Report Points to June Launch for New iPhone

A little while back Macrumors stumbled upon some interesting code that hinted toward a new iPhone. Now a report in Ars Technica suggests that as was the case with 2007 and 2008, June 2009 will come with an iPhone launch to boot.

A piece of code in the iPhone’s current firmware referenced “iPhone 2,1”  and with the original iPhone refered to as “iPhone 1,1” and the 3G version was called “iPhone 1,2” everyone assumed that this was a completely new iPhone.

Ars Technica reports that when United Arab Emirates mobile carrier Etisalat announced this week that it will begin carrying the iPhone 3G on February 15, a report on the contract mentions the launch of a new iPhone in June.

While it’s unclear where the information actually came from, a June launch isn’t such a whacko idea. As we said before, past launches would suggest a June unveil and a July launch date. There’s also the fact that Steve Jobs says he’ll be back on the job by June. Just in time for the launch of the next iPhone, Mr. Jobs?

While the next generation iPhone is supposed to be a more substantial revision than the jump from 2G to 3G (the addition of 3G and GPS), and instead focus on the guts of the device, we figure Apple wouldn’t launch something unless it was visually quite different from previous models in order to bring in the less tech-savvy masses who wouldn’t be as tuned in to hardware updates.