As expected, Walmart announced they will be selling iPhones with a big fat $2 discount.  No surprises there.  Best Buy actually has better prices on iPhones.

The big news comes to us from 9to5mac.com/toys where the fabled $99 iPhone comes to us in refurbished 8Gb form direct from AT&T with free shipping:

With activation of new voice and data plans, AT&T Wireless has several refurbished models of the iPhone 3G on sale, with prices starting at $99. With free shipping via 2-day delivery, each is $50 off our mention from earlier this week and the lowest total price we’ve seen. Sales tax is added where applicable. It features compatibility with AT&T’s 3G network, built-in GPS navigation with Google Maps, enhanced enterprise support, a 3.5" touch screen, at least 5 hours of talk time, and more. Note that a $36 activation fee applies. The deals:

• Apple iPhone 3G 8GB in Black for $99
• Apple iPhone 3G 16GB in Black for $199
• Apple iPhone 3G 16GB in White for $199

If you don’t have one already, you might want to hop on over and get one before the stocks dry up.

There is probably some witty thing to say about the fact that Chinese manufacturers are already cloning an as yet (and probably never) revealed product.  No wonder Apple is so secretive about its products.

via Gizmodo

Merry Christmas to those who asked Santa for more Apple tablet type products in 2009.  These aren’t our words…they are Apple’s:

The Mac OS X software team is looking for an exceptionally talented software engineering manager to lead Apple’s Core OS Network Authentication and Security team. This team is responsible for the development and support of key networking infrastructure for Mac OS X. Specific areas of responsibility include VPN, 802.1X, and related Internet protocols, network security protocols and applications, and network configuration management. The software developed by the networking team runs on a broad spectrum of platforms, including Macs and Windows, and from servers down to a growing number of embedded devices including iPhone.

 

It frankly doesn’t get any more clear than that. (originally from September)

The Archos 5 and 7 have TI OMAP ARM processors running at 600Mhz.  Notice how fast they browse websites (with Flash)?  Oh, and 10 hours of video playback? Imagine these devices with further optimization and some additional speed, iPhone Mobile OS X, App Store, 720P HD resolution and half as thick due to using flash instead of a hard drive and you might have something special. 

 Not enough?  How about a WWAN connection?  Just sayin’…

iFart has hit the top paid app spot and has recieved over 13,000 purchases on Dec. 22nd. according to MR.  That means $9200 went directly into developer Joel Comm’s pocket. 

Joel’s climb up the "ranks"

12/14 – 841 units – #76 overall
12/15 – 1510 units – #39 overall
12/16 – 1797 units – #22 overall
12/17 – 2836 units – #15 overall
12/18 – 3086 units – #10 overall
12/19 – 3117 units – #9 overall
12/20 – 5497 units, – #4 overall
12/21 – 9760 units  -#? overall
12/22 – 13274 units, #1 overall

Interesting.  These facts bring in a wealth of reactions.  Good for independent app developers.  Green with envy for a dumb app.  Also, the number two app Sim City costs ten times as much.  That means it has approached $100,000/day in income.  Oh, and Apple is taking in a few bucks as well.  The App store is certainly the technology breakthrough of the year.   Thoughts?

ifart  Mobile (iTunes Link)

 

The iPhone awhile back became the most popular camera phone on Flickr, beating out even rivals with 5 Megapixel cameras.   It is now far and away the leader. (sure you can combine all of the Nokia phones and have a much closer race – but stick with us here)

Today CNet shows that it is quickly becoming one of the most popular cameras overall.  Quite a big acomplishment for the 2 megapixel, flashless, zoomless device. Next month, the iPhone should only be behind the Canon Rebel XTi – which will only be heading south in favor of Canon’s new, upgraded XS, XSi lines.

There is something to be said for having a great interface and an app environment that let’s you easily integrate your content with other services.  It also doesn’t hurt to have only one product instead of 40 like Nokia or in the camera category, Canon.

XSKN appears to be Apple’s designated iPhone Nano PR agency at this point, releasing Photos of the, until now only rumored, device (we still don’t buy it btw – imagine trying to type on that sucker).  Perhaps Apple’s lawyers are too busy body-slamming Psystar.

More shots below…

Gizmodo got another shot:

Macrumors posted a mockup last night:

Changewave continues the glut of iPhone data with this month’s installment from their user surveys.  Check the pretty tables below:

Don’t forget about the 27% of other category which is down from 29% in Sept. and June.

 

 

Uh oh, this doesn’t bode well for future quarter of iPhone sales

But alas, where it really counts – in customer satisfaction, the iPhone really destroys the Storm.  Which really isn’t news at all.

From Changewave:

Bottom Line

The smart phone market is now dominated by two companies – Apple and Research In Motion. According to our survey results, the Apple iPhone trails the RIM BlackBerry in terms of current market share – but the iPhone has experienced strong growth since its inception and explosive growth since the release of the 3G model in July 2008.

Going forward, RIM is showing a surge in momentum due to its slew of new product launches – and appears capable of giving Apple a strong challenge in 2009. But the real test in a cutthroat market is how satisfied consumers actually are with their new models.

