14 DAY TRIAL // Very few things should surprise us when it comes to talk about the handset Apple has launched during MacWorld in January. Most specifications are already known, the carrier to have the exclusivity in USA is AT&T (the former Cingular) and, generally speaking, everyone knows about everything there is to know about the iPhone, despite it getting a launch date somewhere in the 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2007.
Although most people might consider themselves iPhone specialists ahead of time, there is one information that just arrived regarding its future launch in Europe.
Every mobile user around the world has been quite disappointed to see the iPhone doesn't feature any type of 3G radio, but the rumor I'm writing about here says the device is probably arriving in Europe as soon as this year's September and, hold your pants because this will totally rock the way you think about Apple's handset, in January a 3G version is also going to be presented to the customers by at least one mobile carrier.
You may wonder why is this revision of the iPhone only targeted at the European markets. This happens mainly because the mobile carriers in USA don't feature wide spread 3G coverage as it happends in Europe. One example is the EDGE enabled network Cingular/AT&T offers its customers, a network that will reach, in theory, data speeds of about 236.8 kbits/s for 4 timeslots or a maximum of 473.6 kbits/s for 8 timeslots.
Those theoretical speeds achievable by the EGDE technology qualify it in the third generation standard. Being already accepted by the International Telecommunications Union in the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards this type of technology would, again in theory, suffice as a reason for Apple to implement those highly desired 3G capabilities in the US iPhone revision.
But, against all the expectations that you might have, the AT&T/Cingular network is far from those theoretical figures because, as they declare on their website, "the Cingular EDGE network is available in more than 13,000 cities and towns and in areas along 40,000 miles of highways. It provides average data speeds between 75-135Kbps." That is not at all sufficient to consider they have a 3G network (this kind of speed would be better associated with a dial-up network) and this is the reason Apple is so "mean" and doesn't want to deliver 3G enabled iPhone handsets stateside.
I'm sure Apple will not by any means delay the launch of such a device in USA if the carriers are kind enough to offer a lot more 3G coverage than they currently do at the time (I'm watching you Cingular/AT&T!), a fact that will surely get all US residents using a mobile phone a more European-like way of looking at the mobile market.
Contradictory to the way mobile business are conducted in the USA, in Europe the cheaper data rates and the large coverage of 3G networks make the local mobile market an excellent place to launch entire phone line-ups offering quality Internet access solutions. Thus, the largest mobile phone manufacturers always have a special spot in their money loving hearts and, lately, they launched an entire series of Internet and multimedia enabled cellphones.
What is one to expect if this information actually leaves the dark rumor cave it leaves in at the moment and will step in the open with a big "TRUE" stamp on its forehead? The best guess is a 3G iPhone available as soon as January 2008 in Europe, with an added front camera for video calling and, as probably you already know, a 99% possibility to be HSPDA enabled due to the present Apple choice of cellphone networks.