Archive for the ‘iPhone’ Category
A quarter of Apple iPhones “unlocked”
January 29th, 2008
MatthewMore than a quarter of people who bought Apple Inc’s iPhone are using them on wireless networks other than AT&T’s, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.S., a "stunning" number that will pressure the company’s business model, an analyst said on Monday.
Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi said analysis of sales numbers from Apple and AT&T Inc revealed about 1.45 million phones were "missing in action" at the end of 2007.
About 480,000 of those were believed to be held by AT&T as inventory, leaving another 1 million phones, or 27 percent of the total, that Sacconaghi said were "unlocked" so they could work on non-AT&T networks.
Apple executives said last week the number of unlocked phones was "significant" but declined to give an estimate. Most analysts had estimated the portion of unlocked phones at under 20 percent.
Spokespersons for Apple and AT&T declined to comment.
The higher number is worrying for Apple because the company receives a cut of AT&T’s iPhone service fees, revenue that carries a high gross margin and has fueled optimism over its earnings potential.
For example, Sacconaghi said, if Apple hit its sales goal of 10 million iPhones by the end of fiscal 2008 but 30 percent of those don’t result in any carrier payments, its revenue and profit would be $500 million and 37 cents per share lower than expected.
If Apple cracks down on unlocked phones it could preserve its high margins but miss its sales target, whereas allowing them could erode profitability and make it tough to sign more carriers to similar revenue-sharing deals.
"Besides the financial implications, we believe the prevalence of unlocked iPhones presents a significant strategic dilemma to Apple," Sacconaghi wrote.
Apple shares closed unchanged on Monday at $130.01. Over the past month the stock has fallen 35 percent on concerns over consumer spending and what some analysts say are a lack of must-have products Apple has lined up this year.
iphone winning corporate fans
December 6th, 2007
adminI caught this article at msn.com Mike de la Cruz, a senior vice president with German software giant SAP AG , shows off the latest weapon of the corporate road warrior — his iPhone.A hit with consumers because it combines a phone, music player and Web browser, analysts say Apple Inc’s iPhone is gaining ground as a business tool as well, and could one day rival Research in Motion Ltd’s popular Blackberry line.
Although sought out by high-end consumers, Apple products have never been accepted widely by business, so major corporate adoption of the iPhone would be a breakthrough.
“It’s fun,” de la Cruz said in Boston at an industry conference earlier this week. “It’s so popular.”
Indeed, it is popular enough that software makers such as SAP, Salesforce.com Inc and scores of smaller developers are letting sales and finance teams work away from the office on their iPhones.
On Monday, SAP broke with precedent by saying it would introduce a version of its upcoming customer relationship management software for the iPhone before launching versions for mobile devices from RIM and Palm Inc .
The reason? SAP’s own salespeople were clamoring for it, saying the iPhone was easier to use, according to Bob Stutz, SAP senior vice president in charge of developing customer relationship management software.
“This isn’t necessarily iPhone deployment by way of the IT department, but it’s by people who really want to use this device and IT is responding in a really positive way,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with market research firm Jupiter Research.
But analysts said several things need to happen before the iPhone becomes a serious challenger, the most crucial of which is more support for corporate e-mail.
Blackberries became an indispensable part of the business world for their ability to forward e-mail from a corporate network straight to the phones.
The iPhone’s e-mail service can be configured to work with corporate systems, but it does not “push” the entire message to the device. Contacts and calendars also cannot be updated over the airwaves, but require the iPhone to be physically docked with a computer. Read More
iphone open for developers
October 18th, 2007
MatthewSAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - In an apparent about-face, Apple Inc. will allow third-party applications to work directly on the iPhone, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in a posting on the company’s Web site Wednesday.
Apple infuriated developers and some iPhone users when it issued a software update Sept. 27 that disabled unofficial programs installed on the handsets.
Until Wednesday, Apple had tried to control which applications consumers had on their iPhones.
Now, Jobs said the company intends to release a software development kit in February that will let coders create applications to work directly on the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The Touch is the new iPod portable player that resembles the iPhone but lacks the function of a cell phone.
“We are excited about creating a vibrant third-party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users,” Jobs said in the posting.
It is easy to find many unofficial programs for the iPhone on the Internet; users just had to take the risk of installing them, knowing that any damage to the iPhone stemming from unofficial programs was not covered by Apple’s warranty.
