June 2008: Monthly Archive

Counting down to its July 11 multi-national debut, Japan’s Softbank has announced (in Japanese, ‘natch) their official iPhone 3G prices and plans. The hardware itself will cost ¥23,040 for 8GB and ¥34,560 for 16GB, a roughly 7% premium over Steve Jobs’ US$199 maximum, amortized over the length of the pre-requisite 2 year contract.

Plans will be color coded, primarily in white, but rumor has it also in orange and blue. Based on the linked-to details, this color system is impenetrable enough I can’t believe North American carriers haven’t rushed to adopt it!

Any Japanese readers who can shed further light on how these charges will shake out on a data-hungry iPhone-class device, please let us know in the comments!

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Nokia dominates the planet when it comes not only to cellphones, but also to Smartphones. But the upcoming iPhone Risk-style onslaught (not to mention the pending release of Android, though delayed) looks to have them a little worried. So they’re finally getting their Symbian ducks in a row: enough of trying to work together with other companies like Sony and Motorola, they’ve purchased the entire OS shootin’ match and are unifying the platform. Simple explanation: Symbian is the base OS, then there are different interfaces on top of that: S60 and UIQ. We’re not fond of either, but between the two of them S60 seems to be the one with more legs (and more support, it’s Nokia’s interface of choice).

Update: we’ve got more to say here, so make the jump for the analysis.

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AT&T customer? iPhone user? Eligible for an upgrade to the brand-spanking new iPhone 3G?

Yeah, we have no idea either, but in an unexpected and appreciated step towards being slightly less confusing than usual, AT&T has gone and created some website goodness to help everyone find out in three easy steps:

(We’ll leave out Step 4, hold your breath and pray the stars are aligned just so… for now).

If this works for you, please let us know!

(If not, let us know how you’re doing saving up for the rumored $600 unsubsidized, non-upgrade price…)

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Newsflash: There’s porn on the internet. The iPhone brings you just the internet. Now, with tortoise-like speed, the rocket scientists over at Time seem to have put 1 and 1 together and come up with ZOMGiPR0nZ!!11 Mobile erotica. The pornet in your pocket. Seems people are even — gasp! — Googletubing for it!

Now, I don’t want to get off on a rant here, because, frankly, I’m not a sociologist, and I can’t tell you if North American faux-puritanism, divided by ultra-conservatives perpetually getting their hands caught in the proverbial cookie jar, multiplied by institutionalized madonna/whore complexes, all equals a continental multiple-personality disorder so confusing it makes the average episode of Lost seem like a linear 1970s serial drama.

How so? Read on while I rant on… after the break.

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After my Samsung Instinct trash talk, it only seemed fair to actually grab one of the suckers and give it a whirl. Above see a video comparing the two devices — with a focus on the Instinct’s UI since we all know (and love) the iPhone’s UI so well. It’s not everything — I haven’t set up the Instinct with email, music, or videos quite yet. Here’s the thing, though: the Instinct doesn’t suck.

Compared to the original iPhone 2G, the Instinct actually holds up quite well. It’s not as elegant as the iPhone, the touchscreen isn’t as responsive (but it does give you a little haptics-vibrate on every tap), they keyboard isn’t as good (but does offer a landscape version throughout), the apps are a mix of quality iPhone knocks off and java craplets, the browser is decent but nowhere near the quality of the iPhone’s, …I could list the “not as good as” for quite awhile. The bottom line is that, feature-for-feature, the Instinct holds its own, and it’s especially nice that Sprint’s ‘unlimited’ plan includes sms, data, gps, etc.

When you use it, though, you’re often presented with ‘opportunities’ to buy more services from Sprint, be it music (can’t really complain about that, eh iTunes?), games, SprintTV channels, and so on. Basically the Instinct is designed from the get-go to be Sprint’s version of the iPhone, which means that if you’re in love with Sprint you’ll like it.

For me, though, it’s the overall fit and finish and the joy of using a device that keeps me coming back. See the title of the blog up there? Yeah, I still prefer the iPhone, but maybe I won’t be as merciless in mocking the Instinct. Until the iPhone 3G with the 2.0 software comes out, because then, like Uncle Walt, I think the Instinct will not be in the same league.

The iMac case went from white plastic to aluminum and glass, and the iPhone went from aluminum and glass to black plastic. Or white plastic to show off you got a premium 16GB version, just like the high-end MacBook is only in black.

