Everybody has been playing the guessing game on how many iPhone 3Gs Apple has sold. The numbers have been pitted at 11 million this year and 25 million in 2009 on the low end and 13 million this year and 45 million in 2009 on the optimistic side. Well according to people familiar with Apple’s production plans, it looks like Apple is preparing for the high end of the spectrum, upping their yearly production to around 40 million.
As it stands, Apple is pumping out 150,000 iPhones a day which roughly equates to 39 million a year (5 days a week, 52 weeks a year). Apple should have no problem selling these iPhones because of the international rollout and the Best Buy initiative, greater availability leads to more sales.
What does need to be fixed is the activation process, analysts deem the current process as the bottleneck that limits efficiency. Analysts are also pointing at a cheaper iPhone model to be announced during Macworld. That’ll certainly help Apple reach its ambitious goals.
We at TiPb think it’s entirely feasible to reach 40 million by 2009. Even after the initial hype subsides, there are still plenty of new markets to reach. If the iPhone begins to come in colors, new models, and more polished apps the iPhone 3G will continue to stay fresh for a long while. Now if Apple ever decided to sell the iPhone online again, well then, 40 million will be easy as pie. What do you think?
Those Nike+ Pictures we reported a few days back? There’s some rumblings that they may be fake. Yes, Apple and Nike are still in cahoots and plan on releasing Nike+ for the iPhone, but the pictures floating around the web are not a production of Apple or Nike but rather some enterprising photoshop expert.
Who knows when we’ll get some solid info on Nike+ for iPhone. Hopefully, Apple and Nike are working on creating a great program that includes some of the features we saw in the screenshots like the ability to map out a running route. There currently is no timetable for Nike+ to be released on the iPhone.
Apple’s brand new MobileMe News (formerly MobileMe Updates) is back with their second post this week (and luckily for links, finally sporting unique URLs to boot!). The subject of their latest post? How previous .Mac users can keep using their @mac.com addresses on the iPhone post-MobileMe transition:
If you want to use your mac.com address instead of me.com for the MobileMe address on your iPhone or iPod touch, you can simply remove the me.com account (if you’ve already created one) and then add a new MobileMe account entering username@mac.com for the email address. Any contacts, calendars, and bookmarks you are syncing will re-appear on your phone. It can take several seconds to minutes to update your phone depending on how much data you have and your network connection speed. If possible, it is best to do this when you are on a wi-fi connection for the fastest response.
Easy enough? Well, there is one small little restriction: the above only works if you originally had an @mac.com address prior to July 9, 2008. After the MobileMe transition, no new @mac.com addresses were generated, leaving those new to the… er… new service with @me.com as the only option.
Personally, I’m not sure what to do with my account yet. Me.com seems a little too precious for everyday use, while @mac.com hits too many fanboy cords for comfort. Can we get custom domains for email as well as websites? What’s your preference?
Here’s the backstory to what you’re looking at, above: Mobile Computing posted up a video showing that the iPhone 3G obliterated the BlackBerry Bold in a download & render test of web browsers (We just covered this, oh, hours ago). Fun stuff, except as our friends at CrackBerry noted (and MC added too) – it wasn’t a fair fight. The Bold probably wasn’t actually using WiFi and also most of the Bolds out there have pre-release ROMS on them, so the finals might be a stitch faster.
So a loyal CB reader pitched in and posted a video of the Bold loading the same page again, but this time actually using WiFi, it came in a little bit faster.
At TiPb, though, we figured it still looked slow. But since the Bold probably had a pre-release OS on it, we figured we’d hobble the iPhone 3G as well. So above, Loyal Moderator Bad Ash pits the BlackBerry Bold on WiFi against the iPhone 3G on EDGE.
Yeah, it’s closer, but we’re still ahead by 4 seconds or so. Tie the iPhone 3G’s WiFi hand behind its back, fine. Tie it’s 3G hand back there too, fine. The iPhone 3G still seems to win out — and we look forward to being able to say that about the final Bold ROM too. Hey — you guys still have (slightly) more reliable push email, so there’s that.
This one should get the iPhone-haters, WinMob Supporters, RIM Followers, and Treo Elderly (?) to come out of the woodworks. According to one of those reputable, old-timer print publications, Orange Poland has reportedly paid actors to line up for Poland’s release of our favorite toy, the iPhone 3G.
“We have these fake queues at front of 20 stores around the country to drum up interest in the iPhone,” a spokesman said
Supposedly it’s part of a marketing campaign to drive up interest in the iPhone 3G. I’m assuming the logic goes if people see that people want it, they’ll want it themselves…riiight. The competing carrier (Era aka T-Mobile Poland) which also distributes the iPhone 3G reportedly has no lines so I’m not sure if creating lines will create demand. In fact, we at TiPb are fairly certain that many of us hate lines.
What do you think? Would you buy a product because it looks like it’s going to be popular? What do you think the ‘actors’ are going to do when Orange Poland asks for personal information? Is this the most ridiculous act of advertising ever?
