News.blog: Two new iPhones for 2008?

We had a pretty good idea that a new iPhone would be coming in 2008, but what will it look like?

A report from Goldman Sachs on Wednesday, spotted by AppleInsider, doesn't exactly shed much more light on that subject, but says that Apple is gearing up to deliver two new iPhones next year. The first one sounds like it will be just a storage upgrade with more flash memory in the first half of the year, while the second half of the year should bring the long-awaited 3G iPhone, according to the report.

Both Apple CEO Steve Jobs and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson have indicated that 2008 is the year for the 3G iPhone, so that's not much of a surprise. An iPhone that could connect to 3G data networks would allow for faster download speeds, but Apple has held off on introducing such a model to this point because of concerns over battery life, according to Jobs.

Goldman also thinks that Apple is getting ready to introduce a newer version of Apple TV, which had a disappointing first year. But the report doesn't make much sense; it says Apple is going to attach an LCD screen to Apple TV. Maybe I'm missing something very obvious, but I just can't fathom why Apple would want to do that. Apple TV's problems have nothing to do with the lack of a display.

Anyway, the report also says that Goldman can't find as much evidence of the long-rumoured ultraportable laptop that's supposedly on tap for Macworld, saying that "possible design issues" might have delayed that model. Just another day in the Apple rumour business.