Quote from Ralph de la Vega, AT&T director, at CTIA 2008 in Las Vegas:

ALL smartphones sold by AT&T in a few months will support 3G.

He repeated his message when he got the question if that included the iPhone...

cant believe asher hasnt been linked to yet!

3G iPhone release 'imminent' - Technology - theage.com.au

with credit to Twitter / jwrigley

for pointing it out..

Probably not.

Though it depends on if the 3G iPhone is going to be evolution or upgrade. From all the crap that is being bandied around I'd guess that Apple are going to change the device some and we'll see an evolved 3G iPhone. Better camera, more storage, 3g etc. Still battery life is going to be the major item that will cripple the designers enthusiasm, so a new design that gives a slightly bigger battery will help. If they use the same chipset with new bits added that cannot happen. If, as the rumours suggest, Apple are going to push games out for this then a beefed up CPU will be needed as well.

Question: Worth getting one now or waiting until 3G/Aussie release?

Hate to rain on your parade but the baseband is seperate to the main processor. they can bump processing power without even touching the tranceiver.

It would make more sense to stick with their SGold2 no matter what, because it can exceed their expectations already. even for 3G and as such makes more sense and keeps costs low

On top of that, Apple only just released the SDK

Do you think they're ever going to want iPhone apps that must meet minimum system requirements? I thought not. Apple's whole operating plan is based on simplicity - you'll find the iPhone platform won't change as radically or as quickly as you'd imagine because I can't see apple wanting to confuse things with system requirements for apps like i said, or universal binaries if they made the rumoured jump to intel based processors.

The iPhone at the current time is already a very powerful device with 3D Acceleration already built in, but it's hardly being used yet. the only change I forsee in the short to mid term is the addition of 3G Connectivity on the current platform.

Holy crap, did he write a story all on his own? With properly-cited sources and everything?

anyone?

With June WWDC only less than 2 months away and the almost certain release of a better equipped 3G iPhone I would strongly recommend waiting unless you must absolutely have it now. In all likelihood the new phone will have more features for the same price point or possibly a bit lower so you would really be kicking yourself. If you have cash to burn though and can't wait 2 months then go for it now.

Well I just received my iPhone a few weeks ago and am very happy with it. Even if a new 3G version is released soon I will probably hold off on it.

The announcement is still probably 3 months away and then the inevitable stock shortages. So will be about 4-5 months before can get hold of one. Even then might still have to wait for the new firmware to be hacked and unlocked. So could be 6 months before can get a usable 3G iphone.

In that time I would have been enjoying my iPhone even with slow GPRS for six months.

I will then have saved enough to upgrade to 3G and sell my current iPhone on ebay.

OTOH, what if WWDC comes and goes without any word of a local iPhone release? That's two iPhoneless months for nothing.

People forget how long we waited for the iTunes Store, and photo book printing from iPhoto. Apple told us it was coming "soon" and it kept on not happening - I think it was 2 years for iTMS and closer to three for iPhoto printing.

I don't think it'll happen with iPhone, but you never know.

Yeah I'm just thinking, what's the main change going to be? 3G and that's it. Nothing fancy because I think Apple is just trying to keep it simple atm.

hey now, 3G is a big thing, especially when you look at data usage.

but i wouldnt even use 3g, thats what im getting at.

im in the exact same situation watters.
im not planning on using 3g either (apart from the fact that darwin hasnt got it yet anyway!)

basically, if you KNOW you wont use 3G.... then you might as well grab it now if you think you can.
a friend of mine is getting one from UK for me soon. (its $10 cheaper than US after taxes and stuff)

so i say go for it. even 4 months more of having an iphone will be great.

If you want one and can get one now, just do it. It's a great phone and an incredible device right now, today.

I waited in torment since its release and I've now had one for a week and I wonder why I waited. Its awesome..

My tipping point was the thinking that if it's not released here until oct/nov it would just suck! And if it is released sooner I can always move the one I have and pay the difference for the upgrade.

How's that old saying go.. "A bird in the hand is better than 2 in the bush!"