A hint about when Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple may unveil a new generation of iPhones came Monday from a far-away source: the sands of the United Arab Emirates. In an off-handed remark, a carrier said new iPhones could be released in June.
A new Apple handset “is due out in June,” Mark Davis, Program Director for UAE carrier Etisalat, told a local business newspaper.
The comment followed news Etisalat would offer the iPhone 3G February 15th in the UAE and later in Saudi Arabia.
Speculation erupted that Apple was preparing a new line of iPhones after a report of an “iPhone 2,1” device appearing in some Internet logs. The iPhone 3G was designed as “iPhone 1,2” by Apple.
If the timing is correct, it would seem to mesh with a product timeline offered by Apple marketing head Phil Schiller. Schiller had hinted after Macworld 2009 a new iPhone could appear in June, according to Apple Insider.
A next-generation iPhone could include ARM’s new processor and upgraded graphics from Imagination Technologies, according to the site.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
