3G iPhone coming in 2008 says AT&T
Bloomberg reports that AT&T will be giving the iPhone a real broadband connection in 2008. Randall Stephenson, AT&T's CEO, told a Churchill Club gathering. This may be due to improved battery life for the iPhone that Apple cites as the primary reason for keeping the iPhone on a 2.5G network for now.
"You'll have it next year," Stephenson said in response to a question about when the 3G iPhone would debut. He said he didn't know how much more the new version will cost than the existing model, which sells for $399. Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs "will dictate what the price of the phone is,'' he said....
[Steve Jobs said:] "We've got to see the battery lives for 3G get back up into the five-plus-hour range. Hopefully we'll see that late next year.''
This is great for the iPhone, and it may well point to a more enterprise-friendly iPhone, as CIO.com suggests, but I'm actually more excited that it should also mean that I'll have a 3G connection for my Blackberry. Especially given Google's recent upgrade of its Maps feature, I find myself using the web all the time on my Blackberry.
For what? Mostly Google-based searches, but also Google Maps and Google News. A speedy connection makes this a bit more usable. I don't need it, but it's helpful.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
