Evidence of Apple’s 3G iPhone was recently discovered in the latest beta of the iPhone 2.0 firmware. While many may get excited over the mention of Apple’s new device, this may be a clue for something much bigger and it may involve Microsoft more than you think.

Earlier this evening, Apple released the new iPhone 2.0 beta firmware to anyone enrolled in the iPhone Developer Program, says MacRumors. The ZiPhone blog examined the new firmware’s code and found an entry referencing "SGOLD3", an Infineon chipset for GSM phones. AppleInsider did some investigative work and discovered the chip supports 3G speeds up to 7.2 megabits per second, which is double the 3.6 megabit speeds available on most HSDPA networks.

When Microsoft released the second-gen Zune late last year, the company was praised by critics for offering all first-gen owners with a firmware update, adding all second-gen featuers to first gen devices. A new product version typically leaves owners of older versions feeling like they need a new one, but this was hardly the effect with the new Zune.

So how does this all fit together? There was a time when Apple thrived on hardcore fans needing the latest and greatest, but it seems Apple’s pushed past its niche market share, reaching tons of "regular" people with the iPod and now the iPhone. As a result, annoying customers means annoying a lot more people nowadays, and — as the company discovered last year — upsetting a gaint mass of early adopters is a bad idea and it desperately needs a better public image right now.

No, this doesn’t mean the first-gen iPhone’s getting 3G speeds, but the 2.0 firmware release may hit around the same time the second-gen iPhone makes its debut. If this happens, Apple avoids upsetting early adopters and recent buyers by offering all 2.0 features — including the ability to buy and install Apple approved apps — with the firmware update. As a result, we may see the 3G iPhone hit store shelves as soon as the 2.0 firmware hits older handsets. 

Thinking on the other side of the fence, Apple may be preparing the firmware for both handsets at the exact same time (standardization across both devices). If this is the case, the fact that the same firmware supports two separate devices means nothing, but stuff starts to smell really fishy when you seed next-gen firmware to developers.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 8:29 pm under Firmware, Opinion, Unconfirmed, iPhone.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Danny Mendez.