Flashback to the end of last week and the furore of Walt Mossberg’s apparent “60 days to a 3G iPhone” statement; back then, we assumed Walt either had a badly-observed NDA or a particularly prescient moment, but now the godfather of consumer tech reviews is claiming he meant nothing by his comment.  Silicon Alley Insider spoke with the bearded lovely, who is supposed to be “bemused” by the excitement he’s inadvertently caused:

“Walt notes that in the clip, he’s making an aside during a larger point about data networks, and says that in any event, he doesn’t know if it’s correct. So where’d it come from? It’s a ballpark estimate, he says, based on the same speculation the rest of us are seeing” Silicon Valley Insider

Strangely, the veteran reporter claims not to be interested in when the 3G version comes out, because it won’t affect his review of the device.  I’m not sure if I follow the logic.

“If I knew when this date was, why would I announce it in the middle of a sentence at the Finnish embassy, rather than report it in the Wall Street Journal?” Walt Mossberg

Perhaps, Walt, but if this was as the conspiracists among us suspect and an accidentally-broken NDA, that would be a pretty good reason not to announce it via your official mouthpiece – the favours of Jobs & co would be unlikely to flow so freely in future.

End of the day, the 3G iPhone is coming sooner rather than later; perhaps not in two months exactly, but it’ll undoubtedly be the big handset this year.