Apple cuts iPhone price

The consumer-electronic maker also slashed the price of its iPhone, barely two months after the much-hyped device first came on the market.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs announced the changes at an event in San Francisco on Wednesday.
"We've clearly got a breakthrough product, and we want to make it affordable for even more customers as we enter this holiday season," Jobs said in reference to the price cut on the iPhone.
The price of the 8GB version of iPhone will drop by $200 to $399. That's $100 cheaper than the current price of the 4GB version of the device, which Jobs said will continue to be sold "while supplies last."

Apple iPhone Outsells All Smartphones In U.S. In July

The Apple iPhone led smartphone sales in the United States in July, beating Research In Motion's BlackBerry, the Palm Treo, and other rivals, a market research firm said Tuesday.
In addition, iPhone sales equaled those of the most popular feature phone in the United States, LG's Chocolate, iSuppli said. The Apple gadget, a combination media player and mobile phone, accounted for 1.8% of all handset sales in the United States.
ISuppli attributed the meteoric rise of the iPhone in large part to demand built up by months of hype leading up to the gadget's release on June 29. The real proof of whether Apple has a big winner will be determined in the coming months as demand patterns stabilize.
Nevertheless, the first full month of sales is impressive, given that the iPhone beat out well-entrenched competitors. "While iSuppli hasn't collected historical information on this topic, it's likely that the speed of the iPhone's rise to competitive dominance in its segment is unprecedented in the history of the mobile-handset market," the research firm said in a statement.
ISuppli predicts Apple will ship 4.5 million iPhones this year. By 2011, the company is expected to ship 30 million units. Currently, the devices only are available through Apple and AT&T, the exclusive service provider.
The typical iPhone buyer in July was male, 35 years or younger, and held a four-year college degree or higher. The actual breakdown of iSuppli's survey of iPhone buyers was 57% were 35 years old or younger, 52% male, 48% female, and 62% college educated. In addition, one out of four iPhone buyers switched wireless carriers to AT&T.
Based on iSuppli's definition, the iPhone falls between a smartphone and a feature phone. The device isn't quite a smartphone because a user can't load third-party software. On the other hand, the iPhone is more feature rich than the typical feature phone, such as LG's Chocolate.
Nevertheless, Apple shipped more iPhones in July in the U.S. than RIM did BlackBerry devices and Palm did Treo handsets, iSuppli said. IPhone shipments also easily beat smartphone shipments from Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung.
Despite its initial popularity, not all iPhone customers are happy with their purchase. At least three class-action lawsuits have been filed against Apple, claiming the company didn't do an adequate job of telling buyers that the device's battery cannot be replaced without incurring more than $100 in cost to replace the power supply and to maintain service during the process. Buyers cannot easily remove the battery, so the device has to be sent back to Apple.
Another class-action suit filed in New York last month claims Apple misled consumers by not adequately explaining the roaming charges attached to using the iPhone outside coverage areas.
Meanwhile, Apple is expected to launch on Wednesday a new line of iPods that observers say will have many of the same features as the iPhone, but without the voice communications. Apple, which plans to make the announcement in San Francisco, has not confirmed any of reports.

A Program that Unlocks the iPhone?

According to reports, an anonymous group of software developers claims to have developed a program that unlocks Apple's iPhone, thus making it operational on any GSM network across the globe. As of now, the iPhone is available only in the US, and is operational only on the AT&T network, under an exclusive two-year agreement between Apple and AT&T.

The iPhone unlocking program was demonstrated by Los Angeles-based software consultant named Brett Schulte, who replaced AT&T with a T-Mobile SIM card, and within a few seconds, the iPhone became operational. Schulte said the procedure doesn't require opening or disassembling of the device, and unlocking can be done in just about two minutes. Apparently, the anonymous group includes six people from three different continents, who claim to have unlocked the device just as a hobby. The developers plan to put the software on sale, though no price has been finalized yet. They have also created a Web site called iPhoneSIMfree.com, which has some information on the program but does not give a way to purchase it yet. Meanwhile, an AT&T spokesman said that though they could not hypothesize on the authenticity of hacking the iPhone, they hurried to remind users that by buying the iPhone, they become contractually indebted to AT&T. A similar incident took place about a week back, where a teenager claimed to have found the way to unlock the iPhone, though by disassembling the device.

