My iPhone 3.1 release date guess…September 2nd

by Justin Horn on Aug 14th, 2009 @ 6:03 pm

DISCLAIMER No little birdies like Gruber of Daring Fireball, just my own unnecessary, yet thoughtful, speculation!

UPDATE Looks like my guess is going to be off. It’s now August 29 and still no beta 4 or GM…unless beta 3 turns out to be the GM that is???  Either way it’s looking like they may wait to announce it at the iPod event rumored for September 9th for release later that day or shortly thereafter.

UPDATE 2 Looks like I’m going to be WAAAAY off (as expected :) ). MMS is coming September 25th and I believe this to be the 3.1 release date as well…here’s why.

Apple first broke their 2 week beta release cycle with the Monday (vs Tuesday) release of iPhone 3.1 beta 3 on July 27th. It has now been over 2 weeks since then and no beta 4. This leads me to believe they are preparing a Gold Master release. If 3.1 GM arrives next Tuesday and Apple gives developers the same lead time to test as they did with 3.0 I think we can expect 3.1 as early as September 2nd.

What about AT&T and MMS you ask? As of beta 3 MMS functionality is still included, but not functioning thanks to AT&T. I don’t think Apple would want to hold up the release of 3.1 for AT&T, but they might since they are the biggest iPhone carrier in the world in terms of the number of iPhones. Apple could always remove the MMS support like they did with the 3.0 beta prior to the release, but something tells me they will want to release 3.1 with MMS support.

I’m still holding hope that AT&T delivers on their promise of MMS in late summer…which technically we are already in now. Summer in the US “traditional ends” on labor day (September 7th), although the more technical equinox isn’t until September 22nd. Either way I don’t think AT&T needs to wait to the last day to flip the switch, they just didn’t want to lock themselves or Apple into a particular release date. Another angle you may have overlooked is AT&T being  ready now and just waiting for Apple to release 3.1 to the public before flipping the switch. AT&T did flip on my 3.1 MMS for about 15 minutes a month ago so I know they are testing it and it’s working. This could explain the vague, late summer release date because Apple probably didn’t have a solid date for 3.1.

It’s still possible we could get a beta 4 next Tuesday the 18th and then a GM September 1st with a release  around September 9th, but until beta 4 hits the streets I’m sticking with my guess of 3.1 on September 2nd with functioning MMS from AT&T!

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View 3 Comments
iPhone 3.1, Speculation

Comments

    1.
  1. Justin F.
    August 30th, 2009 6:38 pm

    apple is not responsible for us not having mms.

    AT&T is to blame because they have to opt in mms for everyone.

    mms will come in the form of an update from AT&T .ipcc file not a firmware .ipsw file, so 3.1 may of may not come with mms i have a 3gs and i want it just as much as anyone but i dont want a firmware that was pushed out too early with no good beta testing.

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  3. [...] brings me to my second point which I brought up in my 3.1 release date guess post: What about AT&T and MMS you ask? As of beta 3 MMS functionality is still included, but not [...]

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  5. [...] only rock and roll, but we like it” special Apple event. I thought it would be released earlier than the 9th, but that was before I knew about the special event. I then turned my speculation to a release on [...]

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