Competition

It looks like Research in Motion (RIM), the company that makes the popular Blackberry business line of smartphones is creating a 9000 series model to directly compete with the iPhone. This model will boast a touchscreen and will target consumers much like the Curve and Pearl before it.

There is no denying the fact that the Pearl and the Curve have made ripples in the Blackberry model and have made the Blackberry name relevant to a more consumer audience. And you can’t blame RIM for wanting to directly compete with the iPhone. But to make it a touchscreen model may be the wrong thing to do.

It seems like these days, to compete with the iPhone, companies are just throwing in a touchscreen. Their misguided thinking is the touchscreen is what made the iPhone so innovative. Is it part of the story of Apple moving the needle in the mobile market? Sure. But to just blindly throw out the idea of adding a touchscreen and thus directly competing with the iPhone means that RIM is barking up the wrong tree. Talk about flies swarming around the hot piece of dog poo.

If… more...

One might think that something as simple as the iPhone wouldn’t be so heavily barred in foreign countries but apparently there is a thriving underground market for such a handset and the Chinese are in want.

It might seem ironic that the iPhone is so heavily restricted from crossing back into China, the handset’s birthplace but it is a restriction so easily bypassed and one that has Chinese consumers thriving with excitement. Wired reports more on this and what they found was the iPhone market there is an exact, or close to replica of the current markets Apple is offering the device.

It’s a paradise for them, demand is high and supply higher even though a rigorous course through Hong Kong and then through Shenzhen must be taken where handsets are shipped out to major cities. Alternatives such as buying direct from eBay are also in use but what might puzzle some is why the iPhone has to be illegally imported into China. The reason could be China’s shunning of foreign competitors in favor of national based companies.

Stores are stocked plentifully with iPhones due to daily shipments… more...

Earlier yesterday Chuck Norris informed prolific members of the press that he, not Apple, was the sole inventor of the iPhone and is seeking revenge against the Cupertino based company. However, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has nominated Chuck Norris for inventing the iPhone and not Apple Inc.

CEO Steve Jobs was shocked over the news and has told Bloggers he intends to increase his Reality Distortion Field around him.

“It’s just not right, no one knew we took the iPhone from Chuck Norris, we were the ones who made it profitable and trendy.”

Details are scarce at the moment but it is believed Chuck Norris created the iPhone due to his herculean thumbs destroying button based QWERTY keyboards on every available Smart Phone.

He was quoted as saying “No other phone can survive a roundhouse kick, my awesomeness or any combination. The iPhone, my creation, can.” after which reporters were given a thorough beat down for possessing inferior phones.

Steve Jobs has been seen hanging around his office past closing time wearing a metallic mask. An amateur photographer who posed as the janitor got a picture.

When asked about the mask, Steve… more...

After turning down the iPhone, Verizon has been confident in their abilites to combat AT&T but they have recently extended their campaign of global domination, err, continuing to be America’s leading wireless service.

AT&T, can you hear me now? Good!

Blogged On My iPhone

First post of my challenge, wasn’t too bad, just a small post and according to my Spell Checker only Verizon is spelled wrong.

The iPhone launched over the weekend in the UK as well as Germany and numbers are trickling out but nothing official or major. O2 reports 8,000 activated iPhones on launch day while T-Mobile claims 10,000 sold on launch day.

8,000 activations is paltry compared to the US launch of the iPhone but O2 seems thrilled, an insider who reported to Arstechnica stated the Cellular Carrier was expecting around 3,000 activated units.

T-Mobile on the other hand, sold 10,000 iPhones that afternoon according to Reuters.

Apple may have hindered Application development on the iPhone through a series of security enhancements to the underlying components and Operating System but one developer aims to thwart this stagnation of development by releasing a new Application every day in November.

Sean Heber of SpiffyTech is the developer in question and already has plans to release a fair amount of iPhone Applications with even more coming our way during November. Sean is quoted by iPhone Atlas:

“The idea came to me by way of my friend Jeremie Miller (trivia: he’s the creator of Jabber).  He helped me come up with a list of ideas, but isn’t going to develop anything himself. I have another friend who has indicated he might help with an app or two, but so far I’ve yet to see any action from his end. So in short - yeah, it’s just me and I’m going forward under the assumption that it will remain an essentially solo project.”

To download these new Applications install (when available) the iApp-a-Day package under community sources in AppTapp. From there you will be able to checkup on progress and download any… more...

RIM has announced that their quarterly sales during the iPhone’s availability haven’t been hurt at all. While it would be hard to see how many iPhone owners considered a Blackberry, it is obvious that RIM will have some serious competition considering that the device sold 1/3 of the amount of Blackberries for that quarter.

And the iPhone was sold only in the US during its availability while the Blackberry sold worldwide. Even then Apple sold 1 million handsets while RIM sold 3 million globally while 1.5 million were new users.

However, this is only sales data. We have to remember that the two Smartphones appeal to two totally different markets. The Blackberry for business and the iPhone for the average consumer. That might’ve caused Apple to sell more handsets compared to RIM but just looking at the hard data, the launch has been successful for the iPhone.

So while Apple may come out on top and dominate the Smartphone market, it’s still important to note the differences in each phone and who they cater. If Apple were to wage a war against RIM, they’d have to beef up their corporate support.

Via:… more...

Nokia, one of the biggest cellular manufacturers has taken the opportunity to taunt Apple in the phone business by advertising the advantages of unlocked phones. Last week, Apple mass bricked iPhones while Nokia stealthily rolled out their “unlock” campaign.

Picture Below

In addition to ad banners, Nokia is utilizing the publicity to pump up the N95, their high end smart phone that has been heralded as an iPhone killer that is competitively priced. You can see more of the web ads by hitting up nseries.com/open.

Anyways, Apple isn’t going to get off so easily on this one, its a very sensitive issue right now which is causing quite an uproar right now. It would be so easy for competitors to point out “Hey, Apple is locking you in while we’ll let you use your phone wherever you want!”

Via: Engadget

The mass bricking of iPhones may be costing consumers some trouble to the tune of a couple hundred dollars but Navizon who offers a Pseudo GPS solution for mobile devices will be getting hit where it hurts: the pocket book.

We’ve covered Navizon’s Software based GPS solution for the iPhone before which was available as a 15 day demo before charging users $24.95 to use it without any limits.

However, the 1.1.1 update disables all 3rd party Software which seriously affects Mexens Technology who offered Navizon to iPhone users via Installer.app but there is an upside for people who purchased the Software.

Everyone who paid for the license will be refunded their $30 as less than 200 were sold. If you need more information on the refund, contact Navizon and they should hook you up.

[Via: Arstechnica]

Of course you have to take Apple's claim with a grain of salt when they say unlocked iPhones are permanently damaged because the baseband cannot be reset to its previous state through an iTunes restore. The tech savvy crowd knows that any updates that have the intentions of bricking iPhones won't be accidental but pre planned.

With that being said, Software developers for the iPhone and hackers have teamed together to update their unlocking Software, anySIM to withstand this week's update and hopefully future updates as well. The iPhoneDev Team has stated to hold off on applying the 1.1.1 update until it can be dissected and what kind of damage it will cause documented.

Via Macworld