What to expect from the new 3G iPhone

Earlier this month we reported on the rumoured launch of the 3G iPhone from Apple this northern summer.

There is already new scuttlebutt over exactly what the new 3G iPhone will entail. Charlie Sorrel from tech site Wired has provided a neat summary of what we can expect from the 3G iPhone, based on market demands and Apple’s development track record.

• Network – The Infineon chipset expected to power the new phone will work on both HSDPA and WCDMA networks, as well as continuing to support EDGE for customers outside good 3G coverage.
• Camera – The Infineon chipset supports cameras of up to 5 megapixels and also video capture using Apple’s codec of choice, h.264. So more pixels and video seem very likely, but what of video calls? Apple’s Mac application iChat has had video conferencing for some time. It would be a perfect match for the iPhone’s big bright screen, but that would entail a second camera.
• Hardware – Expect cosmetic changes as the current iPhone is so simple that it can hardly be improved. The current iPhone is surprisingly tough, so we’d expect Apple to stick to glass and metal. The only sure thing is that as soon as you see the new model, your old iPhone will look clunky.
• Software – The iPhone touch screen interface is in a league of its own. The currently beta iPhone SDK shows us that the v2.0 operating system will be an incremental upgrade, adding niceties such as search and, if we’re lucky, copy-and-paste. With the iPod, Apple has often held new features back from older models in order to drive sales. Expect the v1.0 iPhone to run the exact same software as the new one, exempting features which utilise new hardware.