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Inside sources have been quoted as stating that the 3g iPhone is going to be officially announced on June 9th, and will be available immediately after the announcement and not at year end as previously thought.

Looking at the map showing where the iPhone will be available I can’t help but be reminded of the old map showing the British Empire at it’s peak, here they are side by side, iPhone map top (from Wired Gadget Lab Blog), and the British Empire below:

With the 3g functionality, unfathomably left out of the original, available in the 2.0 model Apple look set to continue their assault on the mobile phone world, again staking a claim for one of the most sought after and anticipated gadgets of the year.

On a slightly more cynical note although I say the omission of 3g in the original iPohne was unfathomable I can’t help feel this was merely a marketing ploy by Apple. Leaving out 3g capability from the original would seem to indicate that although Apple were probably confident of the iPhones impressive entry to this new market leaving out this capability reduced the overall cost of production, and therefore the risk of the unit. Of course there is also the added bonus that the new 2.0 model has very definite and quantifiable feature improvements over its predecessor and thus the folks who got one of the original iPhones, as last years ’must have’ gadget, will be left with no choice but to upgrade to the new model.