Final pre-June 9 WWDC proof of a 3G iPhone?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 04 June 2008 17:28

Your IT - Mobility

With 6 days to go before the 3G iPhone is unveiled by Steve Jobs, the announcement that Softbank, a 3G carrier in Japan, will also sell the iPhone “later this year” is yet more proof the 3G iPhone is real. And is coming much sooner than “later this year” might indicate!

So, does “later this year” simply mean next week? That’s one of the questions that “later this year” has 3G iPhone-o-philes asking themselves, especially after reports of mysterious ‘electric computers’ shipments sent to Apple and seen coming into US ports.

Of course, US ports are not Japanese ports, or Australian ports, or European ports. But if Apple truly is going to launch the 3G iPhone in a global manner, it’ll either happen all at once, or will happen in rapid succession to take full advantage of the existing iPhone mania that will clearly only re-ignite once the 3G iPhone is launched at last.

So... Softbank, one of the largest telecommunications companies in 3G-mad Japan, has finally announced it too will sell the iPhone, beating fierce Japanese competitor NTT Docomo to the punch.

In typical iPhone announcement style, Softbank’s announcement may well be the shortest yet, saying only that "SoftBank today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Japan later this year".

EuroTechnology Japan K.K., a Tokyo based Euro-Japanese analyst firm, has said in an email blast that the “terse one-line press announcement” is a clear indication the 3G iPhone really is real, and is 3G.

They say: “Of course we are talking about the 3G iPhone, because Japan has almost switched off the 2G networks, and has essentially stopped selling 2G phones for a couple of years now. The current initial 2G iPhone uses GSM and therefore cannot work in Japan, which has no GSM”.

Please read on for further 3G iPhone Japan analysis from EuroTechnology.