Nothing more exciting than that, except it’s another fairly hefty download for anyone keeping up-to-date with the latest software — 1.37GB in fact.

Link: iPhone Developer Page

Scott Craig also stated that the production volume is expected to be much higher than they had originally estimated. Production in May is expected to be more than three million products with an even higher production of eight million coming in the third quarter. The previous estimate was eight million for the entire production of iPhones in 2008.

Apple has a target for 2008 of ten millions iPhones for the year. This new and highly anticipated version could definitely help them to meet this goal. As of January, Apple has confirmed that it has sold four million iPhones. Adding the new 3G technology will be a nice and refreshing addition according to Michael Gartenberg, analyst with Jupiter Research. He also wonders what third-party developers may do with the additional bandwidth that they have not already covered with the AT&T Edge.

The faster bandwidth on the new iPhone 3G version is expected to give users a much more reliable access to websites that contain media rich properties. It may also allow developers to create applications that typically require high speed internet connections.

Microsoft Exchange support is also being looked into for the new iPhone. This will allow users to send Microsoft Office documents as attachments. This will help the iPhone to be more useful for business users who need the ability to exchange large file sizes. It will also make the iPhone more competitive in Europe and other countries where the 3G technology is more common than in the United States.

While you wait, take a look at the updated release notes for Xcode and for Interface Builder.

“We will only stop VOIP over cell networks, but not WiFi” Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple

A project to introduce a VoIP client onto the iPhone has already been underway for some time – see http://touchmods.net/ – but the SDK’s access to the WiFi stack and the full media capabilities of the handset should make the task much easier.  Personally, I’m hoping to see Skype on the iPhone.

Only problem (for those of us in the UK) is that the iPhone Developer Program will initially be available to a limited number of developers in the U.S. and will expand to other countries in the coming months.

Links:  iPhone Developer Program

Having developed a new touchscreen-friendly version of the Cocoa app framework that is present on OS X, called Cocoa Touch, the rest of the kernel is the same on both platforms. Developers will be able to access a debugger called Instruments, an interface builder that permits drag-and-drop structuring of the GUI and automated power management. There’s also a new iPhone simulator for OS X that lets you built applications, experiment with them running exactly as they would on the handset, and then transfer them directly to the iPhone itself.

Apple have permitted broad access to the iPhone’s functionality, including multitouch, the accelerometer, alerts, a people picker and image picker, as well as the camer. The H.264 video playback codec, OpenGL, 3D sound and hardware acceleration are all present.

Bad news is… The iPhone Developer Program will initially be available to a limited number of developers in the U.S. and will expand to other countries in the coming months.

At least we get to play with the SDK in the meantime.

Links: Apple iPhone Developer Program

It’s not all good news, though; rumor has it that the SDK – originally promised for February – has been further delayed, and that today will see a beta, not the full thing, released. Plus, there are worrying rumors coming from trusted sources that Apple might be maintaining a whole lot more control over the iPhone’s software and hardware than expected: current thinking is that paid software will need to be validated by the company, and distributed through iTunes (with Apple taking a cut of the profits). There are also doubts regarding how much access to things like the cellphone radio software will be allowed. Jailbreak was meant to be a temporary stop-gap, but it’s starting to look as though it’ll be here to stay!

Join PHONE Magazine at 6pm GMT (10am PST) for the full announcement, as it happens, at http://live.phonemag.com/!

Stating that Flash is too slow for the iPhone and Flash Lite too limited, Jobs disappointed legions of developers expecting Apple to embrace the now-ubiquitous standard for embedded web widgets, ads, games and other rich media presentations.

If Jobs is unhappy with Adobe, it’s understandable. After many years of close association with Apple—it rose on Jobs’ patronage of its Postscript language in the 1980s—it has recently taken that relationship for granted. It refused, for example, to update its Mac software for more than a year after Apple switched to Intel processors. (When I called for tech support on Rosetta emulation problems at the time, an Adobe staffer suggested I switch to a Windows environment if one was available and offered to transfer my license.)

When Jobs says Flash is “too slow,” it’s worth remembering that the iPhone is not a powerful computer. In that sense, a Formula 1 car’s chassis would be “too slow” for a lawnmower engine, too.

That said, Flash does has a reputation for slow performance compared to the other popular web-embeddable language, Java. Traditionally, the best flash presentations are those coded by experts with a keen awareness of its limits—Apple wisely fears iPhones being hammered by the Internet’s inexhaustible supply of badly-constructed Flash garbage. Moreover, Flash has traditionally performed worse on Macs, a fact that’s only heightened the impression Adobe now considers Apple to be an afterthought.

Recent versions, however, offered major performance improvements. Adobe could easily present a set of Flash production guidelines to optimize performance for the iPhone. It’s hard to ignore the fact that iPhone users are clamoring for Flash, and that without it, the iPhone will never offer the real-deal web. So what gives?

One possibility is that Flash, for all its flaws, is powerful and useful enough to end-run Apple’s development model for the iPhone, wherein amateurs code plain-jane web apps in HTML, P-languages and javascript, and only approved SDK licensors gain access to more powerful capabilities. Flash might not hook into to features like multitouch input, but it’s good enough to dent plans for a tightly-curated ecosystem of third-party development.

Or perhaps the remarks were merely the mercurial Jobs’ way of telegraphing an announcement of Flash for iPhone: a new intermediary version tailored to Cupertino’s high-end smartphone and Intel’s forthcoming MID devices.

All will be revealed, soon. At 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 6, Apple will host one of its Town Hall meetings at its Cupertino headquarters to discuss the state of the iPhone. Apple will likely divulge information about the iPhone SDK itself, the approval process for applications, and information on how the applications will be distributed.

One thing to consider. Apple didn’t say that the iPhone SDK would actually become available next week. It only said “iPhone software road map” so who kows when we will actually get our hands on it!

Erica Sadun over at TUAW says that it appears that the iPhone’s SDK key — which will probably be required by all “official” third-party apps — has been leaked. Two different sites currently have the key posted, but it’s all just for show until next month, when the SDK hits for real — and the code is undoubtedly changed.