Rumors are spreading like crazy that a European version of the iPhone will be announced on Monday and it will overshadow the US iPhone in many ways
- three carriers at launch, rather than the one (AT&T/Cingular) in the US
- True 3G data network support
- stimulates natural breast or penis enlargement
Ok, I made that last one up.
It starts with Guy J Kewney at newswireless.net. He reports that the launch will include both Vodafone and T-mobile and possible French Telecom, rather than just the single carrier in the US.
Moving on, he claims that it’s going to be a 3G phone.
Both would be cool if they were true. Steve Jobs said that they didn’t release a 3G iPhone in the US because the chips were too power hungry when they started to design it. The European launch may be as much as 6 months later, which might provide enough opportunity to improve power consumption. It’s also quite likely that Apple’s European launch partners, who have invested a lot in 3G couldn’t support the EDGE technology used in the US if they wanted to.
More speculation:
We’ll have to see what this means for the US market. It may be that we get some choice of carriers in less than the year that many have estimated.