In this survey, we found the BlackBerry Storm’s satisfaction rating to be middle-of-the-road – lagging behind the average rating for other RIM BlackBerry models. It’s not that the BlackBerry Storm is a bad phone. It’s just that the initial launch has glitches which have resulted in a mediocre satisfaction rating.

Competitive pressures may have caused the Storm to be launched before it was quite ready for primetime. But if RIM can rapidly fix its initial glitches and bugs, the survey shows that this new offering – along with RIM’s other recently released models – will provide accelerated momentum for RIM in 2009.

Third party functionality keeps adding more and more features to the iPhone.  HP has just introduced (Store Link) a new app that lets you print your pictures to an HP printer.

From HP:

HP iPrint Photo is a free downloadable software application that allows you to quickly and easily print 4" x 6" photos. Images stored on your iPhone or iPod touch can print on most HP networked ink jet printers connected to a local WiFi network. Wireless printing is a fun extension of the iPhone / iPod touch’s easy photo capture and viewing experience.

It will be interesting to see if Apple releases some universal printing standards or if Printer manufacturers will have to each produce their iPhone application.

 

http://www.hp.com/united-states/consumer/digital_photography/free/software/iprint.swf var so = new SWFObject(“iprint.swf”, “iprint”, “560”, “280”, “8”, “#ffffff”); so.addParam(“quality”, “high”); so.addParam(“wmode”, “transparent”); so.addVariable(“startMovie”, “6”); so.write(“flashcontent”);

Download instructions

The HP iPrint Photo application is available as a free download from Apple’s "App Store" which is easily accessible from your iPhone, iPod touch or iTunes on your computer. You can download HP iPrint Photo in just a few moments directly to your iPhone or iPod touch or to your computer, then manually sync to your handheld device.

In order to install HP iPrint Photo to your device via a computer, Apple iTunes application must be installed and in use, and your handheld device firmware must be version 2.0 or higher. To access the latest version of iTunes, visit the download site at:

www.apple.com/itunes/download

.

How to use HP iPrint Photo

Once you have loaded HP iPrint Photo to your handheld device-you are ready to go. It’s only a few simple clicks to print your photos from anywhere within the range of your wireless network.

1) Click on the HP iPrint icon

2) Choose the photo album where your picture is stored

3) Select the photo

4) Select the "Print" option in the lower portion of the screen

You should now be printing a 4" x 6" or 10 x 15 cm photo from your HP Inkjet printer*. Note: If this is the first time printing to a specific printer, select the desired printer from the list of available printers. You will not be required to complete this step again in order to print additional photos on the same printer.

Supported Network Environments:

HP iPrint Photo leverages Apple’s Bonjour technology to automatically identify HP wireless printers or other supported HP printers available on your network. HP iPrint supports industry standard WiFi environments (including Apple Airport, Linksys, D-Link, Netgear…).

HP iPrint Photo Support:

Get

support for HP iPrint Photo

.

*HP iPrint Photo defaults to print borderless 4" x 6" (American standard) and 10 x 15 cm (European standard) photos. If your printer has a separate photo tray, it will be automatically selected. Otherwise the default will be the printer’s main paper tray.

Printable version

Kids out there, go ask your parents before hitting the read link on this one.  iBoob is still getting denied by the apple store even though it doesn’t use real models and doesn’t show anyone nude.

NPR just released their new iPhone app (built by Pass Time Software).  Now you can listen to Car Talk and All things considered and On the Media on the go.   OK, yes NPR had a perfectly good WebApp that has most of the same functionality but Apps are the new black..  Also, for your laggards on 2.1 or below, you won’t be able to install this until you get around to updating.

There should be an app update within a week, which will make the station finder and podcasts available according to the developer

Get it here (iTunes link)

On a related note, you can hear NPR’s Macworld predictions here.  Screenshots below.

 

 

Smaller, cheaper(?), Nanoier, it looks like we’ll have some more room in the iPhone family for a little one in 2009.  The iPhone nano skin just appeared on XSKN’s website.  As MR points out they were also a bit premature in their release of 3G iPhone cases and 2G iPod Touch cases.  For this we have the following video…

Also, FYI, the nano screen is 320×240 pixels, you you *Could* have the current iPhone screen resolution in something the size of a fatty nano.  The touch keyboard would be more like a shuffle keyboard at that level though.

There is something poetic about using the iPhone’s coolest jailbroken app to document the SIM unlocking of the iPhone 3G.  Dev team, we and our European offices <3 thee :D

http://qik.com/swfs/qikPlayer4.swf

http://qik.com/swfs/qikPlayer4.swf

We have to admit we love this idea.

 

Got to love Google’s sense of humor

From 9to5mac.com/toys comes the news that AT&T is now selling refurbished iPhones for $50 off of retail.  That beats the deep $2 discount that Walmart will save you.  Subscribe to get all of the latest Apple shopping news.

