European iPhone next Tuesday?

If you read my open letter to Steve Jobs last week (no reply yet, though I'm still keeping hope alive), you know that I'm betting on a 3G version of the iPhone in Europe this year, possibly even by the end of the month. Well, old Steve Jobs may not have replied to my letter but it looks like he may have at least read it: Apple has scheduled a special event for members of the press in London on the 18th and the only hint the company is offering is "Mum is no longer the word" (click the link at the bottom to view the full-size invitation). Apple doesn't do a lot of special events in Europe, so we can guess with a fair amount of certainty that this is something Europe-related. You'll also recall that Jobs promised the iPhone by the end of the year on the European continent, so this announcement seems to fall in line with those Q4 estimates (and the even more specific November ones). Really, the only question that remains is whether or not it will be 3G. I, for one, believe that the iPhone price drop and subsequent $100 refund were meant to set the stage for a new high-end iPhone. If the technology is ready, now is the perfect time to launch the device as the new high-end Apple product for the holidays.

Looks like Will Strauss, president and principal analyst at Forward Concepts agrees with me. In a bulletin on the wireless market at large, he points out that, technologically speaking, a 3G iPhone by year's end could be feasible. "Perhaps it is coincidental, but at this February's 3GSM World Congress Interdigital announced its first WSTS baseband (to go with Infineon's GSM/GPRS/EDGE baseband) for sampling late this year…perhaps in a new iPhone model," Strauss wrote.

Now let me be absolutely clear: I don't necessarily expect iPhones to go on sale in Europe next week. It's quite possible that Steve will simply announce the availability for Europe, which could be a few months off (you'll recall that he performed a similar maneuver in this country). It's also possible that Steve will simply announce the availability for the U.K. with announcements in other countries to follow (that Paris keynote on the 25th is looking awfully convenient...). There's a number of different ways that this could play out though it really looks like all signs are pointing to some sort of European iPhone announcement next week. Will there be an iPhone in Europe? Surely. Will it have 3G? Maybe. Will we get the 3G model in the States as well? I sure hope so.

For more speculation fodder:
- view the full invite from Apple
- and check out Will Strauss' piece here