“I’m thrilled,” said Erica Sadun, a Denver computer programmer. “I hope it is exactly as they say, full third-party development.”
A Mac enthusiast and blogger — and a critic of Apple’s decision to restrict the iPhone to carrier AT&T Inc. in the United States — Sadun predicted Apple’s change of heart will ultimately help the company sell more iPods and iPhones.
An unknown number of users have “unlocked” their handsets to work on other carrier networks. The Sept. 27 software update reportedly disabled those phones.
It was not clear from Jobs’ statement whether the move was a response to the growing discontent around Apple’s iron grip over its portable gadgets.
Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined to say why Apple made the change, noting instead that Jobs said the process of opening the iPhone to third-party programs will take time.
Apple’s change does not affect the Cupertino-based company’s position on keeping the iPhone compatible only with AT&T’s network in the United States, Kerris said.
Two lawsuits were filed against Apple on Oct. 5, accusing the company of engaging in monopolistic behavior and unlawfully restricting consumer choice by preventing users from “unlocking” their iPhones.
The iPhone, which combines a cell phone with a multimedia and wireless Internet device, was released in late June amid a flurry of anticipation. More than 1 million iPhones have been sold.
Apple had allowed developers to build applications that run on the iPhone’s Safari Web browser but didn’t let programs work directly on the iPhone software platform, which could make them easier to create and make them work more smoothly.
Palm Inc. has always welcomed third-party developers to create applications for its handheld computers, or personal digital assistants. They have created hundreds of programs ranging from medical dictionaries to astrology predictions.
Even without Apple’s blessing, developers created workarounds to install applications onto the iPhone this summer. Some did it for sport, others in order to add capabilities to the device, such as to-do-lists or games.
Jobs said it will take until February to release the software kit because the company wants to give developers an open platform and also protect iPhone users from viruses, malware and privacy attacks.
“There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network,” he wrote.
Jobs noted that rival Nokia Corp. also does not allow third-party applications to be loaded onto some of its new phones unless the applications have a digital signature that can be traced to a known developer.
“While this makes such a phone less than ‘totally open,’ we believe it is a step in the right direction,” Jobs wrote of Nokia’s stance.
iPhone Rebate of $100
September 19th, 2007
MatthewIf you bought an iPhone at full price before Apple’s price cut of August 22nd, Apple wants to calm the frustration you may feel for having paid too much. You are entitled to a $100 credit but don’t expect cash. The $100 is an Apple store credit, applicable to future purchases. Here is how to claim your iPhone credit.
One Million iphones Sold
September 11th, 2007
MatthewApple Inc. sold its millionth iPhone over the weekend, days after it slashed the price by a third to spur sales.
The milestone was reached weeks earlier than expected and sent shares of Apple up $4.94, or 3.8 percent, to $136.71. The stock regained some of the ground it lost after the price cut spooked investors as a sign of weak demand and slimmer margins.
It took just 74 days for the combination cell phone-iPod to hit the 1 million mark, which Apple had said it would achieve by the end of September. By comparison, it took two years for the company to sell 1 million iPods, Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted in a statement.
Last week, Apple knocked $200 off the price of the 8-gigabyte iPhone, bringing its price to $399, and discontinued the 4-gigabyte version. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined to comment on whether the price cut helped spur sales.
The price cut may have helped a bit, but Apple clearly was on track already to exceed its own expectations, analysts say.
“I’d argue that sales have been fairly strong, and this alleviates concerns that sales were weak,” said Shaw Wu, analyst at American Technology Research.
The swift price cut — not surprising in the cell phone industry but rare behavior for Apple — angered hundreds of early buyers who bought the touch-screen gadget for top dollar. In response to all the negative reaction, Jobs issued an apology the next day and offered customers $100 credits.
Apple had said it was lowering the iPhone price to attract more customers, in time for the holiday season.
The move, which many analysts had predicted — but not quite so quickly — adds pressure to Apple’s rivals, but it also was possibly part of a broader strategy for its entire product lineup.
On the same day Apple slashed the iPhone price to $399, it unveiled a new iPod, also for $399. The iPod Touch is basically the same as the iPhone but without the cell phone capability.
Apple cut the price of the hybrid iPod-cell phone to prevent an onslaught of consumers from abandoning it in favor of the Touch, Tim Bajarin, analyst with Creative Strategies, speculated. “They solved the cannibalization problem with this,” he said.
