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First year, Apple showed off the original iPhone (2G or 1,1) and iPhone OS 1.0 in January at Macworld 2007, gave us a release date at WWDC 2007, and shipped both together at the end of June. Second year, Apple showed off iPhone OS 2.0 in March at the SDK Event but didn’t introduce iPhone 3G (1,2) until WWDC 2008 in June, and announced the release date for both — the same release date for both — July 11.

This year Apple once again showed off iPhone OS 3.0 at March at the Sneak Preview event, and is rumored to be introducing iPhone v3 (2,1) at WWDC 2009 on June 8. If that comes to pass, we also expect them to announce the release date as they have in the past. But will it once again be the same release date for both?

• Pros: Apple likes big events and big news. Nothing is bigger than simultaneous releases. Apple also seems to like to stick to their patterns, and for the last two years software and hardware releases were one and the same. 2007 saw iPhone 3G alongside iPhone 2.0, App Store, and MobileMe (yeah, we’ll get to that in the cons…)

• Cons: That simultaneous release last year? iTunes went down. No one could activate. MobileMe’s lack of readiness caused months of bad PR. As big a news bomb as it was, it brought the negative every bit as much as the positive.

Frequent reader, Icebike, makes a great case for a staged released in our comments. It lets Apple control the roll-out, manage expectations, and better assure quality experiences for all involved.

But that simultaneous release is just so tempting, will Apple simply charge ahead with it anyway? Should they? Is the Circus Maximus worth the attention, good and bad?

As an iPhone user and potential 3.0 and next-gen iPhone user, what would you prefer Apple do?

Okay. Fine. Our bestest buddies over at PreCentral.net are crowing over the rumor-revelation that the Palm Pre will support “push” Gmail via IMAP IDLE [Wikipedia link]. Not as robust as BlackBerry or Microsoft ActiveSync, they say, but yarly enough. And good for them.

Of course Google’s own mobile OS, Android, also enjoys push Gmail. Also fine and good and all that.

But where’s ours?

Gmail has been on the iPhone since day one — when Yahoo! offered push email to the iPhone — and has trucked along through year 2 — when Apple offered MobileMe and ActiveSync push in iPhone 2.0, and even Google offered ActiveSync for everything except Gmail (?!).

We’ve been patient. We’ve been true. We’ve used the freebie and the paid Google Accounts version. We’ve suffered Gmail’s ludicrous 10 simultaneous connection limits, its certificate errors, its “unknown email box (Inbox)” shenanigans. We’ve earned it, Google.

So, how about Apple board member Eric Schmidt stroll up on the WWDC stage — just like he did at Macworld 2007 — and announce push Gmail over either ActiveSync or IMAP IDLE (for those of us who already use our only ActiveSync account for a work-related Exchange server). Or put it out in a press release, or one line throw-away from Joz or Forstall. Really, we don’t care. Just give it to us.

Please?

I was hoping Apple’s third generation iPhone — widely expected to be announced at WWDC 2009 — would have a huge screen and lend itself perfectly to the name iPhone HD. After all, Apple has been promoting HD a lot lately with their iTunes offerings.

Absent that huge screen, however, the last Phone different podcast had Dieter and I wondering what else Apple could have up their black, turtle-necked sleeves when it comes to branding?

• iPhone 4G would require 4G LTE wireless networks, which haven’t even begun to be rolled out yet, so last year’s scheme is out.
• iPhone 3.5/3.9G is likewise a non-starter. HSPA+ radio or not, that’s just too inelegant for Apple,
• iPhone 32GB is what the telco leaks have been splashing all over the internet. This too seems unlikely, as it paints Apple into every bit as much of a techno-corner as the radio-based names.
• iPhone Pro fits with Mac Pro and MacBook Pro (and even Final Cut Pro), but Dieter points out that beyond my little Apple-verse, that terms is already used and abused by Palm Treo Pro, HTC Touch Pro, and a variety of other stylus-wielding Windows Phones. That alone might sour Apple.
• iPhone, sans descriptor is always a possibility. After all, it’s not iMac X, Y, or Z, it’s just iMac. Whether internal documents say iPhone 2,1 or iPhone 3rd Generation, Apple could be ballsy enough at this point to just stick with the unadorned moniker.

What do you think, one of the above or something else entirely? Come WWDC, when Schiller or Joz or whomever whips out that new iPhone, what are they going to call it?

