The 3G iPhone will be announced June 9, the likely date of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference, analysts said in research notes on Thursday.

A new black glossy case is also assumed to be the standard on the new phones.

In addition to a 3G iPhone release in early June, the 2.5G model could have a "minor casing change" and a price drop to between US$299 and $349, compared to the current $399, wrote Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research, in a research report.

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Up until last month I was pretty sure I was going to get the new 3G iPhone that hits the street later this year. That was until I found the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1: http://www.sonyericsson.com/x1/?lc=en&cc=us

I think it blows any mobile computing phone out of the water. Unless it costs over $600 this fall, I'll be getting one.

The 800x480 LCD screen is killer. That's a very high resolution for a pocket device. It's also a touch screen so you'll be able to touch the screen to navigate.

The slider design will be great for QWERTY users. I don't like the iPhone's touch screen QWERTY. I don't like my Motorola Q's QWERTY pad (kind of small). I like the QWERTY pad on the new Blackberrys (a bit larger). I think the Xperia keypad is going to be better becaues it is going to be large - kind of like the Sidekick's keypad.

It has 3G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

a 3.2 MP camera.

runs Windows Mobile 6.0.

run custom "panels" UI on top of WM6.0 for iPhone-ish navigation.

MicroSD memory card support.

The 3G iPhone will probably be up to 16GB this fall. Right now, MicroSD cards only hold up to 8GB of stuff although cards double and triple that size have been announced. Still, I don't intend to use this phone as a media player. I can get 8GB cards for under $100.

Who knows. Maybe if I can get a 16GB card for cheap I'll consider turning this device into a mobile stored media tool.

But screw stored media. How about streaming media? I'm wondering how Slingbox video will work on this phone. Live widescreen DirecTV, Comcast, or Windows Media Center at 800x480 could be killer.

Steve Jobs just introduced the world to what seems to be the next "it" gadget. First it was the 1984 Mac that changed computers. Then it was the iPod that changed audio. Now he's giving us the iPhone. The iPhone is actually a new widescreen iPod. More later.