"We believe that this will be a major driver for a lot of people to invest in a new smart phone it will also create a big buzz as many vendors plan to launch new smart phones at the same time" they added.

 The 3G version of Apple's iPhone will become available very soon after its June 9 unveiling by CEO/chairman Steve Jobs at the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco say Apple insiders. ChannelNews has also been told that Telstra already have 3G phones for testing.

Jobs said recently that Apple plans to release a software kit that allows developers to make applications for the iPhone and iPod touch.

The latest move shows that Apple is lifting restrictions on the iPhone after facing public scrutiny when hackers unlocked their iPhones to work on other cell carriers. In addition, Apple locked out 3rd party application use.

Jobs said that unlocking the iPhone for 3rd party development use may give users access to hundreds of new applications which are not currently available for the mobile gadget.

Apple's decision to open up the iPhone and touch to outside developers is a step many users and industry watchers have been hoping for and demanding since the device's release. So great was the desire for third-party applications that many iPhone users and more recently iPod touch users have taken it upon themselves to crack the gadgets and install everything from banking programs to games. iPhone games could be the next hot item, as music is hot for the iPod.

Investment bank Piper Jaffray, which surveyed Apple stores earlier this month found that the iPhone is not available at half of the Apple USA retail stores, that both the 8GB and 16GB models were unavailable from the online store, and that shortages have been reported recently in the UK, suggesting the older models are beig cleared out, ahead of a new model.