Jobs Confirms 3G iPhone Coming 2008

Update: Pocketlint reports that Jobs confirmed Apple’s plans for a 3G iPhone in 2008. He said, to a crowd accustomed to 3G: “You can expect a 3G iPhone later next year.” Original guesswork by The Street below.

We’ve been beating up on Apple for crippling the iPhone with its slowpoke EDGE network connectivity rather than 3G, but according to TheStreet.com, “people familiar with the production plans” are now saying that a 3G-equipped iPhone will be rolling out in the first quarter of next year. But hey, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard this scuttlebutt about the iPhone and 3G. This goes along with the rumours we’ve been hearing for a while now, from some tattletale Swedes back in February, an iPhone radio engineer squealing in January, rumours of a 16GB 3G iPhone for Germany, and word of a 7-year contract with 3G wireless tech company InterDigital.

While Apple wouldn’t confirm any of this, those industry wags talking with TheStreet.com also say the updated iPhone will be packing GPS on board in Q1 ‘08. Adding 3G and GPS? That’s when we’re really going to want the remaining $500 back for our iPhone. Could this be planned obsolescence? So it goes. You can always tell the pioneers—they’re the ones with arrows in their backs. [TheStreet]