Well according to AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson that is exactly what we should expect. Now I?m not sure if he accidentally or purposefully spilled the beans when he told reporters attending a meeting in California that a 3G enabled iPhone would be available next year.

Either way its good news for consumers who were holding out for the updated version, but bad news for Apple as this announcement will undoubtedly hurt iPhone sales for the rest of the holiday shopping season. I would love to know what Steve Jobs is thinking right now. Unfortunately there is no word on how much the new model will cost or how much memory it will support but I'm guessing around $599 for at least a 16GB or maybe even 30GB storage capacity (that would be nice).

Will this announcement push the 3G iPhone's release date to the near future (possibly early Q1) and will Apple be forced into having a fire sale to get rid of current inventories? We'll have to wait and see.

Does a non 3G 8GB iPhone for $99 sound good to anyone?