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3G iPhone within 60 days?

by on11 April 2008

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Stirring the pot over Apple’s next iPhone play


It seems that no one can get enough of the iPhone. No matter where you turn these days, someone has an iPhone or someone is showing off their iPhone. Given the fact that the iPhone is so popular despite all of its short comings, it no wonder that speculation just continues to mount over what Apple will deliver in their second generation iPhone.

Despite what you have been reading everywhere, the reality is that not much is really known about what will be included in the next iPhone and that is the way that Apple likes it. We do know that despite what has been suggested to the contrary, the truth seems to be that the current supply of iPhones here in North America is tight, which seems to indicate an effort by Apple to control inventory prior to the launch of the next iPhone as we have suggested before.

It seems that the most analysts seems to be in agreement through a variety of sources that Apple is poised to launch the next generation of the iPhone in a time frame of about 60 days or so. The thinking is that they will not wait much longer than that because inventory levels will be too low to wait much longer. (We suspect that it will be launched at WWDC, which would be the safe guess at this point.)

The next generation iPhone will, of course, be a 3G device. This seems to be supported by the clues in the latest iPhone firmware. It is now widely believed that the new iPhone will be using the SGOLD3H chipset from Infineon. The decision to use the SGOLD3H chipset does seem to fit, as the current iPhone uses the SGOLD2 chipset. According to info that we have been able to uncover the SGOLD3 chipset would add 3G over HSDPA and will run up to the newer international standard of 7.2 megabits per second, which is twice the speed of the 3.6 megabits per second that is found on most HSDPA networks.

The SGOLD3 chipset also supports WCDMA, which is necessary for support of this 3G related technology in countries such as Japan and Korea where the GSM service that is used in Europe and North America is not readily available in most cases. It is a given that Apple will need to expand the sales of the iPhone into Asia and it will be necessary to offer 3G to make it successful.

The selection of the SGOLD3 chipset will also offer some added flexibility for Apple to new video possibilities that might include video chat with the addition of a rumored front camera, as well as perhaps live recording. Of course, although these possibilities have been suggested, no one has a clue yet if they will make their way into the next iPhone or not.

Many analysts also continue to suggest that Apple has adopted a back and forth strategy with the iPhone and the iPod Touch, where some features will be released in one and then several months later released or re-engineered for the other platform. For example, it has been suggested that the new iPhone will be offered in a 32GB configuration, which seems possible since they are already offering this feature on the iPod Touch. Of course, it has now been suggested that we will see a 64GB iPod Touch this fall.

At this point no one can say what the future holds for the iPhone, but one thing is for sure… it is really cool to be able to speculate what might be possible when you piece all of the rumors together. If Apple could deliver 50% of what has been speculated, it is certain that they would have a pretty good successor to the original iPhone.

Last modified on 11 April 2008
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