Next Generation iPhone Hardware and Software to be Expected by Early July

All you people who swear by the iPhone, there is some great news. The iPhone 3.0 operating system is going to be launched very soon across all Apple stores. The consumers will be able to download the OS by next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which is hosted by Apple. It is unlikely that Apple will be releasing the new iPhone before the OS is available for download. The software and next-gen handset will be available in the stores within the next four weeks.

Apple is yet to distribute in-app commerce, one of the most important components of the software, to developers for beta testing. The developers have admitted that many features of the iPhone 3.0 OS are almost fully-baked. This feature was first showcased in March at Apple’s iPhone 3.0 SDK event and is expected to create a new revenue stream for developers, who wish to sell additional items and features within their iPhone applications. These features range from song titles to weapons used in shooter games.

However, this feature is not working presently, according to an iPhone application developer from a major iPhone company. The iPhone app developer, on condition of anonymity, has said that they are building the catalog system for selling within your application. He also said that based on the fact that the final date has not been announced, the iPhone 3.0 will be available in the first half of July.

The new handset will probably be available along with the 3.0 operating system. There is also a chance that Apple may release iPhone 3.0 at WWDC without in-app commerce capability and add that feature later. Apple had previously announced the current iPhone 3G in June 2008 and officially released the iPhone 3G concurrently with the iPhone 2.0 software a month later.

Apple is still to make any official announcement about a hardware upgrade for the popular iPhone. However, according to leaked information like screenshots and photos suggests a hardware upgrade is imminent. Noted and tech columnist Walt Mossberg’s review hints that the hardware upgrade may be revealed at WWDC next week.

Apple has recently released iTunes 8.2, which includes compatibility with iPhone 3.0, indicating that the OS is close to completion.