Steve Jobs will probably be unveiling the second generation iPhone in just a few hours today. The changes are being kept top secret, in typical Apple fashion but we do know that the new phone will address internet connectivity issues by updating to a faster 3G mobile internet network. This may open the window to mobile audio streaming, a market that has been steadily growing in the last few years. Pandora announced in May that it began streaming audio on Sprint networks. For $3 a month users will have access to Pandora’s streaming audio catalog. Sirius is already streaming to Sprint customers while AT&T customers have had MobiRadio for years. Other companies like Melodeo have products like Nutsie that let you download iTunes to your Blackberry and stream audio directly from your iTunes. Phones compatible with Melodeo’s Mobilcast have access to 150,000 podcasts covering music and news and streamed directly to your mobile phone

Streaming audio can only become more attractive not only as mobile data speeds improve but also as mobile phones themselves become more useful devices through improvements in mobile phone technology by adding more audio and video file formats, storage capacity and stereo capacity. The current iPhone has paved the way for mobile phones in some of these aspects but mobile phone technology still has a ways to go before audio streaming, especially podcasts which require high network speeds because of the large file sizes, become more user friendly.

Let’s see what Steve Jobs will unveil this week with his new iPhone. Will we continue to be impressed? The new 3G mobile internet technology which the second generation iPhones will be equipped with does sound promising. Also, Apple opening up the new iPhone to developers could also deliver very promising new developments in mobile phone technology that reach even further than mobile audio streaming.

Anxiously waiting,

Melina