Jon Crawford

Lately the internets have been aflutter with rumors and speculations pertaining to the next revolution of the iPhone. Since the SDK was announced, developers have been noting that the current capabilities of the hardware would have to significantly improve in order to fully maximize the device’s potential.

It has already been announced that a pretty big update to the iPhone software will be released in June. This update will allow iPhone owners to buy new software for the iPhone directly through the iPhone and through iTunes. Many have speculated that with this update will come a shiny new version of the iPhone itself. I’m one of those speculators.

Here are the rumors I believe to be true (or at least the ones I think should be):

1. 3G network support- The 3G network is AT&T’s faster data network. The iPhone currently uses AT&T’s EDGE network. The EDGE network transfers at about 75-135 Kbps. That’s about twice as fast as dialup. But the 3G network transfers at 400-700 Kbps which is about ten times the speed of dialup. The technology for the 3G network was available when the first iPhone came out but the 3G causes a greater strain on battery life. Therefore they must’ve improved the battery as well.
2. GPS support- Another technology that has gotten rumor-mongers rumoring and technology-futurists futurizing is Yahoo’s Fire Eagle geo-location service. In Yahoo’s idea of the future, people will want to broadcast their exact whereabouts at all times and receive information and collaborate online with their friends based on the places that they go when they are not near their computer. They are creating a platform to facilitate this. This is an indicator to me that location-aware devices and software are going to receive more and more attention as things progress. That coupled with the fact that the first question 50% of people asked me after I got my iPhone was “Does it have GPS? Why not?” Incidentally, the other half asked “How can you stand to look at yourself in the mirror after paying that much for a phone?”
3. Video Chat- According to the video below from Diggnation, the next iPhone will have a camera facing you when you talk so you can do mobile video chat. This is definitely the type of thing Apple would include given how much effort they’ve put into improving the video chat experience in Leopard.
4. Bluetooth Modem- This is a feature that they could easily add if they wanted to. They’d basically just have to turn it on. For the uninitiated, this means connecting your laptop wirelessly via Bluetooth to your iPhone and then using the iPhone’s internet connection to browse the web on your laptop computer—from anywhere. The current iPhone does not allow you to do this. Most phones with Bluetooth posses the ability to perform this function. In fact, I had a Verizon phone 3 years ago that let me do this. But wireless providers have wised up and have locked down this feature in most phones because they want you to have to pay for a wireless card and a separate monthly service for mobile data access on a laptop. Trying to control consumers’ freedom like this is always a losing battle, and I an see Apple convincing AT&T to just include this functionality in the iPhone data plan.

That wraps it up for my four predictions. Do you agree? What would you add to the list? I’m sure Janette can’t wait to receive her hand-me-down 1st Gen iPhone in June. ;-)