3G iPhone rumor roundup: 62 days, $399, 9.1mm
Another week, another flurry of 3G iPhone rumors. Here's a roundup of the current batch:
- Price: $399 for 8GB, $499 for 16GB, possibly $599 for 32GB (TGDaily, citing "industry sources")
- Timing: Apple's World Wide Developers Conference, presumably on June 10, during Steve Jobs' keynote address. (ditto)
- Body: Less "plasticky," 2.5mm thinner (current dimensions are 115 x 61 x 11.6mm). (ditto)
- Accelerometer: Re-tuned. (ditto)
- Bandwidth: Up to 7.2 Mbps from Infineon (IFX) S-GOLD3H chipset (ZiPhone, see here)
- Camera: Higher res (3 megapixel) (Silicon Alley Insider, citing "a friend of a friend" who claims to be a beta tester)
- Video: Video recording capability, upload directly to YouTube (ditto)
- Bluetooth: Stereo headphones (IPhone Hellas, from references in the SDK code)
- GPS: To replace triangulation (ditto)
- Added to apps: Contact searching, meeting invites (Engadget SDK screenshots)
- Available unlocked: In Australia, starting last week of June. (MacTalk, citing Apple resellers)
Apple (AAPL), of course, will confirm none of this. Take it for what it's worth.
Has anyone considered the plan cost?
Will the carrier(s) stay with a data plan of $20 for all you can eat for 3G?
The minimum Iphone package voice/data is $70. Could it eclipse a $100 or more with 3G?
All of this is nice, but could they please upgrade the safari to be able to read flash files? this is half of the web pages out there & I cant navigate through them!!!
Knowing what I know about ISPs' claims of 'up to' XX Nbytes/second this iPhone will be a wasted design cycle without a builtin satellite GPS receiver/beacon.
Voice recognition would be nice too but the CPU and battery will strain under the load.
oh… and with all that all-in-one.. a phone with great voicemail options ..and sms, instant messaging, and gps!! come on folks, what other device gives all this?
$600 for 32gb is a lot, but i'll pay it just to have an all-in-one device: music, video, internet, email, msft exchange, tens of thousands of sdk apps including great games, contact list, weather, possible blu-ray remote control, and things we can't even imagine yet.
others are coming out with their own touch phones, and some seem rather cool with SIMM cards and exchangeable memory, removable battery, live tv viewing and more. i do wish the iphone had removable memory and battery, but to me those phones are nice, but lack in complete functionality and number of options.
for anyone who hates apple, you have to give them praise for the iphone. because if it wasn't for aapl you'd still only have standard cell phones and these companies would not have these new releases this summer. apple pushes the envelope and therefore, makes others push also to keep up. without apple we'd all have msft computers, boring ipods and still using flip-phones with boring text internet service with no real gui.
can't wait to see what they do with apple tv. don't have one, but may buy next year if they add more features.
You've never even held one. It's obvious. Very solid, substantial, correct dimensions and mass. Not 'plasticky'. Apple makes no junk. See DELL…
No Panacea Apple is great but folks think 3G will be blindingly fast. They will bitch and moan and say there's something wrong with the device. Analysts will jump on that and damage the stock valuation. Guys like Savitz will do their best to inflict damage.
I completely agree with your logic about the release dates. According to the SDK, the Infineon chip cited, is "S-GOLD3" but it does not include the "H." So it may end up with a different letter than the H chipset. Youtube upload at 7.2Mbps … how long is that going to take to upload a ten minute video? LOL!!! So you think they will sell a locked version in the States, but an unlocked version in the Eastern Hemisphere? That should be interesting! What the heck is AT&T going to do? Any predictions?
It's doing people a disservice to keep using the "up to 7.2 mbps" phrase in regards to the 3G chipset. Those are theoretical maximums. Real-world 3G browsing on AT&T's network is closer to 800 kbps with much higher latency than people are used to from broadband cable or DSL connections. I have a feeling there are going to be a bunch of disappointed 3G iPhone buyers when they find they aren't getting 7.2 mbps or even 3.6 mbps, but closer to 1.0 mbps, at least until AT&T ups the download speeds. 3G voice quality is spectacular however.
It won't matter though, the fanboys will never admit disappointment. 
Announce on WWDC and release on Friday June 27, 2008 when Pixar movie "WALL-E" hit theaters in the USA. Last year, iPhone was released on the same day as a Pixar movie was released on Friday June 29, 2007.
Was the iPhone and Pixar movie release date a coincidence in 2007? Probably not, because Steve Jobs was former Pixar CEO and I believe is Disney's largest shareholder and is a Disney board member.
So if Steve Jobs is consistent he will choose end of June as the release date for 3G iPhone.
ex ped: That's where I'd put my money. Announce on Tuesday, June 10; start selling Friday, June 27.
Posted By Emile Amsterdam Europe : April 10, 2008 10:15 am
Correct! This is what i heard in the Imac shop down here in Amsterdam, were my wife works.
I live in Amsterdam and there is no iMac store, besides she's only a reseller so how could she know?
Niet te bijdehand, dat schaadt Nederland 
I hoping that they'll have the GPS hardware in the iPhones.
They can always triangulate using the cell towers, but that is only a software solution.
Less plasticky? The iPhone? Jeez, it's the least plasticky cell phone I've ever had: all glass and metal. Where'd this comment come from?
well sounds just about right… whatever it's going to be it won't disappoint.I am sure they will also announce some new apps … and hopefully more distribution deals
I-phone is even rumored with the GPS in their back. The phone would hopefully be a cut among the other 3G. This would bring coverage to Asia-Pacific (india and china), and would bring more than 2.5 billion people for an I-phone experience, and exposure.
Randy, I think the best move [for the telecoms] would be to introduce different prices for different speeds – just like broadband internet. We've already entered the "unlimited" services phase, and customers will expect it in the future. However, they may offer a whole new data plan for "unlimited 3G." Just as an example, people owning 3G iPhones can go with EDGE speed for $20/mo, inbetween speed for $27.50/mo, and full 3G for $35/mo. That is an example, much like the way we pay for Broadband at home right now. Either way, I'm sure there will be a higher price for 3G. It takes A LOT of bandwidth!!!