With WWDC 2009 only two weeks away, the many rumors and leaks and informed guesses seem to have coalesced into a somewhat unified view of what we probably will — and probably won’t — see if/when the next generation iPhone 2,1 is announced. Given the full version upgrade number (the original iPhone 2G is 1,1, the iPhone 3G is 1,2) we’d expect there to be more in the way of hardware changes than we saw last year with the addition of “just” 3G and GPS. Will those expectations be met? We have a pretty good handle on the iPhone 3.0 software, but what about the hardware?

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iPhone 3.0 (and maybe hardware version 3 as well?) vs. Palm Pre. This summer, that’s the question many would-be-smartphone purchasers just might be asking themselves. Both have their pros and cons. The iPhone has a huge profile and market presence, but the Pre has the old-school Palm faithful who have been waiting a long time for their Next Big Thing. The iPhone has massive channels and even Sprint admits they won’t be advertising the Palm Pre much due to low initial supply. But those most likely to want the Palm Pre already know it’s coming, where to get, and may well be reading this while already standing in line.

But what about the consumer on the edge? The consumer who has an older iPhone or Palm, or the one who’s about to move up from a feature phone for the first time. What about the dreaded “undecided”? This article is for them. And, yeah, we’re an iPhone blog, so make sure you head on over to our sister-site PreCentral.net. They’ll keep us honest and make sure you get a full, fair representation so you can make an informed decision.

Now let’s get it on… after the break!

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iTunes can rip a CD and make the tracks rapidly available for you to listen to on your iPhone (or iPod) or stream around your house via other computers, or AppleTV/Airtunes and a variety of third party products.

ZDNet thinks they should do the same with DVDs. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Why? While ripping CDs is legal in the US, ripping DVDs is not and Hollywood and Big Media would do their best to sue any product, iTunes included, into oblivion if put that feature in. In fact, that’s what they’re doing with Real’s RealDVD right now. This is based on the claim that it violates the DMCA by breaking copy protection, though Real wraps copy protection of their own around the ripped movies).

Apple, of course, has $30 billion in the bank, which could fund one heckuva legal battle (and maybe even get the EFF on their side?) If anyone is in the position to help consumers retain fair use of their media, and increase the functionality and appeal of their own product at the same time, it’s certainly Apple.

But would they spend their time and money litigating the right to rip content from old, legacy media when they’re busily trying to get people to embrace digital downloads of the same content as the “next big thing”? Should they?

For consumers, it would be the same win as letting iTunes rip CDs even as music downloads were coming online. Apple maintains they run iTunes at low-profit levels simply to fuel hardware sales. The same model holds true for DVDs. Some consumers have huge collections of legacy DVDs and would love nothing more than easily, officially, load them up into iTunes and sync them over to their iPhone, iPod, set top box, computer, etc. alongside new digital downloads.

Of course, savvy consumers are already doing this with free, third party programs, and perhaps Apple is happy enough with the status quo. It’s less expensive for them that way, and doesn’t offend the same media companies Apple has deals with for iTunes rentals and downloads.

So the question is, are you happy with the status quo as well? Or is this a fight Apple should be fighting?

Daring Fireball posted a tremendous article about how Verizon, AT&T, and Apple benefit if the rumors about an iPhone Lite and iPad media tablet on Verizon are true-ish (Gruber also looks at Apple’s iPod strategy mapped to the iPhone — go read it now, I’ll wait).

What struck me, however, was how Verizon, AT&T, and Apple benefit from the rumors themselves rather than the actual devices and/or their eventual carriers, if any.

• Apple is, according to a separate rumor, negotiating with AT&T to increase the length of their iPhone exclusivity agreement. AT&T’s last earning report showed just how important the iPhone was to their revenues, especially their new customer acquisition and premium service charges. This puts them at a distinct disadvantage with Apple, who could theoretically — if inconveniently — re-engineer the iPhone to work on any of the big 4 US carriers (CDMA for Verizon or Sprint, different GSM bands for T-Mobile). Rumors that Verizon is already talking to Apple, then, pushes AT&T over edge of disadvantage cliff. Obviously this is of great benefit to Apple.

