Will a 3G iPhone be announced before July 2008?

Report: Apple places order for 24-25 million 3G iPhones

By Slash Lane
Published: 11:00 AM EST
Long-time iPod manufacturer and current iPhone builder Foxconn Electronics has been selected by Apple to assemble the company's upcoming 3G iPhone handset, with volume shipments expected to begin this June, says a new report out of the Far East.


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Citing sources at component suppliers as well as foreign institutional investors, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reports that the Taipei-based manufacturer was recently instructed by Apple to begin procuring component materials for the next-generation touch-screen handsets for an initial test build no later than the end of May.

Shipments of the 3G iPhone are expected to top three million units in June with the model likely to ship a total of 24-25 million units throughout its life-cycle, the paper added.

Since introducing its first-generation iPhone last June, Apple has managed to sell just shy of 6 million units with help from exclusive wireless partners in the US, UK, Germany, France, Austria and Ireland. However, a flurry of recent reports have suggested the Cupertino-based company will forgo exclusive carrier contracts as it expands distribution of the handsets to additional European nations and portions of Asia around the same time it unveils its 3G offering.

Specifically, Italian newspaper Repubblica reported last week that Apple had inked a deal with Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) to begin selling a 3G iPhone through the carriers retail shops. The report added, however, that the exclusivity to TIM would last only a few months and that other Italian carriers would immediately be free to offer the handset, which would ship unlocked, to their own customers.

That report added to similar claims emerging out of Australia and was soon followed by an almost identical report out of Belgium. In the case of the latter, regional publication Astel.be. cited sources in saying that three Belgian carriers -- Proximus, Mobistar and BASE -- were each creating special data packages for the 3G iPhone, and that Mobistar would likely have a several month exclusive to market the handset through its retail shops like Italy's TIM.

Sales of iPhones have thus far been described as lackluster in Europe, as customers largely chose to forgo the existing model in favor of waiting for a version capable of taking advantage of third-generation wireless networks, which are most prevalent in the region.

As such, the iPhone currently stands as a relatively minor contributor to Apple's top line, generating only 2-3 percent of the company's revenue. However, analysts on Wall Street believe that sales of the device one day become as large as the the company's current Mac business, fueling approximately $15 - $20 billion in annualized revenue, as the iPhone capitalizes on a global handset market ten times the size of the worldwide PC market.

In March, Commercial Times reported that Foxconn was amongst those Taiwanese assemblers bidding on Apple's 3G iPhone contract, with DowJones claiming shortly thereafter that a deal between the two companies had been reached.

Dude I love this question and I am gonna make a boat load when Apple releases their new phones in June :-D

Apple to begin selling 3G iPhone in late June?

By Katie Marsal
Published: 04:00 PM EST

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Apple Inc. may begin selling its next-generation iPhone handset sometime on or after the third week of June, hints a recent memo from AT&T to its retail staffers.

In the message to employees this week, the nation's No. 1 wireless carrier spoke of an "exciting Summer Promotional Launch" that will kick off next month and offer the opportunity for sales representatives to "soar" past their sales quotas.

"To ensure proper staffing during this period, Sales personnel planning to take approved time off are encouraged to schedule their vacations before June 15 or after July 12 to participate in the heavy selling period," the company wrote.

Almost one year ago to the date, AT&T made a similar request of its retail staff, announcing vacation blackout days from June 15 through July 15.

The carrier, alongside Apple, began selling the iPhone on June 29th at 6:00 p.m.

In the weeks leading up to last year's iPhone launch, AT&T went on to appoint addition part time staffers, hire crowd control, and acquire stanchions to corral patrons. It also announce a plan to close down its 1800 retail stores at around 4:00 p.m. on June 29th and reopen them again at 6:00 p.m. with iPhones on hand.

This just SCREAMS 3G!!! :-D


Steve Jobs to showcase OS X, iPhone platforms at WWDC

By AppleInsider Staff
Published: 08:35 AM EST

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Apple announced Tuesday that a team of Apple executives, led by CEO Steve Jobs, will kick off the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, June 9, 2008 at San Francisco's Moscone West.

This year's WWDC will showcase two revolutionary development platforms, the ground-breaking innovations of OS X Leopard and OS X iPhone, the company said in a statement.

The five-day event, which runs from June 9 to June 13, will feature the first ever iPhone track for mobile developers with in-depth sessions and hands-on labs to fully explore the capabilities of the OS X iPhone 2.0 software, including the iPhone SDK and the App Store, a new way for developers to wirelessly deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod touch users.

The iPhone track will also enable mobile developers to work side by side with Apple engineers to create fresh applications that leverage iPhone's groundbreaking Multi-Touch user interface, animation technology, rich set of APIs, including programming interfaces for Core OS, Core Services, Media and Cocoa Touch technologies, built-in three axis accelerometer and geographical location technology to deliver truly innovative mobile applications.