A 3G version of Apple’s iPhone will come out next year, according to AT&T (NYSE: T) CEO Randall Stephenson, in a wide-ranging interview with Forbes at the Churchill Club dinner in Santa Clara, California last night. Tech Trader Daily has the whole interview here.

Stephenson is feeling pretty smug these days about the iPhone, though he would not disclose the revenue share between AT&T and Apple. He’s obviously feeling comfortable enough to slam the rest of the handset industry, saying the way they had gone at the business “has been so poorly done”. While Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has created a “software-intensive handset”, he called it the “best device we had” and that it was going to change the standard of usability and quality in the industry. Apple, however, has been struggling to get a 3G version out, hampered by its short battery life. He also jumped on the possibility that the iPhone may be the crack in the door that gives operators an out from having to subsidize handsets. “Interestingly enough,” he said as if anyone had forgotten, “We are in the business to make money…The iPhone is the first shot across the bow. Make a device you can sell for a profit, and you can have the deal.”

Funnily enough, Stephenson remained unimpressed by rival Verizon’s move to open up its network to any device or application calling it “overblown”. Stephenson said, “Go back in time, the wireline network became open, the broadband network, the same thing.” But for Stephenson it all comes back to the iPhone, and with that device in his stable he doesn’t care what others do. “We are one of the most open networks in the world,” he said. You want clever little applications for your phone? “All the handsets we sell are Java equipped,” said Stephenson, presumably referring to the fact that given Java’s popularity, the application is out there. You want any device and you want it without a contract? “Fine,” said Stephenson, “just pay retail price for the handset.”

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