In just 13 hours Apple is set to kick off a press conference at the largest Apple Store in the world, the Regent Street Apple Store.
The 28,000 square foot Apple Store has closed early on Monday evening and will not re-open to the public until 4.00PM on Tuesday afternoon, to allow the press conference to proceed in the theatre area of the store.
Mac Rumors and some photos on Flickr show that Apple has closed the store early this Monday evening and covered the windows in black drape cloths. With signs indicating to the public when the store will re-open.
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Now lets take a look at the rumour roundup.
It is looking ever likely that Apple will announce where the iPhone will be going in Europe. Some sources state that Apple will announce each country separately at different events, but expect a full round of carrier announcements tomorrow.
So where is the iPhone most likely to go?
- O2 in the UK, World of Apple predicted this back in July but many, many sources have all but confirmed it since then.
- Orange in France.
- T-Mobile in Germany.
- O2's Telefonica in Spain.
- Unconfirmed sources point towards TIM for Italy, although it is quite certain that we won't here about this for some time.
The biggest question prior to the iPhone launch in Europe is whether it will be EDGE or 3G?
Back in July World of Apple broke down all the UK networks to offer an overview of the technologies and their throughput in the UK. Since then it appears that O2 has made some changes. Sources from within O2 confirmed that month that O2 appears to have rolled out an EDGE network, perfect for the iPhone.
No doubt that Apple will come up against some stiff criticism by not releasing a 3G iPhone in a country where 3G is a "buzz word". Fortunately for Apple 3G is simply a buzz word and is simple not a viable solution at this very moment; not on O2 anyway.
Looking at the two maps we can see the huge differences between two common UK carriers. Hutchinson Three and O2. Three has a massive 3G (HSDPA) network where as O2 has very limited coverage outside of huge cities.
Looking at the situation as a whole, World of Apple expects Apple to announce which carriers the iPhone will be coming to in the UK, France and Germany and the specs of the European iPhone.
The specs will most likely be very similar to that of its American brother with EDGE being the main connectivity standard; a 16GB iPhone is quite likely to be in the pipeline.
The iPhone is unlikely to ship after tomorrows event, and recent rumours pointed towards a release date of November 12th.
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