The sleek Apple iPhone comes with a bad connection

Three months ago, Apple launched the iPhone, the device that CEO Steve Jobs proclaimed would redefine the mobile phone industry in the same way that the iPod revolutionised the music business. US consumers have had a chance to get to grips with the device, so now seems a good time to compile an interim report.
Jobs's pitch for the phone was characteristically audacious: the device cost an arm and a leg - $499 for 4GB and $599 for 8GB - and that's just for starters. Apple had struck a deal with AT&T, which meant that in addition to shelling out for the handset, you had to sign up to an AT&T contract for 24 months. The phone was locked to the AT&T network - and you didn't even get 3G connectivity. In fact, most of the time you got the kind of connection speeds that made one think fondly about dial-up modems.
It's an odd way to start a revolution, to put it mildly. The iPhone is a lovely piece of kit - in effect, a sleek, powerful personal computer running an industrial-grade operating system. It has the capability to be a really disruptive device in an industry that badly needs disruption. But it comes shackled to an unpopular, low-tech mobile network. So acquiring one is like buying a Porsche engine and fitting it to your lawnmower. People figured out quickly that you could cancel AT&T's inernet service to get its browser to work only via wi-fi; but you couldn't use it on any other mobile phone/data network. (And still had to pay the 18-month AT&T subscription.) This was not a fundamental technical limitation of the device, but a technological shackle designed by Apple to drive business to AT&T.
We are now starting to see the commercial rationale for the bodge. It turns out that Apple gets $3 a month for every existing AT&T subscriber who has bought an iPhone and $11 a month for every new customer. That looks like about $150 per user for Apple, on top of the margin on the phone itself. So although Apple can make money selling iPhones to anyone, the company gets considerably more if it drives those users to AT&T. Which is what it is doing.
This makes good commercial sense, but technologically speaking it's idiotic. Given the technical capabilities of the iPhone, it ought to be untethered in the way that, say, the Nokia E61 is. Not surprisingly, this thought has occurred to a lot of geeks and several unlocking methods have appeared in recent weeks.
First of all, a New Jersey teenager, one George Hotz, took a soldering iron to his iPhone, wrote some software and announced that he had used the phone on T-Mobile. It had taken him, he claimed, about two hours. This is reassuring evidence of teenage ingenuity, but not everyone is a dab hand with a soldering iron, so the Hotz hack was trumped by news that a quick way of unlocking an iPhone using only software had been found. A company named UniquePhones launched iPhoneSIMfree.com, announcing a method that left virtually all the iPhone's features intact. A representative of the technology site Engadget reported that 'iPhoneSIMfree.com's software solution completely SIM unlocks the iPhone, is restore-resistant, and should make the iPhone fully functional for users outside of the US'.
The UniquePhones folks then announced plans to sell licences for their recipe, which seemed a nice way of living off their programmers' wits. But then a lawyergram arrived from AT&T making threatening noises about copyright infringement and illegal software dissemination. This seems like bluff to me, but I'm no lawyer. What matters is that UniquePhones took fright, announcing that it was putting the key-release on hold while legal advice was sought.
So iPhone users will have to wait a bit longer before they can escape from AT&T's walled garden. While they wait, here are some thoughts to ponder. First, if the law does indeed say that the iPhone can't be unlocked, then the law is an ass. As the Princeton security expert Ed Felten puts it: 'The law should hesitate to micromanage what people do with the devices they own. If you want to run different software on your phone, or want to use one cell provider rather than another, why should the government interfere?'
Second, note that it's AT&T's lawyers who are doing the dirty work, not Apple's - even though Apple stands to lose quite a lot initially from unbridled unlocking. Neat footwork by Steve Jobs, eh?
Third, there is the question of which mobile operator will get the exclusive iPhone deal in the UK. And - given that the availability of unlocking methods is now a racing certainty - whether it will be worth the paper it's written on by the time the deal is signed. Stay tuned.

CNN Confirms iPhone Crack And A New One Emerges

CNN confirmed the iPhone crack developed by a group called iPhoneSIMFree, which was reported last week. According to CNN, an independent software consultant has demonstrated the software that unlocks iPhone on Friday evening. The method developed by iPhoneSIMfree was initially reported by the tech site Engadget.