Another iphone lawsuit
September 1st, 2007
MatthewAppleInsider reports today that a third iPhone class-action lawsuit has been filed against Apple (AAPL). This one claims that the company failed to disclose that the device was locked to AT&T’s wireless network and that using it outside the U.S. could result in substantial roaming charges.
The complainant is a New York state resident named Herbert H. Kliegerman who, according to AppleInsider, tells this story:
Approximately two weeks after purchasing his iPhone, Kliegerman traveled to Mexico for a week where he continued to use his iPhone to check emails and surf the web. He did so, according to the suit, after reading a statement on Apple’s iPhone website stating that “[y]ou can browse the Internet and send emails as often as you like without being charged extra.”
Upon returning from Mexico, Kliegerman claims to have received a bill from AT&T with $2,000 in international data roaming charges. Being a frequently traveler, he turned to the wireless carrier in order to obtain an unlock code for his iPhone, but was informed that such unlock codes would not be provided to him, according to the suit. (link)
Kleierman’s nine-page complaint, filed Monday in a New York State Supreme Court, notes that AT&T has routinely provided unlock codes for their phones in the past when requested by a customer. He is represtented by attorneys at Randall S. Newman, P.C.
The two previous class-action suits, filed in Illinois and California, allege that Apple and A&T failed to adequately inform early customers of the costs involved in maintaining a working battery for the life of the phone. Neither has come to trial.
iPhone Carrier Hack
August 27th, 2007
MatthewNEW YORK (AP) - Armed with a soldering iron and a large supply of energy drinks, a slight, curly haired teenager has developed a way to make the iPhone, arguably the gadget of the year, available to a much wider audience.
George Hotz of Glen Rock, N.J., spent his last summer before college figuring out how to "unlock" the iPhone, freeing it from being restricted to a single carrier, AT&T Inc.
The procedure, which the 17-year-old posted on his blog Thursday, raises the possibility of a cottage industry springing up to buy iPhones, unlocking them and then selling them to people who don’t want AT&T service or can’t get it, particularly overseas.
The phone, which combines an innovative touch-screen interface with the media-playing abilities of the iPod, is currently sold only in the U.S.
An AP reporter was able to verify that an iPhone Hotz brought to the AP’s headquarters on Friday was unlocked. Hotz placed the reporter’s T-Mobile SIM card, a small chip that identifies a phone to the network, in the iPhone. It then connected to T-Mobile’s network and placed calls using the reporter’s account.
T-Mobile is the only major U.S. carrier apart from AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone’s cellular technology, but smaller carriers also use the technology, known as GSM. In Europe and Asia, GSM is the dominant network technology.
The hack is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software, and missteps may result in the iPhone becoming useless, so few people will be able to follow the instructions.
"But that’s the simplest I could make them," Hotz said.
Technology blog Engadget on Friday reported successfully unlocking an iPhone using a different method that required no tinkering with the hardware. The software was supplied by an anonymous group of hackers that apparently plans to charge for it.
AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel and Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock said their companies had no comment on Hotz’ exploit. Hotz said the companies had not been in touch with him.
iPod sales disappoints
July 24th, 2007
MatthewThat’s what is happening to Apple (AAPL,) today, after AT&T (T,) reported that only 146,000 iPhones were activated in the second quarter.
Shares of Apple were down $3.75, or 2.6%, to $139.95 at midday on the news, which one analyst called a "reality check" for Apple. Shares had been down as much as $7.15 earlier this morning.
Apple watchers should get more clarity on iPhone action once the company reports its fiscal third-quarter results tomorrow after the market close. But for now, the AT&T report is giving some investors a case of the jitters.
The iPhone was introduced June 29, leaving only two days in the second quarter, and in Apple’s fiscal third quarter, for the iPhone to take off. But analysts had forecast between 200,000 and 500,000 activations in those two days.
Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves said the activation number was low. "It doesn’t mean it’s a failure, but it’s making investors stop and re-evaluate some of the numbers," he said today.
"The reaction is pretty appropriate. Expectations certainly were for a lot more than 150,000 units. Even though it’s just two-day sales, it’s a reality check," Hargreaves added.
There is still some margin for error due to Web sales and resales over the Internet, Hargreaves said, but the 146,000 is a good proxy for determining total sales of the iPhone.
Another analyst agreed, although he cautioned that the shares, and iPhone sales, had room to recover.
