Keeping up with the iPhone

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.

Over 400, 000 unlocked phones in China

According to market research firm In-Stat nearly half of the 800,000 iPhones that have been unlocked for distribution and use outside of the sanctioned Apple networks are believed to be in China. China Mobile, which is the nation’s largest wireless carrier, stated that there were approximately 400,000 unlocked iPhones that were using the carrier’s cellular network service at the end of 2007. This number represents approximately ten percent of all iPhones which were sold at that time. The carrier went on to say that the figure was very surprising and significantly more than what was estimated, although they had no doubt that the iPhone would be much more popular than the iPod in China if and when Apple and China Mobile team up to launch the Chinese version of the iPhone. The surge has been credited to a major difference between the American and Chinese buyers. In the US, most buyers confine their smartphone purchases to those needed for work related purposes. Chinese buyers often use their phones for entertainment or to obtain internet access. Apple’s focus on this last usage pattern for their iPhone makes it a very logical fit for the market, particularly with the interface that the iPhone uses. Contributing to the surge is the fact that Chinese buyers are more likely to spend larger amounts of money on their phone purchases. This is despite earning lower average incomes. One-fifth of all phones sold in China cost no less than 4,000 Yuan Renminbi each, or $533 in US Dollars. Despite attempts by Apple to keep the iPhone unlocking from the public eye with new software and changes to the phone’s bootloader, it has become very apparent that there are entrepreneurs giving the public exactly what they want. Since Apple has signed a revenue-sharing deal with various carrier partners that does not apply if the phone is unlocked from its respective network, this comes as a bit of a lost opportunity for Apple.

iPhone Owners Search More

iPhone Owners Search More (news/iphone-hardware/iphone-owners-search-more-20080214438) February 14, 2008 In a recent story by The Financial Times, Google representatives reported that iPhone users do an average of 50 times more Google searches than their nearest competitor.