CNN has spoken with two members of the group behind iPhoneSIMfree and they said “would start selling the software, which they haven't yet priced, as soon as their online payment and customer service systems are ready”. Still, for the moment it’s not clear if the unlocking of the iPhone is legal or not.
Contacted by CNN, Apple declined to comment, but a AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said he couldn't speculate on the legality of unlocking the phone, but he added, "When you sign up, you're signing a two-year contract. You're obligated to pay the bill."
Last week the New Jersey teen George Hotz in collaboration with three online colleagues reported another method to unlock the iPhone through an array of procedures detailed on his blog. The operation is fairly long, it involves some technical knowledge and it’s not reachable for a beginner. The highest risk is to definitely damage it during the “process”.
But for Hotz it was a good deal as the teenager traded his second unlocked iPhone creation, the first is for his own use, to Terry Daidone, founder of CertiCell, in exchange for a Nissan 350Z sports car and three new 8 Gb iPhones for his team.
Also Belfast-based UniquePhones claimed it had cracked the code which locked iPhone into AT&T's network. In fact so far the company, which said it intends to publish its unlocking solution, was the only one contacted by AT&T’s lawyers. They said that unveiling the unlocking method constitute copyright infringement and illegal software dissemination.
In an interview with AP, John McLaughlin of Uniquephones.com, said they had planned to release the software via iphoneunlocking.com and the price of unlocking would be $25 per iPhone.
Also last week Baltic News Service reported that a Lithuanian website is offering to unlock the iPhone for use with local mobile service providers. The website, called iphone.projectas.in, claims to have unlocked two iPhones in Lithuania and it features a video clip without sound showing the iPhones operating on Lithuanian mobile networks, including Omnitel, Bite Lietuva and TELE2.
The site's authors are also offering to unlock iPhones for 260 euros (355 dollars) by early September.
There are three methods of making the iPhone operational in Lithuania, the site claims: by subscriber identity module (SIM) card cloning, phone modification, or by installing a SIM card add-on.
"The third method of unlocking is more promising. Any SIM card will go for that. An original card is inserted together with a special SIM card add-on," the website says.
For the moment, Apple has launched its phone only in US, but according to media reports, the Cupertino company has already selected its partners in Europe: O2 in the UK, Orange in France and T-Mobile in Germany.

Skype, enterprise email on iPhone now enabled thx to WebEx PCNow

WebEx PCNow, a tool that enables remote access to PCs from mobile devices, is now iPhone-compliant.

Prior to the official release of this service today, I spoke with Jack Chawla, senior director of product management at Cisco-owned WebEx. He explained a win-win situation for iPhone users that should be obvious.
“We’ve been noticing that consumers are buying iPhones on their personal account. “If you look at what is happening with Web 2.0 technologies, consumers are using them in their professional life.”
As to the WebEx PCNow service, it costs $11.95 a month for two PCs. And not only can you get your enterprise email via your iPhone, but you can use Skype, too. SkypeOut on iPhone can be used to call contacts even on mobile devices that are not supported by the Skype mobile client.
Other capabilities include:
Mobile File Access— Access and view files, photos, and documents stored on your remote computer from iPhone.
Mobile Desktop Search—Via iPhone, use popular desktop search tools such as Google, and Windows to quickly find documents, emails, images and contacts stored on the desktop PC. Easily forward files from search results to colleagues and friends.
Mobile Outlook Integration – Read, reply, forward or delete emails and have your changes automatically updated on the Outlook on your computer. You can even create emails or appointments, and access contacts.
WebEx is doing this via a partnership with mobile technology provider SoonR. Content is optimized for the Safari web browser included in the iPhone.

Nokia takes on the iPhone

LONDON: In the same converted 19th-century fish market where Apple three years ago announced the European introduction of its iTunes music store, Nokia said Wednesday that it would soon introduce its own digital music service, along with an easier-to-use, Apple-style mobile interface and an Apple-style touch screen handset.
The Nokia Music Store, scheduled to open later this year, would let users download songs from the Internet to their computers or directly to mobile phones, over wireless networks, which is a feat that Apple's recently released iPhone cannot do.
Analysts said the move heightened the rivalry between Nokia and Apple at the high end of the mobile phone business. "It was obviously going straight at Apple," said Seamus McAteer, senior analyst at M:Metrics, a research firm.
While Nokia executives chose suits and ties rather than the black mock turtlenecks and blue jeans favored by Steve Jobs, the Apple chief executive, they acknowledged that Nokia was not above imitating its new competitor.
"I don't know what is copying and what is original but if there is something good in the world, we copy it with pride," said Anssi Vanjoki, head of the Nokia multimedia division, which makes the company's high-end handsets, when asked about similarities between the iPhone, iTunes and the new devices and services announced by Nokia.