The iPhone Magic, What else does it do?

The iPhone on eBay for $21 million Buy It Now or Best Offer

If you’ve been anywhere near the internet this weekend, you’ll know that the iPhone has launched in the States, to general applause, love and drooling. As usual with the hyped launch of any new gadget, there’s been a rush of eBay-related stories; as far as I can see, these are about evenly split between iPhones going crazy on eBay and iPhones not going crazy on eBay.

What seems pretty clear is that there is plenty of supply: as of this moment, there are over 8500 phones for sale, and auctions seem to be ending around the $650 – $700 mark, hardly a huge profit on the $599 retail price. The days of sellers retiring on the profits of one desirable gadget are, I fear, over; though for the imaginative, there is still plenty of interest to be found. One seller who’s used the spin to his advantage, advertising his phone as $21 million Buy It Now or Best Offer, has had 138 offers… all of which he’s turned down. Russell Shaw called this “hey look at me marketing”, and I’m sure we’ll see plenty more of it in the future.

Then there’s the woman who paid $800 to be at the front of the queue so she could grab the store’s entire stock to sell on eBay… only to find that there was a one phone per customer policy. Oops. Always read the small print.

Originl post by Sue from tamebay.com

Smashing the iPhone..

There are all kinds of people, here you can see a guy who bought the iPhone just trying to find out what it was made from so he smashes the phone in pieces on the FIRST DAY iPhone was released.

Then after he got some angry comments he went on to explain why he smashed it

iPhone rate plans starting at $59.99

AT&T finally announced three iPhone service plans, which start at $59.99. Each of the plans includes the same suite of “unlimited” data (email and Web), Visual Voicemail, 200 SMS text messages, roll over minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile. The plans are distinctive because of the number of minutes: $59.99 buys 450 monthly minutes; $79.99 buys 900 monthly minutes; and $99.99 buys 1,350 monthly minutes. There is also a one-time activation fee of $36. The carrier also mentioned that family plans are available for iPhone users.

“We want to make choosing a service plan simple and easy, so every plan includes unlimited data with direct Internet access, along with Visual Voicemail and a host of other goodies,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

Visual Voicemail is the feature both AT&T and Apple have been hyping the most for the handset, so it’s logical to make it an included service. iPhone users will be able to “immediately and randomly” access voicemail messages that interest them the most–just like email. The iPhone costs $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB model. The iPhone goes on sale Friday at 6 PM on the east coast.

For more on the iPhone rate plans:
- read this Apple press release

Google Phone To Challenge Apple IPhone?

Engadget is reporting that they have received information from an inside source with product information about the near-mythical Google branded cellular phone, which has been the topic of much speculation over recent months.

There’s nothing like a juicy rumor to get the blood pumping in the cold of winter.

I’m not talking about wild speculation and unsubstantiated hearsay; I’m talking about that sort of gossip that you knew was true all along — the kind that sends tinges of euphoria up your spine, enveloping you in the delight of a full blown “geekgasm” as the object of your desire edges closer to becoming reality.

Okay. Perhaps that’s a bit melodramatic.

Nonetheless, I daresay that as news continues to leak concerning Google’s venture into the mobile phone market, the fever-pitch among the masses will exponentially mount in a chorus of wonder and elation that will make the buzz surrounding the iPhone look like little more than after dinner conversation at your local senior citizen’s center.

Okay, enough adoration, let’s get to the nitty gritty details of the Google phone.

First off, it’s rumored to be a collaboration between Google and Samsung, which runs contrary to previous speculation that the Silicon Valley juggernaut would partner with Orange to develop its branded mobile phone.

Tech Digest lays out some of the features that you can expect from the Google Phone:

It’ll have built-in GPS, allowing Google Maps based navigation features, with a contact application that’s a cross between Gmail, Google Talk and more traditional text messaging.

Engadget, who received the initial tip, lets us in on another interesting aspect of the phone that is leaving many scratching their heads:

According to our tipster, the device doesn’t have any on-board storage. That’s right, all your applications are served up over the network with new apps “attached” to your account via a web interface.

