Apple’s announcement Tuesday that CEO Steve Jobs will keynote the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference is fueling speculation that Apple will announce a 3G version of the iPhone. Jobs will speak on Monday, June 9, at 10 a.m. The conference runs June 9-13 in San Francisco.
The timing is certainly right. Rumors have been circulating for most of the year that Apple would release a 3G iPhone in the second half of the year. Those rumors have been stoked by reports that Apple is winding down inventory of the current version. Both the U.S. and British versions of the online Apple Store list the iPhone as currently unavailable.
And sales representatives at Apple retail stores across the country reported the iPhone out of stock. “The iPhone is sold out companywide,” a sales representative at the Apple Store in Braintree, Mass., told Computerworld.
“On its own, this means nothing, but we all know that there could never be a major product announcement without Jobs on the stage,” Charlie Sorrel wrote on Wired’s news site, predicting Jobs would unveil a “proper update to the MacBook Pro line” as well.
The rumor mill has suggested that the price of the new iPhone could be substantially less than the current version’s $399 cost.
While the possibility of a 3G iPhone announcement is pure speculation at this point, what is known is that Apple will release version 2.0 of the iPhone software, the final version of the iPhone software developers kit and the App Store, where developers can publish and users can wirelessly download third-party applications.
“I do expect to see a lot of developer focus on the platform and if it weren’t for the problems with the lines last time, I’d be certain there would be lines for the phones again this time,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst…