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Mossberg: About that 3G iPhone in June...

The personal technology columnist for <i>The Wall Street Journal</i> is backing off comments he made last week declaring that a 3G iPhone would arrive within 60 days.

Tom Krazit Former Staff writer, CNET News
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Google, as the most prominent company on the Internet defends its search juggernaut while expanding into nearly anything it thinks possible. He has previously written about Apple, the traditional PC industry, and chip companies. E-mail Tom.
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Tom Krazit
2 min read

The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg would like you to know that he has no clue when the 3G iPhone is coming, and no, he can't get you one.

Walt Mossberg
Walt Mossberg, personal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal. AllThingsD

So the gadget guru told Silicon Alley Insider today, after comments he made at a conference last week surfaced over the weekend. During a talk about broadband penetration and online video, Mossberg casually mentioned of the iPhone, "it will be 3G in 60 days."

Those comments were widely interpreted to mean that the iPhone will be 3G in 60 days. Mossberg tends not to speculate as widely about upcoming Apple announcements as does, say, the entire technology world. So given his access to Apple's products and strategies, when he speaks about an upcoming product, people tend to listen.

But Mossberg wants the world to know that he doesn't actually know whether or not a 3G iPhone is coming in 60 days, a declaration which may or may not have been prompted by a stern phone call from Cupertino.

"If I knew when this date was, why would I announce it in the middle of a sentence at the Finnish embassy, rather than report it in The Wall Street Journal?" Mossberg said to SAI. Well, perhaps because you're under NDA, and you weren't supposed to say it, and it just slipped out? However, Daring Fireball's John Gruber notes that Mossberg's July 2007 prediction that the iPhone would soon have Flash hasn't exactly worked out, so he's not infallible.

A 3G iPhone will arrive this year. Unless it doesn't. In which case it will arrive next year. Maybe.