Infineon to Provide 3G for iPhone, Mid-Year Release?

Infineon the current supplier of the iPhone baseband will reportedly provide Apple with the necessary chip to give the iPhone 3G capabilities.

The report comes from global equity research analyst Nicolas Gaudois at UBS, the analyst said that his checks with the German chip-maker indicated that they will provide a “new systems solution” for a new HSDPA iPhone which will also include a baseband controller, power management unit and RF module.

“We believe this is one of the HSDPA solutions design wins management referred to as being due to ramp in [the second quarter of 2008],” he wrote. “Consistent with these checks, our Apple analyst Ben Reitzes believes that 3G iPhones will be released by mid-year.”

The analyst concluded by noting that in anticipation of the move to 3G, Infineon is reducing production of the current EDGE baseband in order to “clean” inventories ahead of a 3G model.