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Second-gen iPhone Confirmed?
gadgetopia writes "ITWire is reporting that the Taiwanese manufacturer Quanta has seemingly confirmed a second generation of the Apple iPhone. Another report referenced by the article suggests the new model could come with a different case design. 'Quanta and Apple already enjoy a strong relationship, with Quanta building both MacBooks and iPods for Apple to sell worldwide, although Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is reported to be building the first batch of iPhones due to arrive in the US market by the end of June. Reports suggest Quanta has received an order for 5 million iPhones which are to be shipped in September ... Presumably this could entail a 3G or even 3.5G HSDPA iPhone for European markets due to get the iPhone by the end of the year, or even the addition of more memory - imagine a 16Gb or even 32Gb iPhone, unlikely though those will be this year mainly due to the high cost of 16 or 32Gb of flash memory.'"
Rather than a very expensive, albeit, nice phone can we please put out the OS we were origionally expecting this quarter..
Along with the speculation in the article, I have to simply speculate that the contract is for phones to be sold in another market, such as Europe. Or it could be a minor revision boost to coincide with new iPod revisions or some other flash-based announcement that Apple may make. From a business perspective, I have to think it is the former. I'm still interested to see the first revision of the iPhone on store shelves before I start worrying about a second revision.
So, Apple's going to release a product which was officially announced with tremendous fanfare 5 months before release, and now supposedly they're going to release the second rev 3 months after the release? And the 2nd rev order has already been placed with the manufacturer, even though the first rev won't be released for another month still? And it has a different case design (boy, that would piss off the accessories manufacturers)?
There are so many things wrong with this "story" I don't know where to begin. I think one of two things is happening here:
1) As someone above mentioned, this is a widescreen iPod (which has been rumored in the past to be released in September), not a new iPhone. Remember, both revisions of the Nano were announced in September as well. Or more likely,
2) There is absolutely nothing to this rumor at all.
"I can only imagine the number of idiots trying to press "buttons" on their flat touch screen while driving."
It will suck for the first couple months, and a few innocents will have to die to ensure the safety of the species, but I think we've figured out a way to rid society of yuppies and soccer moms who think they are so damn important that they need to speak on the phone while driving a 5000lb weapon.
Of course, their vehicles are twice as heavy as those around them because they feel they are entitled to the safety afforded to their status, and that if it means they are twice as likely to kill an innocent, they've earned this.
About two years ago, I was answering a phone call, and missed a redlight and nearly creamed someone. They pulled over to the side completely freaked out. I pulled back, even though it wasn't an accident and appologized saying I had absolutely no excuse and told them if they felt the need to call the police because of my wreckless driving, so be it, I'd wait. She said that she would have seen me if she hadn't been on the phone and said she was never going to drive while on the phone again either.
Guess what? Two years later, and still won't answer the phone while driving. Pull the fuck over jackass. You'll be five minutes late. And yes, I was a fucking jackass too (and now an overly moralistic one to boot).
I hope they make it so inconvenient to use the phone while driving that yuppies just naturally kill themselves off. No voice dialing for me...its the act of using these things that make them dangerous. Taking your eye off the road only makes it slightly more.
A phone is much better. No one knows what os you run but everyone will see my iPhone.
"Second-gen iPhone Confirmed?"
How can you use 'confirmed' with a question mark? It's either confirmed or it's a rumour. The word 'confirmed' is not intended to be ambiguous. In this case, it is definitely not confirmed.
Yeah, I'm sure Apple trusted some manager at a Cingular retail outlet with that information. He was talking out of his ass.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
And as an alternative there is OpenMoko which, of course, runs Linux and unlike the iPhone can run user developed software, so you can write the next killer app for it instead of being led by the short hairs by Apple.
How can you design a 2nd generation model when there is zero consumer feedback to base it on?! Apple has always partially relied on consumers' criticism to initiate a design iteration, and justly so. Especially for a market that Apple is newly entering - does the phone capture good signal in different environments, is the price point good, do batteries blow up, is there something blatantly simple that they missed - these only come out after widespread usage (not intra-company circulation). It could be that the first design had flaws that Apple already noticed but are going ahead with it in order to keep the June date - that doesn't undermine the logic of waiting for feedback of customers as well before placing an order with Quanta.
This is most definitely not a II gen iPhone. I would go with this being either a European/3G version or a widescreen iPod, assuming that news is true and not another fake email.
My sig has been answered.
Except the difference between yours and GP's post is that his test is a more reliable way of seeing how these will sell, not how well the poeple that get one enjoy it.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!