thomas fitzgerald.net

One of the persistent rumors about the next generation iPhone, apart from it having 3G is that it will adopt a different selling model, more akin to the iPod, in that it will be available without contract and without being locked by revenue sharing deals to a single carrier. In other words you’ll just be able to go into a shop and buy one. Engadget is reporting this morning that sources have “confirmed”t hat Italian telecoms provider Telecom Italia plan to offer the 3g iPhone under such a model.

This offers Apple something of a conundrum if it does switch to an unlocked phone model. On the one hand, it will solve the unlocked iPhone grey market problem, but on the other hand most people with legit iPhones will be only at best half way through their long contracts which then wont apply to newer iPhone customers. Now, for most people this won’t be too big a deal, but you just know that a large, vocal proportion of a certain segment of the internet will cry blue murder over this. For Apple it would seem to make business sense though. Clearly there is a high demand for non carrier locked iPhones. Im sure they have weighed the potential sales against the revenue they are getting from the revenue sharing sales model. And yet rightly or wrongly there will be a backlash

People will argue that Apple is finally “doing the right thing” but will decry the existing users left tied with a locked phone, but in fairness it will be less Apple’s problem and more one for the service providers. The issue will likely come down to how the carriers will handle it. I am on O2 here in Ireland. I have a fully legit iPhone contract and my phone isn’t so much as jailbroken. If Apple launches the iPhone 3G in June as some predict, the iPhone will have only been available here for a little over three months, and will promptly become obsolete. I have always been an early adopter, so Im not that cut up, but if O2 decide to prevent people from buying upgrades because of their 18 month contract, even though the phone was not subsidized in the first place, there will be a lot of unhappy people out there, and I suspect the same goes for the UK, France and Germany. At least in the US it will have been out for almost a year at that stage, but then the AT&T contract is a two year contract too. If it is truly unlocked then there should be nothing to stop you just transferring your sim to a new phone, but some carriers have different sims for 3G and 2G devices so it may not work without changing sims, which they may be unwilling to provide because of contracts. After all, why would they want to keep paying revenue sharing on your phone if you’re no longer using it.

People have been pretty emotional about the iPhone since it was first announced and reaction has tended to be extreme. I have no doubt that whatever Apple does, the launch of the much rumored 3G version of the Apple handset will attract as much extreme opinion. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

From RTÉ News:

Mobile company O2 says it has no plans to reduce the price consumers pay to buy an Apple iPhone here.

The UK arm of the company has announced that it is reducing the price of the 8gb model of the phone by £100 until 1 June.

The reduction means that, with current exchange rates, the phone now costs €209 in Northern Ireland and €399 in the Republic

[Read RTÉ News: O2 Ireland not planning iPhone price cut]

This really shouldn’t come as a shock to people. Mobile networks in Ireland have been fleecing people for years, why people are expecting it to be ay different with the iPhone is beyond me, although it does bring the issue of said fleecing into the wider public consciousness. Actually, the iPhone pricing in Ireland may be the least of the problems with the way O2 is dealing with the apple handset in this country. The tariffs and paltry 1Gig data limit are far more annoying than the price of the phone.

From AppleInsider:

Apple and wireless partner O2 this week will slash the price of its iPhone handset in the UK to £169 from £269 as part of a limited promotion, according to a new report.

Before anyone here gets their hopes up, don’t expect this to happen in Ireland any time soon. Apart from the fact that most networks (and pretty much retailers/service providers/telecom companies in general) here are greedy bastards there’s no way they’re going to do this so soon after launch. I hope.
[Read AppleInsider | Apple, O2 to slash 8GB iPhone price in the UK - report]

MacRumors has posted a rumor from TGDaily, that the next iPhone will remain at the current prices and will launch at WWDC. However credibility goes out the window with this little ditty:

The 3G iPhone is expected to be housed in a slightly thinner enclosure, less “plasticky” design, with some accelerometer tweaks. The operating system and user interface will remain unchanged.

“Plasticky” ? Really? A device made primarily from metal and glass needs to be made less plasticky? Perhaps they are actually confused with some other device because the iPhone is the least “plasticky” device I have ever used.
Muppits.
[Read 3G iPhone Pricing to Remain at $399, $499? Launch At WWDC? - Mac Rumors]

From AppleInsider:

Hidden away in the latest test firmware for iPhone developers is the mention of the chipset that will power third-generation cellular Internet access in Apple’s next generation of the device.

It’s pretty much inevitable that they will eventually release a 3g phone, but I guess this just adds more credence to the recent rash of rumors. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in countries who have only recently made the iPhone available such as here in Ireland. I know technology gets updated and all the other things people are going to say, but if it does come out in June it’s a bit of a slap in the face when the networks could have held off releasing the iPone until a 3g version was available. Not that Apple would have told them or anything. Anyway, I’m happy with my iPhone, and most of the 3g networks in Ireland are not great anyway.
[Read AppleInsider | Latest iPhone 2.0 beta reveals 3G chipset]

From iPhone Alley:

As soon as the iPhone SDK Beta 2 came out, people immediately started digging to see what they could find. Turns out that one of the items found leads us to believe that Apple may plan to implement wireless .Mac syncing in the 2.0 iPhone update

[Read iPhone 2.0 To Include Wireless .Mac Syncing? | iPhone Alley]

From Ars Technica:

Apple posted a new download of the iPhone SDK today on the iPhone Dev Center website. The download, a 1.4GB DMG file, is labeled build 9A2151. The only information given on the Dev Center site is that the update contains an updated Interface Builder.