 

 

Admob has a very interesting data sheet out today with lots of interesting iPhone and iPod touch data.  They measure data in terms of web requests (much like NetApplications)…some of the highlights below:

• Apple is now the top smartphone by Internet page requests with 10% of the total market, up 3%
• There is a small but significant percentage of iPhone requests over Tmobile’s US network
• Ad clicks in Asia and specifically Indonesia are literally off the charts
• Although it is in 5th place globally with a quicky growing 7.8% of handset data requests, the iPhone model has the market lead with 6.3% (they count 1.5% of traffic from iPod Touch devices).
• Apple has about 25% of the smartphone handset market in the UK, but is gaining on market leader Nokia who has almost 2/3rds of the market
• Perhaps most interestingly, iPhones are using Wifi much more than other Wifi enabled devices by a wide margin.   The only other device on the radar is the PSP (and Nokia’s N95-6 series in Europe).  This has to be good news for AT&T who bear the burden of the iPhone’s 3G capabilities.  It is also a testament to the iPhones ease of switching between WWAN and Wifi networks.

Apple today was outted as the mysterious investor in  Imagination Technologies, now owning a 3.6% share.  This long term strategic move will solidify Apple’s ability to create future iPhones, iPod Touches and possible Netbooks based on ARM’s future products.   The aquisition of PA Semi earlier this year and bringing in IBM’s Mark Papermaster are also seen as moves to bring this all together.  Although they haven’t yet been outted, Apple is also believed to be an ARM licensee.

As I’ve stated before, I believe that Apple will, in 2009, deliver a new ARM Cortex Touch-based platform with a much bigger screen and physical keyboard option that will serve as a general computing platform for the masses.  This will incluse the Mobile multi-touch Safari, Apps store, Mail.app, iCal Maps, GPS, iWork and iLife Mobile. 

This will also be the opening battle in the Intel vs. ARM architecture war.  More below on this from ABI research:

Ultra-Mobile Device Market Becoming Processor Battleground

NEW YORK – December 18, 2008 –
The processor vendors supplying chips for UMDs (ultra-mobile devices) are playing a pivotal role in how this market is shaping up. X86-based processors are well entrenched in the PC world and ARM-based processors are well entrenched in the handset world.
 
Since UMDs sit right between the PCs and handsets in terms of power, size, and function, x86-based and ARM-based processors will compete in the UMD space and are already fighting it out, starting with marketing wars.
 
ABI Research principal analyst Philip Solis says, “x86-based processor vendors are in a very good position in the near term as far as product wins and market share are concerned. However, as mobile internet devices (MIDs) start to surpass netbooks in shipment volumes, ARM-based solutions will be in a better position.”
 
Processors based on the x86 architecture (available from vendors such as Via Technologies and Intel) hold a key advantage in that they are compatible with all x86-based applications – the same PC applications most people use today.
 
Since they evolved in a more portable and mobile device world, ARM-based processors have always excelled at low power consumption. For devices such as MIDs that may be used very heavily all day or may need to last for days without recharging, ARM-based processors hold the advantage.
 
The x86 vendors will have to make significant advancements in terms of power consumption while executing instructions in order to put up a better fight across the whole UMD space, while ARM is working with software vendors to ensure that as they develop processor architectures and instruction sets, the latest versions of software are compatible.
                                                              
Solis concludes: “The future shape of this market will be determined by engineering success on the x86 side versus business success on the ARM side.”
 
A study from ABI Research, “Mobile Internet Devices” analyzes the drivers and barriers for UMDs across the ecosystem. It examines the issues that will shape this market, including the contest between x86-based processors and ARM-based processors, distribution and subsidization, device definitions, and the effect of cellular voice-enabled MIDs. It includes detailed, segmented market forecasts through 2013.
 
This report forms part of ABI Research’s MIDs and Mobile CE Research Service.
 
ABI Research is a leading market research firm focused on the impact of emerging technologies on global consumer and business markets. Utilizing a unique blend of market intelligence, primary research, and expert assessment from its worldwide team of industry analysts, ABI Research assists hundreds of clients each year with their strategic growth initiatives. For information, visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.

Would AT&T’s iPhone service be any better if the US had a similar policy as France’s new ruling indicates?  It isn’t just France either.  Apple is forced to sell an open iPhone in many other countries.  Maybe Verizon wouldn’t charge $15 to send 200 SMS’s?  Maybe Tmobile would offer a 1 year deal?  Or Sprint would charge less for mobile broadband (WiMAX?)   We can only wonder.

 

 

Wow.  Bombshell!  Also note that last time Schiller covered a Keynote for Jobs, Steve Jobs was undergoing cancer surgery.  We hope all is well in Cupertino.

Apple Announces Its Last Year at Macworld (BOOM!!!!)

CUPERTINO, California—December 16, 2008—Apple® today announced that this year is the last year the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote for this year’s Macworld Conference & Expo, and it will be Apple’s last keynote at the show. The keynote address will be held at Moscone West on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. Macworld will be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Center January 5-9, 2009.

Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.

Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.

(via Macenstein)