This morning an invitation to another Apple press conference has plopped into my inbox - but this time it looks like it's the one we've been waiting for.
Tuesday, we are led to believe, is iPhone day (the invite, somewhat bizarrely, says "Mum's no longer the word").
Some of the details have been widely circulated already - the operator in the UK is expected to be O2, for example. But we're still not entirely sure of some crucial factors such as price. Given the £199 cost of the iPod touch and last week's iPhone US price cut, it will be interesting to see where Apple and O2 pitch the handset for the UK and Europe (especially considering that the iPhone has now, officially, unlocked).
Our sources say the launch was expected to be this week - hence the arrival of news from Vodafone about its own rival service - but that instead of a launch by O2 at the former Millennium Dome (now the O2, of course), Apple decided to take control of the launch itself.
More details as we uncover them...
Update: A source has mailed me to say that the operator announcements (already not exactly secret) aren't likely to happen on Tuesday. "There may well be an Apple thing next Tuesday but that is to announce its Euro stuff... The UK operator is slated to be announced on the 24th". That might indicate that we're just going to get some sort of launch date confirmed.
