3G iPhone for May 2008?

According to a recent report the highly anticipated iPhone with 3G technology will be hitting the US market in May. The news comes in a report from the Bank of America. Apple and AT&T have both collaborated that a high-speed version of the highly popular iPhone is definitely coming. They have, however not yet set a definite date for the product’s release. Scott Craig, who authored the Bank of America’s report, has stated that there will be a small beginning to the release come May and in June we will begin to see a more significant distribution. Despite his report however, both Apple and AT&T who is the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the United States, have declined to comment on the release either way. Since there is an iPhone developer’s conference in June it simply makes sense to release this new version during that month.

Scott Craig also stated that the production volume is expected to be much higher than they had originally estimated. Production in May is expected to be more than three million products with an even higher production of eight million coming in the third quarter. The previous estimate was eight million for the entire production of iPhones in 2008.

Apple has a target for 2008 of ten millions iPhones for the year. This new and highly anticipated version could definitely help them to meet this goal. As of January, Apple has confirmed that it has sold four million iPhones. Adding the new 3G technology will be a nice and refreshing addition according to Michael Gartenberg, analyst with Jupiter Research. He also wonders what third-party developers may do with the additional bandwidth that they have not already covered with the AT&T Edge.

The faster bandwidth on the new iPhone 3G version is expected to give users a much more reliable access to websites that contain media rich properties. It may also allow developers to create applications that typically require high speed internet connections.

Microsoft Exchange support is also being looked into for the new iPhone. This will allow users to send Microsoft Office documents as attachments. This will help the iPhone to be more useful for business users who need the ability to exchange large file sizes. It will also make the iPhone more competitive in Europe and other countries where the 3G technology is more common than in the United States.