[Read iPhone SDK update includes iPhone-ready Interface Builder]

A brilliant use for an old iPhone box: Turn it into a pin hole camera.

(Via MacUser)

From iLounge:

In an apparent effort to reassure developers who applied for early participation in the iPhone Developer Program and last week received notices of temporary rejection, Apple today sent out a mass e-mail with helpful development links and a more detailed message regarding their status.

“We have many more requests than we can serve during this initial beta period,” explains the follow-up e-mail, “so we must limit the Program at this time. We plan to expand it during the beta period, and we will contact you regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time. We appreciate your patience.”

[Read Apple clarifies iPhone dev status. adds links | iLounge News]

From Furbo.org, Developer Craig Hockenberry, maker of Twitterific:

Unless you’ve been stranded on a remote Pacific isle, you’re no doubt aware of the current furor over third party iPhone applications not being able to run in the background. To be blunt, I’ve never seen so many experts without a fricken’ clue. If you haven’t written code using the jailbreak tool chain, your opinions on the iPhone SDK, based entirely on what you see in a simulator, just aren’t relevant. You might as well be explaining the nuances of brain surgery.

It’s an excellent article as he debunks much of the bs that’s been doing the rounds since Apple released the SDK. [Read furbo.org · Brain surgeons]

One of the things that became immediately obvious following Apple’s SDK event last Thursday was the potential of the platform for games. Mobile phones have long been a substantial market for game developers but the majority of cellphone games are extremely basic with limited graphics and functionality. However, the demos that Apple, EA and Sega showed off at the Cupertino event demonstrated that the iPhone was more akin to a games console in terms of its ability rather than that of the traditional cell phone.

If I were Sony or Nintendo, I’d be getting pretty worried about now. Both have highly successful mobile gaming platforms, Sony with the PSP and Nintendo with the DS. You may think that there is no way the iPhone platform (which also means the iPod touch) can ever catch the head start of the DS and the PSP, but unlike the existing handhelds the iPhone and iPod touch are being sold by the bucket load all ready for their existing purposes. What the iPhone, and consequently the iPod touch offers is something new and unique. Like the runaway success of the Nintendo Wii, the iPhone platform brings the potential of unique game-play with its multi touch interface and motion sensor that could revolutionise the portable gaming market. This combination of unique input methods could allow game developers to offer the same sort of unique game-play seen on the Wii and to a lesser extent the PS3. (incidentally EA’s upcoming spore looks remarkably like the Playstation Network game “Flow” for the PS3). The iPhone goes further than just its control system though, it offers what could possibly be the most ideal combination of hardware yet seen in a mobile game system.

Consider if you will the PSP. It is a respected and powerful system, but it’s tied (to an extent) to its disk based games, and lack of fixed internal storage. In fairness, Sony is slowly deploying games via the internet to the PSP but currently that requires a somewhat clunky connection to either a PC or a PS3. The iPhone on the other hand has the advantage of fixed mass storage. While you can add a memory stick to the PSP, developers can’t assume it is there, whereas with the iPhone they can, allowing a greater degree of flexibility. Coupled with the iPhones impressive screen, built in networking, bonjour for quickly discovering other games on the same network, you’ve got one hell of a system. The only potential downside is the lack of a traditional control surface, but that is easily overcome by clever programming or at the very least on-screen controls.

Another huge advantage of the iPhone platform is that of delivery. Apple’s App store offers a very powerful way to get your product in front of consumers. Like iTunes it will do away with the need for physical media, and having it also available over edge will push the term “impulse buy” to a whole new level. Imagine you’re sitting in an airport and your flight is delayed. You pop onto the app store on your iPhone and quickly find the latest game to download and relieve your boredom. Having everything available from one place, which is always available is a very big deal. The potential for this is huge. The big name game companies seem to realise it too, and EA’s endorsement is big enough to propel the platform forward.

The only potential downside I see is availability. Obviously the iPhone is not everywhere yet, but the iPod touch is pretty ubiquitous in its international availability. It remains to be seen though if the iPhone App store will have any kind of region coding or if it will be limited to countries where there is already an iTunes store. It will be a shame if they do that because it will hurt the potential for the iPhone and iPod touch to totally dominate the market in a short period of time. Either way though, expect the iPhone and its iPod sibling to be the number one mobile game platform by this time next year. That may sound ambitious, but no one expected the Wii with its “limited graphics” to reach the heights of its success either. I’m sure hard-core gamers everywhere are recoiling at the prospect of anything with an Apple logo entering their precious market space, but as the Wii demonstrated, there’s a huge market for games outside of the traditional “hard-core gamer”. Let’s not forget, the iPhone does a few other things too.

From Macworld:

Electronic Arts’ (EA) demonstration of Spore running on the iPhone during Apple’s introduction of the new iPhone SDK was more than just a technology demonstration. The company has confirmed plans to release Spore for the iPhone, along with other games.

[Read Macworld | EA confirms Spore, other games for iPhone]

Apple announced the details of the iPhone SDK and the new iPhone enterprise features. Rather than repeat what others have covered so well, here are some links:

Mac Rumors: iPhone SDK details and first look

Macworld: iPhone SDK has all the right Answers

From Pocket Lint:

O2 has confirmed that following it’s launch of the iPhone in the UK, it will be the exclusive carrier for Apple’s mobile phone in Ireland.

It’s about time! Rates sound reasonable too:

“Three new iPhone tariffs will be available from O2, starting at €45, all of which will include anytime minutes, texts and a 1GB data bundle.”

Here’s hoping it’s true!

[Read iPhone to launch in Ireland]