What Do We Know About the iPhone?

With exactly three weeks to go until the launch of the iPhone, I thought it would be about time to go over what we know about the iPhone and what we don’t.

We know the iPhone’s technical specifications, and these include a 3.5-inch “multi-touch” touchscreen with a 320 by 480 resolution. We know that it runs a full version of OS X, although it’s unknown what the full name of the operating system is called. We know that the current on-board storage capacity comes in 4GB and 8GB models. We know that the iPhone features Quad-band GSM that doesn’t include 3G standard technology and thus, no video calling. We know that the phone, which includes Wi-Fi, EDGE, and Bluetooth 2.0 technology, has a 2 megapixel camera on the back and has a mediocre talk-time of up to five hours.

We know that the price of the iPhone is still a topic of hot debate for millions of critics and analysts around the world who suggest that $499 and $599 prices, for the 4GB and 8GB models respectively, are far too high for many consumers to even consider purchasing.

We know that the launch date for the iPhone is now June 29th, exactly one month to the day from broadcasting its futuristic-like presence to the world.

We know that AT&T, formerly Cingular, holds exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in the U.S. and, at time of press, will require a 2-year subscription in order to get your hands on Apple’s highly anticipated mobile phone.

We know that the buzz surrounding the iPhone is probably one of the biggest ever for any mobile phone to date, considering the amount of blogs that currently circulate the internet and the amount of ridiculous and over-populated surveys that have been published. It’s also worth noting that for a product yet to be released, eBay is certainly profiting from the buzz orbiting around the device, with a recent auction topping $1,525 from one seriously deluded user who has no better chance of getting the iPhone than I do, and I live in England.

We know that Apple won’t be mocking Windows Mobile operating systems or any other top manufacturer in their latest advert outbreak, as the iPhone has three, soon to be four, adverts appearing on U.S. television sets showing off some rather “smart” features for a phone labeled as a mobile phone, and not a smart phone.

On the contrary, we know that the iPhone may well be supporting 3rd party applications, but these will be small programs originally designed to run on the Macintosh OS platform and will be converted thereafter, no doubt with authorization from Apple.

And lastly, we know that at present, there is still only one official accessory available for the iPhone, and this is the Bluetooth 2.0 headset which will no doubt cost half the price of the phone (I’m kidding but a part of me feels I’m probably right).

Anything else?

There’s a variety of rumours floating about the internet that may or may not be true as most are somewhat reasonable rumours, but the stuff written above this paragraph is pretty much the list of things we do know about the iPhone. So what about things we aren’t so sure about?

You and I could sit here all day long, writing comments and messages below, as to what we think could be featured on the iPhone but is yet to be announced. But to be fair I’ll stick to the stuff that has been mentioned on more than one occasion before.

To carry on where I left off, we don’t yet know if there will be any more official accessories available for the iPhone at time of launch. There’s a whole host of third-party accessories available, but how reliable can these be when not one of those third-party companies has even had their hands on the iPhone, let alone making sure their products work with the phone.

We don’t yet know when the rest of the world is likely to see the iPhone. We do know that Apple plans to release the iPhone in Europe and Asia by the end of 2007, with Australia (sorry Chris Howard) and the rest of the world seeing its eventual release by early 2008.

Because of this we still don’t yet know who the exclusive carriers on these continents will be, if any. It’s not often U.K. mobile phone carriers hold exclusive rights to a mobile phone, with manufacturers preferring to get more coverage of their device on a variety of different networks—and with a carrier’s infrastructure needing to be redesigned slightly in order to accommodate some of the features the iPhone has to offer, it’s unknown which of those network carriers are willing to bend over for the fruity technology giant.

To mix in with the “rest of world release dates” paragraph, it’s also unknown whether or not Apple will be first releasing a non-3G iPhone in Europe, and then later releasing a 3G enabled version, or just simply postponing the release date for the rest of the world until some time next year, offering a 3G handset from the get-go. For those of you out there who aren’t up to scratch with technology in Europe, only the lower end of the mobile phone market comes without 3G technology these days—I find it very hard to believe any European would spend that much on a device that doesn’t come with the ability to make video calls or access a semi-fast internet connection.

Finally, the battery on the iPhone. We don’t yet know whether or not it’ll be any good, with many reports suggesting the iPhone’s battery life is much weaker than Apple is stating, and others who suggest the phone can’t even last an hour with a little play—though it seems that AT&T does talk a lot of nonsense. We’re also unsure as to whether or not the battery is removable, allowing a second battery to be installed should the first die after some use.

But with the WWDC only days away now, we’ll only have to wait that little bit longer to find out if anything I’ve just written comes to light.