Apple on Monday extended invitations to an unveiling of the next-generation operating system for its smash hit smartphone, the iPhone.
Apple said it would offer a “sneak peek” of the latest iPhone operating system tomorrow at an invitation-only event at company headquarters in Cupertino, California.
“Get a sneak peek into the future of iPhone OS,” the invitation said.
It did not provide any further details.
Apple released the iPhone in 2007. It sold 8.7 million iPhones in the last quarter of its financial year, up 100 percent from a year ago.
The unveiling of the latest software for the iPhone comes on the heels of Apple’s launch on Saturday of its eagerly anticipated iPad tablet computer.
Apple unveiled the iPhone 3.0 operating system in March last year.
Meanwhile, Microsoft plans to unveil a new line of cellphones next week with social-networking capabilities aimed at young consumers, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Monday.
A Microsoft spokesman confirmed to Agence France-Presse that the US software giant planned to hold an event in San Francisco on Monday but declined to say what it would be about.
The WSJ, however, quoted “people familiar with the matter” as saying that Microsoft plans to unveil new mobile phones manufactured by Japan’s Sharp Corp.
It said Microsoft had designed the software, online services and hardware for the new mobile phones as part of a development project code-named “Pink.”
It said the phones will be offered through a partnership with Verizon Wireless, the telephone carrier owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone.
The phones will initially only be available in the US, the WSJ said, but will eventually be available internationally.
The WSJ said the phones would run software that resembles a new Microsoft mobile phone operating system due out later this year called Windows Phone 7.
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