Sitting down for a chin-wag with Apple’s VP of iPod Product Marketing, Greg Joswiak, seems to have sent RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky into a spin – the professional predictor quotes him as saying that an iPhone update is expected shortly, while:

“management expressed excitement at plans to increase iPhone value over time via new software features, citing ‘the sky is the limit’ for iPhone software” Mike Abramsky, RBC Capital Markets

He’s also changed his mind on Apple’s next plans for the iPhone line; previously Abramsky had expected higher resolution handsets with varying features which would hit multiple price-points, but now he seems more inclined to view memory capacity as the differentiating feature.

“This affirms our view of a lower priced ($349-399) iPhone [in the fourth calendar quarter of 2007 or first calendar quarter of 2008], with a higher priced version at higher capacity, to expand its market opportunity”

More distressingly, the idea of a 3G iPhone in time for the European launch at the end of the year looks to be further from fruitful.  Abramsky seems convinced that Apple will continue to rely on WiFi as their nod to high-speed access, while the wretched GSM and EDGE combo loiters around providing dreary cellular connectivity.

“Despite 3G’s greater prevalence in Europe, 3G iPhones may not arrive until Spring 2008, given battery life and form factor challenges”

Right now, he believes negotiations outside of the US are centred on putting together the equivalent of AT&T’s unlimited data package, a scheme of which sort is still rare in Europe.  Giving in to his playful, coquettish side, Mike also suggested that the coming update would bring new widgets, p2p functionality such as chat, picture messaging and social networking, location-based services (although of course the handset will still lack GPS), MMS messaging, home networking and Mac OS X Leopard integration.  There’s little indication of how much of that was prompted by discussion with Joswiak and how much is Abramsky’s own personal list for Santa.

[via AppleInsider]