None of that is coincidence. As technical advances slow and feature creep becomes more of a crawl, electronics is shifting from being all about the speeds and feeds and becoming more about the fashions and faux-pas.

Apple knows this and a new study shows consumers are driving it:

In another study by Rubicon Consulting, the firm asked iPhone owners “When you got your iPhone, what model of mobile phone, if any, did it replace?” The findings are quite interesting. Unsurprisingly, many of the replaced models are high-end smartphones like Windows Mobile phones (14%), Blackberries (13%) and Palm (7%) devices. However, almost a quarter (24%) of respondents upgraded to their iPhone having previously owned a Motorola RAZR.

RAZR was once the trendy new chic in town, now the iPhone is becoming the go-to-device. Though hopefully we aren’t — and will never be — at the level of thousand dollar designer pumps and purses, the same study does show the price consumers are willing to pay for their fashionable handsets has gone up by $9 over the last six months alone.

Swords being double-edges, however, the sheer market share lost from RAZR to iPhone and the current problems facing Motorola show that, increasingly, no company may be more than one hot handset away from either blinding success or abysmal failure.

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Not evil twin to theiPhoneBlog.com Week in Review, not an invasion by Fake Steve, This Week in Smart Phone Schadenfreude brings you all the feel-better news you need about the smartphone world outside Apple’s current media dominator. (Who knew there was such a world? We were just as surprised! Inelegant, interface challenged, keyboardy, crashy, single-touchy place — best not to linger…). Join us as we mock review the big news from last week at our sister sites. Everybody loves sibling rivalry!

In this week’s edition: Blackberry iClone’s visual voice mail — but don’t make them angry! Windows Mobile 6.0 ready to crash already frozen Treo 800wx’s, and can Centro has future?

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Ah, the loss of innocence. From Nerf football to Nerf rocket launcher. From lego robot to military mecha. From humble revolutionary phone to… the next Skynet?

Well, the first tiny step at least, as architects of the impending Matrix enterprising developers Rodrigo Guiterrez and Jeff Craighead have gotten full Pakbot control via the iPhone over WiFi, including live streaming video.

Speaking of video, check theirs out after the break! (Before John Conner gets to them ‘natch).

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China might just be getting itself some iPhones! Oh, sure, there are already tons of iPhones in China — almost a cottage industry of them — but this time we’re talking official from Apple, no unlock needed, spiffy new iPhone 3Gs. In China.

Not from China Mobile, who’s off again, off again relationship with Apple is well documented, but from competitor China Unicom. Maybe even by August!

Hen Hao!

A huge territory with a massive subscriber base, China was one of the few countries not announced by Apple as part of the 70+ at WWDC. If true, only Russia and a few others (looking at you, Antarctica!) would stand between Apple and total global domination… (or at least market presence!)

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The original iPhone 8GB launched with a hefty $599 price tag, though it dropped to $399 a short time later. Though contract details were never disclosed, some pundits and analysts have estimated that AT&T paid Apple up to $15 per month, per customer, in revenue sharing. Over the life of a 24 month contract that would be an additional $360 for a grand total of $959 (later $759) per iPhone!

As both Casey and I have discussed before, the new iPhone 3G 8GB dropped at a super-reduced price of $199, and while again no contract details have been released, it’s universally believed to be carrier subsidized up front.

So, rather than a little bit of money each month for 2 years, Apple is now getting a big chunk right away. How much? The estimates are starting to come in:

[Oppenheimer equity research analyst Yair] Reiner said he also believes that AT&T is paying Apple an extra $100 for each new subscriber to AT&T signed up through Apple’s brick-and-mortar stores, for a total commission of $425. That data point alone suggests that the analyst believes AT&T is also paying Apple the $325 subsidy on phones Apple sells.

If accurate, the iPhone 3G would give Apple a total of $524 per unit if AT&T sells it, and $624 if Apple sells it themselves. Not as much as before, but since its all up front, and economies of scale means they might be producing them at a lower cost (in greater volumes), not to mention the HUGE upside of putting market share ahead of profit, it could still be worth far more to Apple than the previous deal.

Though not the business model some of us expected, it seems Apple is serious in gunning for those low sticker-shock sales.

It should be noted, however, that not everyone is jumping on the $325 number. Scott Bourne argues:

[T]he early termination fee for the iPhone is $175. If the subsidy were $325 - that would be the early termination fee.