In a turn events that will no-doubt help fan the crackling flames of 3G speculation, Apple Inc. on Monday revealed that it has completely sold out of iPhone units through its online stores in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Robert Scoble\'s got his. Have you got yours yet? Image: d_b_solis/Flickr.
Industry watchers suggest that Apple CEO Steve Jobs will officially whip the covers off a second-generation 3G iPhone during June’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco -- and the gradual disappearance of original (and substandard) EDGE network iPhone stock is only likely to increase the probability of that prediction.
According to California-based Apple Inc., although its US and UK online stores are no longer stocking the iPhone, prospective customers can still secure a first-generation unit if they should visit a walk-in Apple store or an official AT&T (US) or O2 (UK) carrier store.
Apple has thus far declined to issue comment as to why its online stores have run dry, or whether they will be restocked with original models prior to the June conference.
Somehow we doubt it, and we’d recommend that new customers hold off until after the Worldwide Developers Conference -- not least because the data speed difference between EDGE and 3G is the equivalent of dial-up Internet against high-speed broadband.
As Apple continues to wrangle throughout the mobile market in an effort to meet its initial forecast of selling 10 million iPhones by the close of 2008, the last week alone has seen various new iPhone carrier deals announced, which are expected to shift into action in the coming months -- likely after the new 3G iPhone model has officially landed.
Apple certainly appears to be laying the necessary foundations to reach, and perhaps surpass, the target of 10 million unit sales, having recently unveiled regional carrier deals that will see the iPhone soon launched in Canada, Australia, Latin America, Italy, Singapore, India and the Philippines.
The innovative touch-screen smartphone was first launched in the US on June 29 of 2007, and market performance data recorded for the end of March 2008 shows iPhone sales sitting at around 5.4 million units.
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