No onboard storage? If that’s true, it tells me that Google plans to employ a massive network in order to support such a feature. Perhaps this explains why the company has been buying up so much dark fiber as of late?

None of this is confirmed; but as you have probably already surmised, I really don’t care. Everyone and their sister has fallen all over themselves to heap loving spoonfuls of adoration onto the iPhone, and declare it the undisputed champion of mobile phones — all before the device has even released. So, I’m just glad to see that there could potentially be another key player in the mobile phone arena.

Always remember, competition is a good thing.

Webpronews

A Closer Look At The iPhone

Google’s gPhone courts iPhone’s thunder

The Observer of London is reporting¹ that Google² might be working with HTC and mobile/telecom giant Orange to build a Google Mobile Phone, which could possibly have Google software inside the device, and would be able to do many of the web tasks smartly. The device, article speculates, could go on sale in 2008. (Of course, we would all have forgotten by then… if it doesn’t happen.) Orange and Google, both declined to comment.

Executives from Orange flew to Silicon Valley in California for a meeting at Google’s headquarters, or ‘Googleplex’, to hold preliminary discussions about a joint deal. Their plans centre on a branded Google phone, which would probably also carry Orange’s logo. The device would not be revolutionary: manufactured by HTC, a Taiwanese firm specialising in smart phones and Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), it might have a screen similar to a video iPod. But it would have built-in Google software which would dramatically improve on the slow and cumbersome experience of surfing the web from a mobile handset.

If true, this is clearly biggish news, signaling a new direction for Google. Both Google and Orange refused to talk to Smith for the story, and the blogs seem split on whether to buy the report. “Somehow, I am a bit skeptical on this one,” writes Rafat Ali. But Om Malik is more generous: “Google Phone, if you think about it is a reasonable speculation,” he writes. “Google has been aggressive in developing location based services, has amped up its local search and mapping services. In addition, it has also been mobilizing its applications such as GTalk and GMail. YouTube, the video arm of Google, is beginning to embrace the mobile ecosystem.”

OK, we say if it’s not happening now, it’s likely to soon. But the thing that catches our attention in all this is the very plausible notion that Google would leave the hardware to someone else. Sounds a lot like, um, Microsoft, no? And what’s the likelihood, we wonder, that this HTC outfit will put together the sort of slick integrated phone that we all crave? With Google ascendant, are we all in for another era of hokey, generic hardware married to proprietary software?

For now, we’re still holding out for the iPhone.

http://money.cnn.com/blogs/browser/2006/12/googles-gphone-courts-iphones-thunder.html

How an iPhone could rock wireless

Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and LG might be secretly rooting for the iPhone to be a (minor) hit.

NEW YORK (Fortune) — If Steve Jobs’ Apple decides to build a wireless phone, as widely rumored, the company has the chance to shake up not just the wireless device business – an industry dominated by the likes of Motorola and Nokia – it also could upend the entire wireless distribution model in the United States.

We know very little about the so-called iPhone. Apple (Charts) isn’t talking (“We don’t comment on rumor and speculation,” a spokesman told me) but we do know that wireless represents a huge opportunity – and threat – for Apple, and every other consumer electronics and computer maker.

Wireless phone makers increasingly are adding MP3 players to their devices, with the capability to download songs over the air. It certainly makes sense for Apple to want a piece of this action.

How Apple makes this happen is a topic of great swirl in tech and telecom circles. UBS telecom analyst John Hodulik recently published a report positing that Apple would seek to become a virtual phone company, buying airtime wholesale from Cingular and reselling wireless service, along with its new phone, sometimes in the first quarter of 2007.

Other rumors have Apple building a phone with built-in Wi-Fi service that would allow customers to make calls and download data and music from the free or cheap Wi-Fi networks proliferating in urban and suburban settings, bypassing traditional cellular networks. Both scenarios underscore Jobs’ aversion to ceding control to telcos such as Cingular, Verizon (Charts), T-Mobile and Sprint (Charts), which exercise huge control over the entire wireless food chain in the U.S.

Or Apple could pursue a path similar to the one forged by traditional wireless phone makers, and sell its iPhone through the carriers – an option that probably doesn’t appeal to Jobs, but gives him an opportunity to reach the largest possible number of U.S. consumers. But no matter how Apple decides to enter the wireless phone market, it is sure to change the status quo.

