According to the boss of Apple’s exclusive mobile phone partner in the UK and Ireland O2, mentioned today that the Apple 3G iPhone will be unveiled “in the coming weeks.” There is high speculation that the chiefs at Apple will reveal their 3G version of the Apple iPhone during the Worldwide Developers’ Conference, which is being held on the 9th of June in San Francisco.

So far Apple has not actually released any details on their next-gen iPhone, but everyone expects it to include 3G connectivity as this would allow iPhone users to download data like high quality videos at much faster speeds, and could even possibly allow support of mobile TV on the Apple iPhone.

The chairman and chief executive of Telefonica Europe, Matthew Key, speaking after the announcement of O2’s quarterly results said the company that O2 will be making an announcement concerning the Apple iPhone in the coming weeks. When asked the question, exactly when will the 3G iPhone become available, Key replied: “That’s more of a question for Apple … but over the coming weeks we will do a joint announcement with Apple as Telefónica Group.”

The deal between Apple and O2 to sell the Apple iPhone in the UK and Ireland is a “multi-year” deal, thus O2 will be the Californian groups partner for the next generation Apple iPhone, and currently O2 has already sold out of the 8GB version of the current Apple iPhone.

However, Matthew Key refused to say just how many Apple iPhone had actually been sold, but did add it has added 206,000 new contract customers within the first 3 months of 2008, which is a huge figure, of which a significant number are believed to have purchased the iPhone. Key also refuted any suggestion that the current deal O2 signed with Apple returns too much revenue back to the mobile manufacturer. Key pointed out that revenue in O2 UK actually grew nearly 13% in the first quarter, and stated: “doesn’t look like a bad deal to me.”

During the interview Key was also asked about his interest in purchasing the UK operations of internet provider Tiscali, something that has already sparked interest from rival companies such as Vodafone. Key answered that the company has looked at the possibility however, “frankly the combination of the technology they are on, the quality of the customer base and the price they want (means) we are not interested.”

Source — guardian