"For the data that came out, Apple’s stock drop is probably the right reaction," Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said. "But if you look at where the stock can go over the next year, there is still a significant move up."
Demand dwindling?
Other observers think iPhone sales aren’t as hot as everyone had hoped.
"Based on our store checks, we believe that demand for the iPhone has seen a significant decline in the past 10 days," CIBC World Markets analyst Ittai Kidron wrote in a note to clients today. "We have noticed decent inventories at stores, and thin demand at best.
"Among the stores we visited, most visitors were not looking at the device, and only a very small subset bought it," Kidron wrote.
But Munster cautioned that iPhone sales seemed to be following a pattern set by the introduction of the iPod. "We saw this with the iPod a few years ago," he said. "It takes a few years to take off."
Apple’s earnings could be sweet
Although official numbers will likely come in Apple’s earnings report, an estimated 500,000 iPhones were sold over the first weekend it hit shelves. At $499 to $599 a pop, that’s $249.5 million to $299.5 million, some pretty tasty fruit.
The iPhone will be a massive financial impact on Apple in 2009, Munster said. "You just have to manage the reality of these things," he explained.
Wall Street is looking for earnings of 72 cents per share on revenue of $5.29 billion. In the fiscal third quarter of 2006, Apple earned 54 cents per share on $4.37 billion in sales.
AT&T’s earnings shine
Elsewhere in today’s earnings report, Dow component AT&T said net income jumped 61% to $2.9 billion, or 47 cents per share, from $1.81 billion, or 46 cents per share, in the second quarter of 2006.
AT&T benefited from the purchase of BellSouth last year, which gave Ma Bell full control of the unit formerly called Cingular Wireless. AT&T Wireless has the exclusive rights to service Apple’s iPhone.
Excluding certain items, AT&T earned 70 cents per share, 3 cents ahead of analysts’ estimates. Shares of AT&T were down 10 cents to $39.93 in midday trading.
Mobile VOIP
July 22nd, 2007
MatthewA few years ago, cellular companies did us all a huge favor by charging the same for a call across the country as for a call across the street. It kicked the floor out from under long-distance rates long before VoIP savings arrived.
Now we cell phone users can show our gratitude by using a new breed of VoIP websites to sidestep one of the cellcos’ few moneymakers: international calling charges. Services like Cordia, Globe Dialer, JaJah, Pingo and Rebtel let us hop onto the internet and overseas via our cell phones–typically for 2 to 25 cents a minute (plus any plan minutes used). Rates vary by country, but providers claim to save you up to 90 percent over the cellcos’ international plans.
Note: These are mobile calls, not PC connections over wired services like Skype. And unlike Skype, the new VoIP services aren’t waiting for the FCC to force cellcos to share the networks they’ve spent bazillions to build. They get in and out of the cellular walled gardens using combinations of toll-free land-line numbers, software downloads, text signals, callbacks and call forwarding.
Rebtel, for example, assigns you and your contacts different local numbers to reroute cell calls over the internet. Cordia has your overseas buddies use a toll-free number, then forwards the calls to your cell. JaJah and Globe Dialer require software downloads, while Pingo uses local or toll-free access numbers with its prepaid calling cards. It’s always a multistep process with varying amounts of hassle. But you don’t need to be near a wired broadband connection, and how does 12 cents a minute to your buddies in Brunei sound? Pick the service whose methods you can tolerate and that serves the countries where your foreign contacts live.
Text Voicemail
July 22nd, 2007
MatthewYour mobile phone voice mail is no longer restricted to living–and expiring–on your phone system. New services let you listen to or read your voice mail on your PC. CallWave Mobile Visual Voicemail is a free service that sends your cell phone voice mails to your e-mail and notifies you with a detailed SMS. You can then listen to, save or delete at will. CallWave is compatible with most carriers and is also available as a widget. Setup is fast and painless, and audio quality is as clear as with regular voice mail.
Two companies taking a slightly different approach are SpinVox and SimulScribe. Already well-established in the United Kingdom, SpinVox’s Real Visual Voicemail service has recently come to the U.S. It uses speech-to-text technology to send your voice mails to you as e-mails or text messages. SimulScribe delivers transcriptions of voice mails to your mobile phone, PDA or e-mail account. The company’s basic plan includes 40 messages and costs $9.95 per month. The text conversion systems will appeal to users who need to blaze through a high volume of voice mails without listening to each message completely.