No iPhone for the UK? Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

So with the release of Apple's long awaited iPhone in the US scheduled for the 29th of June, people are starting to wonder about the European launch, which as far as we know is still supposed to be October this year. Just anecdotally I can tell you that there is a lot of demand over here for the handset. Although with the smart phone market much more mature in the UK than the States the low resolution (for Europe) camera, and the lack of 3G support are causing comment in the UK. As is the matter of which operator they're going to go with?

If Apple are really going to ship the iPhone as an EDGE handset, then their only choice is Orange who have the only remaining functioning EDGE network in Europe, everyone else having moved to 3G. As a long term Orange user this would make me very happy, because I'd probably be able to pick up the phone for free as part of my contract renewal which co-incidentally happens around October. The down side is that Orange are notorious for taking handsets, and loading them down with lots of operator specific junk. I'm unhappy enough when this happens to a perfectly good Nokia, I'd be outraged if they did it to the iPhone. As, I'm sure, would Apple...

All of which means that the old rumours of an Apple MVNO have to be dusted off and carefully considered, and you know what? In the UK, unlike the US, it makes a lot of sense. The MVNO is an established concept over here, with several very successful ones including Tesco of all people, and it would give Apple the end-to-end control they always wants with their products.

With the established operators against them, it might also be the only way they can release the phone here in the UK. Unless they want to sell a full-price, unsubsidised, unlocked version through their own stores. But if they do that, it will lack crucial features like visual voice mail, and I'm not convinced that the mature market in the Uk will tolerate a crippled version of the iPhone. Do you?

The iPhone, not what we expected? Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

So what are we supposed to make of Gizmodo's latest rumour?

Gizmodo Knows: iPhone Will Be Announced On Monday. I guarantee it. It isn't what I expected at all. And I've already said too much... - Brian Lam, Gizmodo

A joke? Real insider information? It doesn't look like anyone else knows what's going on, and the timing seems really off the wall. I guess we'll find out on Monday, although if there really is pre-release hardware circulating amongst the great and the good no doubt we should see some leaked pictures before then, surely?

Update: So Matt Hickey over at CrunchGear has apparently been hearing mutterings that hints that Gizmodo might not have entirely lost its mind. This is starting to look interesting...

Update: More MVNO rumours from CrunchGear.

Update: The equivalent to a confused shrug by The Register. If Gizmodo really has seen hardware, then nobody else has got their hands on it yet.

Update: I think Om Malik might have it right, but if this is a wind up then Brian Lam is in real trouble. Considering the hysteria surrounding the iPhone I'm not sure people will see the funny side.

Update: So Crunch Gear is now also saying there will be an iPhone on Monday, an iPhone, just not the iPhone from Apple. Whatever that means? They link to a story from that ever reliable source Apple Insider which apparently should give us hints to what's going on, which is mostly discussing the trademarking issues surrounding the "iPhone" name. Erm, most odd...

Update: We get an iPhone all right, a Linksys iPhone. Oh well...

More Apple rumours... Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

At the time of posting over 3,000 people had voted in the TUAW iPhone poll, and over half of them think there is going to be an iPhone released at Macworld in January. I'm not sure what that means, how can people claim to have an opinion on this? Outside the team developing the iPhone, if such a thing actually exists, there are probably half a dozen people who really know what's going on, even this late in the day it's doubtful that Apple's PR department has heard more than rumours.

It also appears that yet another round of MVNO rumours seem to be going around, we last talked seriously about this right back in January, and in an unrelated thread there are rumours of an ultra-thin Macbook Pro [1, 2] floating around. Presumably this ultra-thin notebook would be a replacement for the old 12-inch Powerbook, and fill a big hole in Apple's current notebook line up. This is something I want desperately, as my own Powerbook can't last forever. However I'm not holding out a lot of hope on that one, it just seems to good to be true. Especially with other rumours hinting at the demise of the 15-inch Macbook Pro circulating at the same time.

The really interesting thing that came up during the last Special Event in September was the iTV. It took everyone by surprise, nobody was expecting it and it hadn't been predicted. The things that people were predicting, the iPhone and the "real" video iPod yet again failed to appear. Like many I'm getting bored by these continued predictions, until it gets a lot closer to Macworld, anyone that claims they have a "inside source" isn't telling the whole truth.

Update: Apple Matters on the nine day keynote...