Reports are coming in from Les Echos, a French newspaper, which states Apple is currently pushing Orange to subsidize iPhone prices in order to move more units. So far the sales of French iPhones have been very low coming in at just 825 units each day. Of course since Europeans are typically not accustomed to paying such steep prices (€400 for the phone with a contract requirement) it comes as no surprise that sales are extremely low. If the plan is implemented then French iPhones will be as inexpensive as those in Britain and Germany (€100 with a €90 per month plan).

Rumors about the new 3G iPhone have been widespread since the first hint of the new technology being released. In the first week of April rumors revolved around a new company that will specialize in unlocking the current iPhone models that many assumed was part of a widespread April Fool’s joke. Other falsehoods included plans for Apple to license the iPhone OS to third-party manufacturers. It is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction where the new 3G is concerned. Newsworthy reports however, did make their way to the crowds including the pictures that developers were showing off at the end of the week claiming them to be the much anticipated 3G makeover pictures that consumers have been waiting anxiously to see.

This week a German telecommunications company reported that it plans to cut the prices of the Apple iPhones that they carry. The proposed price slash will bring prices down from $629 to just $156. The offer is planned to be implemented on April 7 and run until June 30 according to Deutsche Telekom AG. The offer will be available to T Mobile customers who subscribe to an XL service contract that runs about $140 per month. They also plan to offer a starter service of just $45 per month which will come with an iPhone at $393. Deutsche Telekom AG is one of few operators that are authorized by Apple to distribute the iPhone, and the only carrier in Germany.

Ad Infuse, the advertising network best known for its services to integrate ads within video content, has launched a new service allowing advertisers to get their message across to viewers surfing the web on the iPhone’s Safari web browser.

The company claims that it is able to optimise formatting depending on the device (iPhone or other handheld gadgets) being used to display the ad content.

So if Ad Infuse can deliver all it claims to, it’s likely to be quite an attraction to advertisers – they can display their ads in the most appropriate format depending on the viewers browsing device, have them integrated within video content and keep an eye on which campaigns are most successful with the array of monitoring features Ad Infusion boasts.

This is complemented by the fact that the iPhone has enjoyed strong sales since it’s release and a recent survey shows that 7.5% of web users now browse using Mac Operating Systems, including that of the iPhone. This is backed up by the fact that the iPhone was the second largest selling smart phone in the fourth quarter of 2007 second only to the Blackberry.

It’s also worth noting that AT&T and O2, the iPhone carriers, have reported that iPhone users seem to be heavy data users – another incentive for advertisers to target to users of Apple’s smart new phone.

There were two distinct trends that came out of the Mobile World Congress show for 2008, held in Barcelona. The first is an assurance that manufacturers are introducing touch screen devices like the iPhone carries. The other was simply that everyone in the world is very eager to see what the new Android phones will look like when they are released. While there were not many official phones that will offer the Google Android system platform, there are several chip manufacturers who showed up to boast their prototypes and show off their proof-of-concept phones in Barcelona. Among those were Freescale, Marvell, NEC Electronics, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. These manufacturers had a variety of devices that showed what the Android phone is expected to look like when it is released later in the year.

It should also be noted that what the models mostly proved is that the specifications for the Android phones can be built and deployed quickly. While the Apple iPhone roll-out has gone basically as expected, with only one vendor supplying specified numbers to a variety of networks, the Android roll-out is expected to be far more chaotic. This expectation comes from the fact that the Android phone is designed to work anywhere. It will work first on any GSM network and once users have toggled with it for a spell, it will work anywhere else. This fact will make it very difficult for operators to predict where the demand will come from and how significant demand may be.

While Internet routing and fiber trunks are normally scaled far ahead of demand, mobile networks will be forced to route much more data both on and off the fiber for new clients. Equipment will need to be bought without the assurance of a quick return.
However, because of the iPhone network operators will have no choice in the matter. In the United States, Verizon and Sprint are seeing their best customers heading over to AT&T because of the iPhone. In order to keep up with customer demand, these companies must learn to compete with the iPhone’s capabilities.

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