Friday, March 28,2008 @ 1:15pm
Bank of America: 3G iPhone in June
Apple's planned second-generation iPhone, equipped with 3G broadband, will likely ship in June, according to an analyst from the Bank of America. "Our latest channel checks point to a significant production build of a 3G iPhone beginning in the month of June after a initial small build in May," says Scott Craig. Carrier partner AT&T has previously announced that a 3G iPhone will arrive in 2008, Reuters notes, but has otherwise remained quiet on when it might ship.
Craig is raising his estimates of production volume for the new phone, suggesting that 3 million will be built in May, to be followed by another 8 million in the third quarter of the year. This surpasses even recent estimates by Gartner, which pegged Apple as ordering a full million less units. Craig says he had previously expected just 8 million phones to be built in all of 2008.
A separate researcher, Avi Greengart of Current Analysis, argues that the timing of the 3G phone is meant to coincide with the iPhone 2.0 firmware due at the same time, which will primarily introduce the ability to download and install native third-party software.