3G iPhone with Full Slide-out QWERTY keyboard?

Let’s just start off by saying this is a rumor and that a 3G iPhone with slide-out QWERTY keyboard has yet to be confirmed. What we can tell you is that Times Magazine is a solid source for industry and world news and when they announce that their source says it is a highly possible, we listen. In a business article today, “Industry sources told Times Online that the device will have a ‘radically different’ appearance to the current device, which has a 4.5-inch screen and slick, aluminum backing.”

The first question is what defines ‘radically different’? In the world of Windows Mobile, Windows Mobile 6 to 6.1 is interpreted as a radical difference, yet anyone within the mobile industry would likely counter this claim. In the world of all things Apple, radically different speaks significant design and feature changes (unless we are talking about the recent MacBook Pro). Times Online’s industry insider stated that,

“Among the possibilities are flip version, which would enable the screen to be larger, and a sliding model with a regular Qwerty keyboard - as opposed to a touchscreen one.”

On a sidenote, Apple has placed the order for their 3G iPhones from its Asian Supplier for 200,000 units by the end of May. This number is expected to rise to 2 million units in June which will leave many of the current iPhone carriers stuck slashing existing iPhone pricing as we have already begin to see in Europe. With the one year anniversary of the iPhone coming in June along with the WWDC June 9 through June 13th, you can expect the news from Cupertino to continue rolling in and hopefully some legit 3G iPhone images surface.

[credit: Times Online]