AT&T Blocking Out June 15-July 12 for 3G iPhone Launch?

Last year, AT&T limited employee vacation requests between June 15-July 15 in anticipation of the original iPhone launch which took place on June 29th, 2007.

Today, Boy Genius Report publishes another AT&T memo that is again restricting vacation requests, this time between June 15th and July 12th 2008. The reason for the restriction is "to ensure adequate store staffing and to give everyone an equal opportunity to benefit from an exciting product launch." AT&T expects "heavier than normal customer traffic" in their stores due to an "exciting Summer Promotional Launch".

Of course, speculation points to Apple launching their new 3G iPhone during that time. The timeframe is consistent with a previous report that claimed that Apple was targeting "on or around June 27th" to approximately coincide with the one year anniversary of the iPhone launch. Meanwhile, the NYTimes believes that the European launch for the 3G iPhone will be "by the August summer holidays" according to a person close to the situation.

Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference takes place between June 9-13th in San Francisco, and could serve as the launching ground for the next generation iPhone.