iPhone

The exact details of AT&T's revenue-sharing agreement with Apple have not been disclosed, but one analyst thinks that over the two-year life of a user contract, the amount exceeds the actual price of the iPhone.

Silicon Alley Insider spotted a research note from Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster estimating that Apple is receiving $18 per month for each iPhone subscriber, under the revenue-sharing agreement between the two companies. Apple has confirmed that such an agreement exists, but has not shared the details about exactly how much cash it's getting from the revenue AT&T makes … Read more

WeatherBug knows how to get around. The detailed weather reporting application for most combinations of desktop and mobile downloads, plus a WAP site, has let iPhone into the club. Now iPhone users can check out seven-day forecasts, animated radar maps, and real-time images from street-level weather cameras.

Incidentally, I learned an interesting factoid about WeatherBug. It began as educational curriculum and still has a strong program for schools and organizations subscribing to its weather warning alert system (e.g., "chance of lightning, soccer canceled.") That explains why the view of Sunnyvale, Calif., is taken from what looks like … Read more

Throughout all the hoopla over the hacking of the iPhone, it was never very clear how many people were actually trying to escape from AT&T. Apple ventured a guess on Monday.

During a conference call to discuss the company's blowout fourth quarter, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said that of the 1.4 million iPhones sold since June 29, 250,000 were bought with unlocking in mind.

"Where we don't know precisely how many people are doing that, our current guess is there were probably 250,000 of the 1.4 million that we … Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Apple's iPhone and other Wi-Fi enabled handsets coming into the market could boost demand for citywide Wi-Fi networks, said experts Tuesday at the MuniWireless conference.

As cell phone operators push their 3G data services, new cell phones outfitted with Wi-Fi capability are also being introduced. Apple's iPhone was one of the first to reach the American market. And so far the phone has gotten rave reviews for Web surfing when it's on a Wi-Fi network. Conversely, critics have complained about the painfully slow surfing on AT&T's 2.5G cellular network. (The … Read more

Influence is tough to measure, but it's one of those things where you know it when you see it.

Apple's influence on the mobile phone industry after just over 90 days as a player was evident at the CTIA show Tuesday. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer didn't mention the iPhone specifically in his keynote address, but noted that Apple "has done some nice work." After Ballmer's keynote, a friend of some staffers in Microsoft's booth enthusiastically demonstrated his iPhone for an audience checking out the latest Windows Mobile phones. And a panel of five … Read more

Well, It doesn't appear that Microsoft will be taking direct aim at the iPhone on Tuesday.

Rather, the software maker is playing to its strengths, announcing a new piece of server software to help businesses manage a company's worth of smartphones.

That doesn't mean Microsoft isn't interested in say, adding a full Web browser into Windows Mobile, according to Scott Horn, a general manager in Microsoft's mobile device unit.

"Do I see a path where we are going to have a phenomenal browsing experience," Horn said. "Yes, I do."

But the … Read more

As the CTIA show sets to open tomorrow, President and CEO Steve Largent fired off a brisk, and may we say somewhat catty, response to Wall Street Journal technology analyst Walt Mossberg for a column Mossberg wrote that blasted U.S. cell phone carriers. In the column called "Free my Phone," which was published yesterday, Mossberg criticized carriers for exerting too much control over the U.S. cell phone market. As Mossberg said, "[carrier control] severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world, just as … Read more

Life is good at Apple these days. Around 1.39 million iPhones sold. Soaring earnings. A new OS on the way. The Mac is gaining ground on the rest of the PC industry. The company can do no wrong. But that hasn't stopped a handful of critics from getting upset over one of the new iPhone ads currently running on a TV screen near you.

The ad in question is "Delay," which depicts an alleged airline pilot, Bryce, talking about how he used his iPhone's weather.com app to help avoid a major delay. The ads have gotten some of the folks over at FlyerTalk's forums pretty riled up.

Marathon Man, a poster from Massachusetts, started it all off by saying: "So I just saw for the first time this Apple iPhone commercial where a pilot (or some crew member that could be one) is standing there telling us that his iPhone was able to… Read more

Apple's earnings report today was stellar for the company and its shareholders--the 67% increase in profits over the year-ago quarter was particularly noteworthy. But I noticed that iPod sales came in short of some financial analysts' expectations. Looking back at recent Apple earnings calls on iLounge, I noticed that this was the case in Q2 and Q3 as well. (Apple's fiscal year begins Oct. 1, so this was Q4.)

More generally, iPod unit sales aren't growing as quickly as they used to. Here's year-to-year iPod unit growth for the last five quarters, again reported by iLounge: … Read more