Here’s why: Today, phone companies heavily subsidize handsets in exchange for long-term commitments from customers. That Nokia (Charts) phone you got for free from Cingular obviously cost the phone company something – probably hundreds of dollars – to buy from Nokia. Cingular, in the meantime, can make all kinds of demands of Nokia: It can ask for special packaging, prominent logo placement, etc.

This system drives Nokia and other wireless device makers crazy. First, it devalues the phone: Here you have what is essentially a handheld computer with more processing power than the first PCs, and consumers expect to get it for free. It also means the device maker has less control over how it can market and merchandise its products, a pretty unique position in the world of consumer electronics: Imagine if Dell couldn’t sell laptops and desktops directly to consumers but instead had to sell them through Comcast, AT&T (Charts) or other broadband providers.

This is where Apple comes in – and why Nokia, Motorola (Charts), Samsung and LG might be secretly rooting for the iPhone to be a minor hit. Apple seems uniquely positioned to convince consumers to pay a premium – not demand a discount – for wirelessly connected devices, thus changing the economics of the wireless industry. Put another way: If a consumer is willing to pay $250 for an iPod Nano, why wouldn’t she pay even more for a Nano that can make phone calls?

Apple also has a robust distribution channel: Its retail stores and online presence offer the computer maker an instant vehicle for selling phones directly to customers. If Apple decides to become a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, the Apple stores would be one-stop shops for both the iPhone and the service it runs on.

Or, Jobs could do something really experimental and sell devices in its stores completely independent of the service. Indeed, this is common practice in Asia. In China, for example, Motorola has roughly 180 Motorola branded stores (they are owned by another party, but sell Motorola phones exclusively). A customer can go in, test a number of Motorola phones, buy from a fairly large inventory of gadgets, and then take her newly purchased device to the carrier of her choice, which in all likelihood will have its own kiosk or storefront in the same mall.

In the United States, Motorola operates only one quasi-retail facility, a “pop-up” store (meant to be temporary) on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue that it uses largely as a place where people can play with Motorola’s latest and greatest devices.

Some U.S. consumers already buy devices independently. Anssi Vanjoki, a Nokia executive vice president, notes that there are many American users of cellphones that Nokia never introduced in the U.S. market. These crafty consumers purchased their phones in Europe, or online, and installed so-called SIM cards from GSM operators Cingular or T-Mobile in their unauthorized devices. If the phone breaks or the service doesn’t work, however, the U.S. carriers can’t solve the problem.

And that’s the rub for many U.S. carriers. They’ve already spent billions building out phone networks, and they spend millions of dollars each year on customer support. When your RAZR breaks, for example, you don’t go to Motorola, you take it back to your carrier. So phone companies feel they are justified in controlling the customer experience.

And indeed, the complexity of both building a wireless device and running a phone company seems pretty daunting, especially when you consider no one else is doing it. In fact, people argue that one of the smartest things the old AT&T ever did was get out of the equipment business and focus on phone service. No matter what route Jobs goes, the phone business will be a challenge like no other he’s faced.

Sure, the iPhone might really rock. In our next column, we’ll explain why an Apple phone could really bite.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2006/12/15/technology/pluggedin_mehta_iphone.fortune/index.htm?section=magazines_fortune

Analyst: The second iPhone, a smart one

OK, I’ll admit it, I think we’re getting close. According to the same cadre of analysts, Apple is working on a smartphone, which will debut a few months after the long-heralded iPhone. The smartphone’s functionality will center on Apple’s proprietary iChat service, which runs on Macs and includes video chat and IM features. The smartphone could be branded as “iChat Mobile.” The smartphone will also have deep tie-ins to Apple’s Tiger OS, with Bluetooth remote control of certain Tiger OS functions. Other features include video ringbacks, whereby a caller is treated to not only the receiver’s favorite songs, but the music video of those songs. If nothing else, it’s entertaining to play along.

For more on the smart-i-phone:
- read this article from AppleInsider

Source: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/analyst-the-second-iphone-a-smart-one/2006-12-06