iPhone 3G coming next year says AT&T CEO; analysts unfazed : Tech Digest

AT&T's CEO, Randall Stephenson, yesterday said that Apple would be introducing a 3G version of the iPhone next year.

Given the faux pas of other CEOs with some relationship to Apple, it's worth noting that this is not an official statement from Apple, so we don't know exactly if and when a iPhone 3G will come, and where it will launch first.

Steve Jobs hinted at the UK iPhone launch that it would be late 2008 before 3G chips had advanced enough not to be too much of a power drain.

Will Apple remain loyal to its US customers first, given that they got the iPhone first, or will they choose to launch in a much more 3G-hungry Europe?

Only time will tell. In the meantime, an analyst with AmTech, Shaw Wu, considers that the 3G market is only just emerging, but isn't clear.

"RIM is the other major smart phone player, they have been doing really well, but they don't have a 3G. That says something", Wu concluded.

He's looking at the US market, though, where 3G isn't so much of a deal as it is in Europe. Perhaps another reason why Europeans should get a iPhone 3G first?

(Via iPhonic)