June 2007: Monthly Archive
NDAs will lift at the chimes of midnight, according to Business 2.0 who claims that we can expect a deluge of first iPhone reviews from Walt Mossbert (WSJ), David Pogue (NYT), and the usual suspects of A-list journalists who were issued review units by Apple.
Apple has updated its retail information website informing would-be customers that Apple retail stores will be closing on Friday between the hours of 2:00pm to 6:00pm, reopening shortly thereafter.
Another competing exec makes a vote for the iPhone: Brian Stech. I’m curious to see if he’s right — will many people look at the smartphone landscape, pass on the iPhone, and say “Yup, I’m getting a Q?”
This one mocks the New York Times and Verizon.
Analyst Michael Walkley of Piper Jaffray says Palm stands to lose most from iPhone’s grand entrance into the smartphone market. Walkley told Barons
“With the BlackBerry Curve ramping and iPhone launching June 29th at AT&T, we view Treo as the most impacted by these launches and anticipate even further declines in sell through trends.”
Palm has enough problems on its hand dealing with an obsolete mobile platform and products that are equally outdated. To make matters wose, the company made a failed bet on a brain-dead Linux portable that it hoped would spark significant sales growth, which isn’t going to happen.
Palm is running out of cash and ideas. Unless the company can pull a breakthrough product out of its hat soon, they won’t be in this market much longer.
Tech curmudgeon John C. Dvorak (inventor of the pot belly stove, Lava lamps, and incessant whining) says he’s had enough of all this iPhone hype. His prescription to the problem is for all of us to shut and move on with our lives, tend to our compost piles, pick flowers, that sort of thing.
I know at least two guys who are big fans of this unseen phone. It is all they talk about no matter what the topic of conversation. Both have glassy eyes and stare straight ahead. You talk football and the conversation switches to the iPhone. You talk baseball and the conversation switches to the iPhone. TV, movies, stock market, community theater—it all switches to the iPhone. “Yes, what about them Raiders? Many players will buy the iPhone, I bet. Yes. I think so. They will. They will have to, I think.”
There’s a good analytical stock article at Barrons where they discuss smartphone and carrier stocks. Biggest on everyone’s mind is the iPhone launch and how much AT&T stands to gain from it.
Apple has posted a new training video to the site. The trainer is the same as the previous video, and he instructs in the activation of a previously purchased iPhone — you can apparently purchase the iPhone and activate it (as well as select your plans) via iTunes, which hopefully means that the lines will move quickly on Friday.
Apple has also posted information on the rate plans. It looks like they are indeed the new version of the old AT&T Unity plans (see here), as they all include unlimited internet and 200 text messages.
Apple confirmed today that iPhone will require iTunes for activation by end users, bypassing the usual carrier method of accessing an 800 number. Read the rest of this entry »
