100 Percent Obvious: Next-Gen iPhone Due This Summer
by John Paczkowski
Posted on March 23, 2009 at 3:11 PM PT
Though it made no mention of a next-generation handset at its iPhone OS 3.0 preview last week, Apple is clearly hard at work on one. And if history is any guide, the company will bring it to market sometime in early summer just as it did the iPhone 3G last year. And if history is any guide, this new iPhone will be a great improvement over its predecessor. And if history is any guide, the device will arrive at market in a cloud of hyperbole. So “100 percent confirmed” reports leaking out of AT&T claiming Cupertino is doing exactly that–prepping a new iphone that will “be faster and have a more seamless experience unmatched by any device”–and encouraging us all to prepare “for an exciting time this summer”–aren’t all that interesting. It’s not like Apple (AAPL) was going to surprise us all by not releasing a revision to the handset that’s upending the cellphone industry.
What is interesting here, though, are 100 percent unconfirmed hints that the next-generation iPhone will support faster 3G speeds. If this is indeed the case, it suggests that the device may run Infineon’s new SGOLD3 chipset. And if it does, that means it will be capable of supporting not just download speeds twice that of current 3G networks–theoretically 7.2 Mbps–but a five-megapixel camera and real-time video encoding/decoding with a new on-board video camera. Now that would make for an exciting summer, indeed.
Comments
Apple came out with the iPhone 3G in July, not June. They came out with the first generation iPhone in June.
Posted by Ross Mueller at March 23rd, 2009 at 7:28 pm