The iPhone 3G and the Blackberry Bold will certainly be pitted against each other in the days to come, so when we saw a so-called Browser battle between the two, we promptly grabbed our popcorn and got ready to watch the rumble…
…Only to find out it was an original iPhone 2G vs. what looks like a pre-release, buggy-ROM’d, poorly connected Bold. Talk about going from showdown to letdown!
Fellas, it shouldn’t take Joe Silva to tell you what makes for good fights: top competitors in top shape. Take one or both, tranq them up, tie their arm (processors) behind their backs, and kidnap their girlfriends and you don’t have a real fight (though you could have yet another Nicolas Cage movie…)
The Bold debuts in North America this week on Rogers. Seems that very same provider already has the iPhone 3G. So here’s an idea: set them both up, in full release form, on the same network, under the same conditions, and then let’s get it on!
Back on July 11, the iPhone 3G launched in 22 countries. Along with much fanfare, hippie attention seekers, lines that would stretch out for weeks on end, and constantly crashing servers. But since Apple sold about a million of the hot new handsets that weekend, you just knew they were going to do it again.
“Today” brings phase 2, where 21 more countries are supposed to come online with the iPhone 3G. (Officially Aug. 22nd, which may or may not be “today” to you depending on your timezone). How are things going so far? Reader Anton was gracious enough to send in this report (thanks Anton!):
Now it’s midnight in Estonia and I’m at the iphone launch event. No special frenzy, about 1000 people in one supermarket, a couple of DJs and a lot of light. There’s just two plans offered: us$55 and $89. First one includes 100 minutes, 100 SMS and 100 Mb; the other one – 250 of each. Every extra megabyte will cost $.25 and $.21 respectively. The phone itself is $267/8Gb and $396/16Gb with $55 plan and $149/8Gb and $278/16Gb with $89 plan.
Ouch! When will telcos worldwide realize what Henry Ford did almost 100 years ago. Mass pricing leads to mass adoption which leads to mass profits. Sheesh!
So are you standing in line right this very minute, ready to get your shiny new iPhone today? Is your carrier up? Is iTunes activating? Let us know how things are going!
And if your market still doesn’t have the iPhone 3G, just remember that Apple promised another 30+ countries — a grand total of 70+ — for 2008, which is now set to include Russia via MTS. That pretty much leaves China standing alone as the last major market sans carrier deal… for now.
Those of us who rock Mac OS X know all about the “Force Quit”. For Windows users, think killing an application via Task Manager. They’re both ways to shut down non-responsive or otherwise rogue applications from freezing us out or just slowing us down. For iPhone users, well, we don’t have to worry about that, do we? (Remember Apple mocking Windows Mobile for multitask management?)
Well, since MobileSafari, MobileMail, and other Apple apps do multitask and run in the background, it turns out we iPhone owners do still need to worry about it. And with the App Store providing all sorts of new and potentially greedy applications to strain the more limited resources of Mobile OS X, it’s certainly important functionality to have.
So what can we do? Luckily, Apple built in an solution.
Hold down the “Home” button for about 6 seconds. Your resources will then be freed up, and you’ll be dropped back to the Home Screen ready for a fresh, clean start.
Faster and easier than a full reset, it can get you out of an App jam or improve the “snappiness” of your iPhone in general.
Note: if you have tabs open in MobileSafari, the cached pages will be cleared, but fret not, MobileSafari will re-load the pages off the net for you as soon as you relaunch it.
What’s with Apple and fire this month? First Cupertino, now the first generation iPod Nano? (Not to mention MobileMe’s early crashes and burns…). And this one is scary enough that I admit it had me staring at my own uber-battery packing iPhone just a tad more nervously than usual. The good news is, however, according to CNet AppleCare is all up in fixing the problem:
Apple has determined that in very rare cases batteries in first generation iPod nanos sold between September 2005 and December 2006 can overheat causing failure and deformation of the iPod nano. Apple has received very few reports of such incidents (less than 0.001 percent of first generation iPod nano units), which have been traced back to a single battery supplier. There have been no reports of serious injuries or property damage, and no reports of incidents for any other iPod nano model. Any first generation iPod nano customers who have experienced their battery overheating should contact AppleCare for a replacement. Any other customers who have concerns about their first generation iPod nano battery should also contact AppleCare.
As always, keep a close eye on your gadgets, especially as they get older. Look for frayed or damaged cables, discolored or distorted casing, and strange sounds or odors. And when in doubt, stop using it and take it to be checked. Better to waste your time than endanger your health or home.
(Mac users may also want to check their Mag Safe power adapters, which are currently experiencing similar issues).
Ahhh, yes. Visual Voicemail — that feature alone was enough to sell me on the iPhone. Voicemail is downloaded directly to your iPhone where you can visually (and with a swipe of your finger) scroll through your messages with leisure. Without your callers knowing, YOU decide which calls are important and need listening to RIGHT NOW. Eh, the others can wait. Now, with great power comes great responsibility, Spidey. If you travel abroad, this wonderful feature can turn on it’s master and vacuum the money right out of your wallet! How? Read on for this week’s Tip!
