A couple of things today indicate that the path might be opening up for the anticipated release of a 3G iPhone later this year.
First off, as our esteemed colleague Richard Wray reports, the decision by O2 and Carphone Warehouse to slash prices and dump their stock of first generation iPhones seems to have paid off: they've sold out.
Last month it slashed the price of the basic 8GB version of the iPhone - which can store roughly 2,000 songs - by £100 to £169 and the phone has since sold out. Carphone Warehouse has also sold out of the larger 16GB version of the phone, which costs £329, although O2 still has some stock left.
Secondly, Ofcom today said that O2 has finally reached the minimum threshold for 3G coverage - 80% of the country. The network had been facing a potential swipe if it didn't reach that figure by the end of next month.
It doesn't indicate anything concrete about a new iPhone, of course, but given the company's pretty lamentable 3G rollout in the past, it's more than likely that the Apple deal (which costs them a fair wedge) will have been somewhere in their thinking.
We know Apple considers the European market with scant regard in comparison to its home territory, so perhaps this sequence of events means nothing. But Europe's demand for 3G is higher than the States - so there's probably a sizeable number of people on this side of the Atlantic waiting for iPhone mark 2.
The real thing to wonder, mind you, is what level of suck the mobile companies think 3G currently rates. Just look at it: eight years after spending £4bn on the chance to punt at 3G, O2 has hardly even got itself in a position to take a kick.
That's either an incredibly long-term bet that has a level of mastery I don't understand, or it's a bet that should be ashamed of itself.
