I am not normally one to speculate on Apple products, as part of the fun is in the surprise of each release, but the recent announcement of the 16gb iPhone and the 32gb iPod Touch makes me wonder about the next release of the iPhone

Firstly, why limit the 32gb to the iPod touch and not put it in the flagship iPhone model? Maybe this is to do with supply constraints or maybe moving the iPhone from 8gb to 32gb in one go would potentially rile too many people who had recently bought 8gb iPhones iPhone adopters" target="_blank">(remember the fuss when they scrapped the 4gb iPhone)

By introducing the 16gb iPhone, Apple can create the price differential as well as creating a different product base in the iPhone range.

Which brings us to the second point, when the iPhone was released a lot of the negative press in the UK and Europe seemed to centre around the omission of 3G which is widely rolled out in Europe but by all accounts is limited in the USA.

The argument was that EDGE was fast enough and more prevalent (in the USA) and you could use WI-FI when required. In truth, playing around with friends iPhones to check the web/email etc. the EDGE connection operated by O2 in the UK is pretty snappy (some of the credit for this can probably be taken by rendering engine in Safari/Mail as well)

I can’t say I’ve watched anyone download YouTube content via EDGE so that may cause hiccups but as it goes the lack of 3G doesn’t seem to be causing any great headaches.

The only thing people I know with iPhones universally moan about, is the camera. I know mega-pixels can count for little if the compression is set to high and the lense is crap, but the lack of features and flash cripples what is otherwise a reasonable camera. If you take pictures in bright Californian sunshine!

Therefore I am guessing (hoping - ‘cos I intend to be in the market for an iPhone about July/August time) that come by the end of summer we will be able to choose between a 16 and 32gb 3G enabled iPhone with a 5MP camera and flash, with some clever iPhoto/PhotoBooth type software.

Remember June 29th is the 1st anniversary in the USA of its launch so it should be due an update a bit more encompassing than a HD bump or software update.

In which case I can start pestering people for birthday gift vouchers…….