Will Apple delight - or disappoint - with the 3G iPhone?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 10 April 2008 18:05

Your IT - Mobility

A right ripper rainbow of 3G iPhone rumours is relentlessly raging across the radiant Internet, perpetuated by rapscallion rumour-mongers bent on raising expectation to raucous new heights. If it’s all true, it’s quite radical, but if not, it could well be outrageous.

Once again, Apple sits ready to cross the Rubicon of expectation, with users demanding a 3G model of the iPhone.

But with Apple so set in its ways of doing whatever it pleases, whenever it pleases, to whomever it pleases, what users want and what they get are two very different things, dependent entirely on the desires of one man: Steven Paul Jobs, CEO of the 21st century’s greatest technology company to date.

Australia has this week been subjected to the most racy 3G iPhone rumours of them all: a supposed Apple plan to release a totally unlocked iPhone, in 3G, to all carriers in Australia, for sale not only by Apple’s upcoming new Australian stores, but a raft of authorised Apple resellers.

The rumour was released by MacTalk Forums and even Macworld Australia, both of whom suggest strongly that certain Apple resellers in Australia have been given special forewarning that a 3G iPhone was most definitely on the way in the last week of June.

Unfortunately a raft of media enquiries to Apple resellers has uncovered no-one willing to go on record - or off the record - confirming the claims, although plenty of resellers publicly stated statements along the lines that pigs would fly before Apple would pre-announce anything to anyone, let alone Apple’s own reseller channel, heavily casting doubt upon the MacTalk claims.

Still, the fact that resellers who aren't part of Apple's plan don't know anything doesn't mean a plan isn't afoot - perhaps Apple is somehow changing one or two of its spots in some ways, or perhaps Australia is a unique market that Apple feels it needs to work more closely with reseller-wise.

Or perhaps the retailers who do know something are just keeping quiet, happy to have received some secret Apple info and not wishing to be shut out if the identity of any leaker is discovered.

Still, not only is the next iPhone set to be 3G, whenever it comes, a statement that Steve Jobs himself made at the Macworld 2007 conference, it’s actually set to be 3.5G, with Zibri of ZiPhone iPhone unlocking fame uncovering the news.

Zibri discovered that the latest beta iPhone firmware makes reference to an Infineon 3.5G HSDPA chip called S-GOLD 3H that will allow downloads of up to 7.2Mbps, with real world speeds of up to 5Mbps.

So, just what can can the magical S-GOLD 3H chip from Infineon do, and what might the world’s reaction be should a 3G iPhone not deliver most, if not all, the world is expecting? And what's one disappointment about the 3G chip that Apple has seemingly chosen? Please read onto page 2.