors.com late may june the 3g will come out. Hope they are right

 

[pm]

Walt Mossberg - who writes about technology for the Wall Street Journal and is among the most respected (perhaps is the most respected?) in the industry says the iPhone will arrive in the next 60 days:
http://gizmodo.com/376519/walt...hone-coming-in-60-days

 

[RandomFool]

One of the AT&T execs said something at CTIA about all of AT&T phones being 3g compatible within 3 months. When he was asked if that included the iPhone he said something like "I think my statement explains enough"