Apple and AT&T to launch iPhone 3G a lot sooner than we think?
Well, here’s the story. Let’s start this off by saying that we think this might be a little bit too early, but you never know with Apple. Anyways, we told y’all last year before the first iPhone launched that AT&T employees were not allowed to take vacations from June 15th to July 15th. AT&T reps just got an internal email stating that they would be unable to take vacation time from 4/15-5/15 "due to projected increased traffic and an exciting new promotion/product launch." We’re only 10 days away from the end of that time frame and with no Apple event in the next week or so, it seems highly unlikely that a new iPhone will launch. Then again, the only other time AT&T has done this was last year before the first iPhone launched. What do y’all think? Think some Apple event invites will start getting sent out in the next couple days? Or is this way too soon?
UPDATE: Sorry, guys. We’re lacking some serious sleep over here. The dates are in fact June 15th to July 12th. Our apologies. The full internal email, after the jump!
AT&T Mobility
Vacation Schedules
To: All Employees
Last year at this time we asked that all vacations be scheduled before June 15 or after July 15, to ensure adequate store staffing and to give everyone an equal opportunity to benefit from an exciting product launch. Thanks to your hard work, we experienced excellent sales during the mid-summer period. This year, the numbers you produced in 2007 will be hard to beat; but as a business, we must rise to the challenge, and make every effort to exceed last year’s sales results. Your management team is counting on you!
We’ll meet the challenge “head-on” by providing an exciting Summer Promotional Launch to enable your sales to soar. We again anticipate heavier than normal customer traffic in our stores, providing an excellent earning opportunity for every front line retail sales consultant (RSC) in company owned retail stores.
To ensure proper staffing during this period, Sales personnel planning to take approved time off are encouraged to schedule their vacations before June 15 or after July 12 to participate in the heavy selling period
Previously approved vacation will be allowed where voluntary rescheduling is not feasible
No additional vacation will be approved for 6/15 – 7/12
If customer traffic is manageable, there may be an opportunity to approve vacation toward the end of the period. Managers will communicate updates as they become available.
On May 6, 2008 @ 8:32 pm, ML Said:
A friend of mine that works in an operator in south america had tested the 3G iphone. they say it will launch in the first days of June. It will have GPS and 3G of course. this guy was not very familiar with the 2G iphone so he didnt check for other features/updates.
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On May 6, 2008 @ 9:22 pm, chantastic Said:
We did not receive an internal email that we cant take vacation from 4/15-05/15! we did however receive one today stating we cant take vacation from 6/15-7/15!!!
IPHONE???
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On May 6, 2008 @ 10:24 pm, wirelssss guy Said:
i’m an employee of at&t and i am 100% sure that the email we received will go with 3g iphone release. Training from june 15 up to release on the year anniversary. i’ll put some money on it if i get any takers : )
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On May 7, 2008 @ 8:26 am, Rob Said:
I can confirm memo says 6/15 – 7/12….that and it says NOTHING about an iphone launch…..although my feeling is that is what it will be.
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On May 7, 2008 @ 9:24 am, me Said:
no email in my outlook concerning blackout dates. that does not mean we wont get presents today
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On May 7, 2008 @ 10:43 am, BardVern Said:
I feel this all is related to the release of the iPhone 2.0 Software update and the opening of the iPhone App store.
People have been desperately waiting for native apps for the Phone and once they are available I guarantee ATT’s network will be flooded.
The iPhone 2.0 update is scheduled to be released during June, the same time frame mentioned. I doubt Apple will have two major iPhone changes planned within the same time frame.
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On May 7, 2008 @ 10:55 am, ChrisNYC Said:
America Movil (AMX) just said they sealed the Mexico/LatAm 3G iPhone contract. Developing…
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On May 7, 2008 @ 2:22 pm, Kate Said:
I work for at&t and i never received taht email.
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On May 7, 2008 @ 2:31 pm, caos Said:
Will 3G work with Canadian carriers?
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On May 7, 2008 @ 3:12 pm, Scottienyrd Said:
ALL look at the UPDATE it is in fact june 15-July 12. ALSO if vacation WAS already approved, then that employee is still going on vacation. read an entire memo 2wice before speaking.
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On May 7, 2008 @ 7:26 pm, Porsche Said:
Does anyone think it makes sense to have software version 2 released on hardware version 2. I wouldnt be suprised if you early adopters get the shaft and are asked to buy updated devices. Steve charges $20.00 for a few apps on a iPod. Why wouldnt he charge hundreads for enterprise syncro on an iPhone?
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On May 8, 2008 @ 12:24 am, Just a guess Said:
A friend bought an iPhone about a week ago and I helped with the activation. Once activated it would not work and said it had no sim card. I called Apple and they had me pull out the sim card (which was actually there). It had 3g on it. They told me to have her take it back to AT&T and have them switch out the sim card. Once I did this and re - activated it it worked. Do you think they accidentally put in a 3g sim before the release at Apple. I’m confused but thought you guys would have an idea about what this was all about. I had an unfortunate mishap with my phone about 14 days ago and will have to purchase another. If I can hold out for the new one I would love to. Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks.
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On May 8, 2008 @ 2:32 am, Damian Vines Said:
I’ll get excited when Verizon moves to 3G capability or Apple makes a CDMA iPhone, the latter of which I guess would be a step backwards. Then again, Verizon would cripple the thing until it was useless anyway.
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On May 8, 2008 @ 9:12 am, Bad Ash Said:
All of the sim cards say 3g on them.
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On May 8, 2008 @ 9:42 pm, AT&T worker Said:
I’m an at&t rep and believe me, we arent getting training on the new iphone yet. In fact i had training on May 5th for the original Iphone (yep a year later). Apple is so secretive with the realease of their new devices that we didnt know until closing the night before that we were getting a 16 gig. I will say that from what we’ve been told, there will be a different setup of the original iphone when the new model hits the sales floor. Its looking like we will be offering a 2 year contract price on the original that could be as low as 199.99 for the 8 and 299.99 for the 16. I’m sure most of you have already heard all of this but i guess we will wait and see what happens! as for the iphone with a 3g sim, all of our new sims are and have been 3g cards for over a year. All the iphones including the 4 gig have came with the 3g cards.
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On May 9, 2008 @ 8:08 pm, shane Said:
Why would apple put out the 3G iPhone before software 2.0?
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On May 15, 2008 @ 3:02 am, drrrnnn Said:
how come i totally didn’t get this memo?
am i no longer a valued employee?ha
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On May 15, 2008 @ 7:41 pm, michael Said:
just to let you all guys know .. i asked one of the at&t employees if there will be a new 3g iphone or not …and he said yes there will be a 3g iphone but he said it will be thicker which i don’t think so…
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On May 15, 2008 @ 9:50 pm, AT&T EMPLOYEE Said:
I’m here to confirm this is true about the vacations. And we have slowed on recieving new iphones to replentish the ones we sold. And we are speculating the same. The new iphone will be launching in july!!!!!!!!!! So get ready!!!!!!!sdk machine!!!!!!!!3G!!!!!!!!!!GPS!!!!!!!!BUILT IN GAMES AND APPLICATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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