• Verizon had what could only be termed a lackluster launch of their so-called iPhone killer, the BlackBerry Storm. With AT&T likely getting yet another mainstream hero phone this year in the form of the 3rd generation iPhone. Sprint, the other CDMA carrier, is getting the less mainstream, but still geek-anticipated Palm Pre as their hot summer hero phone. Where does that leave Verizon? The BlackBerry Tour (”Niagara”) and various HTC Touch series Windows Phones which will — eventually — be upgradable to the profoundly incremental Windows Mobile 6.5. Great gear, perhaps, but not hero phones on the same level as the iPhone or even Palm Pre (or last year’s Android G1 launch on T-Mobile). Rumors that Verizon may (soon) get an iPhone of sorts, or iPad, however, give the perception of a hero phone coming to the network. This is a huge benefit to Verizon, and might even keep some users from switching to AT&T (or Sprint) this summer to get a real device.

• Inversely, AT&T benefits not one bit from these rumors. They hurt AT&T’s negotiations with Apple and they may cost them some users who would have defected from Verizon.

We discussed this briefly last Wednesday on the iPhone Live! podcast, and no doubt others have made the same observation this week after reading the series of rumors (yes, even the one about the iPhone Lite actually being the Microsoft iPhone-Killer Pink). However, looking past the devices, it does seem like the rumors in and of themselves carry a hefty benefit for both Apple and Verizon.

Until the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks roll out in a couple years, that might be the closest we really get to seeing Apple and Verizon together.

Quarterly results time, when the internet’s fancy turns to chicken-little predictions of how many percentage points this or that company slipped on which or what index of… who cares.

It’s not the first time we’ve mentioned this, and we’re certainly not the first people to have mentioned it. Yet, just like clockwork every 3 months analysts spout estimates and every blog and their commenters race to re-publish what in essence are meaningless numbers.

Cases in point: Apple and the iPhone.

Certainly, without much room for doubt or question, Apple’s market share and likely iPhone market share will be down this quarter. Newsflash: the market will likely be down this quarter. So if Apple is selling 1% or 2% less in terms of units, hellseven 10% less in terms of units, is that reason to panic?

If you’re an analyst or shockmedia type, likely “yes”, or if you’re manipulating stock for short term turnover rather than stable long term growth, “aye, ye scurvy dogs!”. But if you’re Apple?

No.

Historically, Apple doesn’t care about market share, they care about profit share. (They already own mind share, so we’ll remove that from the equation for now).

Apple is a public company that reports its margins, which typically run around 30%. Let that sink in for a moment. When Palm is selling millions of Centros and losing money hand over fist, when Nokia owns the international market and revenues plummet, when PC makers are racing each other to the bottom of the netbook price list to eek out razor-thin margins and gaining footprint only to hemorrhage cash, rumors of iPhone nanos and cheapo iNetbooks make as little sense for Apple as iSupply- and analyst-fueled headlines.

Sure, it’s nice for consumers to get low prices, but not at the expense of the companies going out of business and no longer giving us products or competition. Short term gain at long term loss isn’t sustainable. It’s the $0.99 fart app of the electronics space.

Apple reports earnings on April 22nd.

I was just listening to Dieter and Mike’s latest PalmCast, where they were crowing in duet about how sweet it was that the Palm Pre has an app that can book movie tickets and automagically add the movie event information to the Palm Pre calendar.

I know, I know. If they love the Palm Pre so much, why don’t they just marry it? (Dieter is, in fact, looking for a state that may allow it…) But they raise an excellent point — where’s the iPhone version of that functionality? Why can’t we push a button on our movie ticket app, or concert tour app, or tradeshow app, or whatever and have that slice of time booked off for us in our calendar?

While the iPhone SDK allows access to the Contacts database to do all manner of glorious, 3rd party app-powered magic, Apple has thus far not surfaced any APIs to do the same for calendaring. I don’t believe the new 3.0 SDK has announced any improvements in that area either.

What makes calendar so different? MobileMe and ActiveSync push both. Apple’s even giving Calendar some much-appreciated CalDAV and subscription love, with no CardDAV that we’re aware of for contacts.

We’re sure developers would appreciate it. We know users would adore it.

Anyone have any idea why we don’t have this yet?

Dieter briefly interrupted his CTIA coverage to text us pretty much the headline you see above. What combination of Las Vegas and mobile phone pressers zapped iPhone controlled robot dreams into his cerebral cortex we don’t — and don’t want to — know, but the idea itself… Awesome indeed.

With the new iPhone 3.0 SDK, Apple has opened the door to peripheral access via both the 30-pin dock port and Bluetooth with zero-config. The above video is an ingenious work-around for direct control, but with the new functionality promised this summer?

He. Wants. And we do to.

Lego, start your integration program!