SingTel has announced that it will launch the iPhone 3GS next Friday, July 10 in Singapore.
Details of pricing etc will be revealed shortly.
Are you ready for it? 
I have already updated my iPhone 3G to iPhone 3.0 OS. Have you?
Apple has launched its newer, speedier iPhone and cut the price of its existing 8GB iPhone to $99.
The new iPhone 3G S was unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (a.k.a WWDC) yesterday. It will launch on 19 June and should be available in 80 countries by 9 Aug.
The new iPhone features a built-in compass, video camera and voice recording functionality.
The device was launched in the absence of chairman Steve Jobs, who is on medical leave. The handset may also be used as a 3G modem via internet tethering, although this function is not yet supported in all countries.
It also features voice control supporting 32 languages or dialects, cut and paste functions and MMS support. You can also use the virtual keyboard in landscape alignment.
Apple said, every function on the new handset is said to be twice as fast as its predecessor. In the US, it will cost $199 for a 16GB version and $299 for the 32GB model.
Apple also said it would cut the 8GB iPhone 3G to $99.
This is great news for many of us, especially those who wants to get a new iPhone for themselves.
Apple recently announced that customers have downloaded one billion applications from its revolutionary App Store, the largest applications store in the world. The one billionth app, Bump created by Bump Technologies, was downloaded by Connor Mulcahey, age 13, of Weston, CT. As the grand prize winner of Apple’s one billion app countdown contest, Connor will receive a $10,000 iTunes® gift card, an iPod® touch, a Time Capsule® and a MacBook® Pro. (Don’t you wish you were the winner?)
I think Apple has really revolutionised the mobile market with other competitors chasing hot after her heels. Apple is no longer only just creating a brand name or products or services for the market, they are so successful to the extent that I think they are creating a culture of their own in the global market place. Some of us may not think so highly of Apple or the iPhone, but on the other hand, we really cannot ignore their phenomenal success in the global market. Last time was the iPod, now the iPhone!
Telecomasia.net reported the following:
“Apple shipped 3.79m iPhones in Q1 to lift earnings 16%, well ahead of forecasts, the company announced Wednesday.
Strong demand for the iPhone drove revenue up 7.9% to $8.16 billion as it posted a $1.21 billion profit.
By contrast, Macintosh sales were off 3% to 2.22 million, while iPod shipments grew 3% to 11.01 million.
Apple’s iPhone shipments were up 123% year-on-year, helping the company to what CFO Peter Oppenheimer called “the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history.”
He forecast revenue in the range of $7.7 billion to $7.9 billion in the next quarter.
Apple’s results easily outperformed analysts’ estimates.
Apple shares on the Nasdaq rose 2.3% to $124.30 in after hours trading yesterday.
AT&T said yesterday it had signed more than 1.6 million iPhone subscribers, of whom 40% were new to the company, in the first quarter. Wireless data revenues rose 38% and now account for 27.2% of total wireless service revenues. “
I am really not surprised with this news because iPhone is still currently one of the most coveted-after phone by mobile phone users globally.
Apple iPhone fans who are also Skype lovers are going to love this news!
Skype is finally coming to the Apple iPhone! The very popular desktop application, which already offers a client software for Windows Mobile, will launch its iPhone app on the iTunes app store today .
Skype, a division of eBay, is the world’s 8th largest carrier of international voice calls. The iPhone app will allow users to make Skype-to-Skype calls over Wi-Fi and call PSTN numbers at low prices.
The Skype app has been redesigned to resemble a traditional iPhone app. The new interface allows users to add filters to their contact list and contacts alphabetically or by who is online.
Exclusive features to the iPhone include the ability to take a photo from within Skype to serve as an avatar and to accept incoming conference calls.
The app will also work with the iPod touch, although users will need to use headphones with an embedded microphone to talk.
So, get yours today if you love to ’skype’ on your iPhone!
Below is a list of the new features for the upcoming iPhone 3.0 OS which is of more interest to me. Note that they are not an exhaustive list, but just a representation of what I will think will make iPhone consumers happier! Enjoy!
Systemwide search using Spotlight: This will let users search for specific email messages, applications, contacts, and any other data from within those applications in one place.
Copy and paste for text, photos, and SMS: This is one of the most-wanted features, and finally it is here! The ability to copy and paste text will be making its way to iPhone OS 3.0.
MMS: You can now send and receive multimedia messages (MMS).
Push notifications: This will still relies on Apple’s servers as a go-between to send audio alerts, text messages, and badge notifications. Users still have to fire up the application to get at the data though.
In-app micropayments: Apple has built in a new system for developers to charge users after they’ve purchased an application.
Better GPS for apps: Apple said that Core Location would be available for developers to build into their applications, which means they will be able to include turn-by-turn directions into their apps. But they will not be able to build it off the iPhone’s Google Maps application because of licensing issues.
P2P networking and hardware communication: No longer will handsets exist as single entities. A new system, built off Apple’s Bonjour technology, will allow devices to talk to each other. This would let people play multiplayer games with one another, and also exchange data files — without the need to be connected to a 3rd-party server or a central Wi-Fi network.
Internet browsing:
- Safari browser is getting antiphishing and auto-fill.
- No Adobe Flash for the iPhone, although the device will play HTML 5 video, and developers now have API access for streaming audio and video in their apps.
What other new features caught your attention? Share with us below!
Facebook has ported its Connect suite to the iPhone, allowing users to connect their Facebook accounts with any iPhone application.
Just as the desktop version allows webmasters to add Facebook integration to their sites, Facebook Connect will now allow users to update their profile using any iPhone app that adds support to the suite.
Users will be able to connect to their accounts using Facebook’s secure login system and will have total control of permissions – such as offline access and status updates – granted.
Developers will be able to integrate users’ Facebook friends lists into their applications. One potential application would be suites allowing users to play games with their friends, Facebook said.
The feature debuted in the iTunes store on the weekend with 9 apps. It now has 22.
Facebook Connect is a Cocoa library that can be integrated into iPhone app clients. The software development kit (SDK) is available at:
http://svn.facebook.com/svnroot/platform/clients/packages/fbconnect-iphone.zip
CNET News reported on this today:
“Apple distributed invitations Thursday for a March 17 special event in Cupertino to discuss the iPhone 3.0 software and a new software development kit.
Next Tuesday’s event will come a little more than a year after Apple unveiled the original SDK at the iPhone 2.0 software event, setting the stage for over 25,000 iPhone applications to make their way onto the App Store. Speculation about a new iPhone had mostly centered on new hardware features, rather than software upgrades, but it seems Apple has something up its sleeve.
The invitation did not say who would be leading the event, but with CEO Steve Jobs on medical leave, marketing chief Phil Schiller or iPhone software guru Scott Forstall are likely bets, unless Jobs plans on making a surprise appearance. We’ll be there.”
I wonder what Apple will be up to this time for the new iPhone OS. What do you think?
New York and Dublin; Tuesday, 3rd March 2009: iPhone has overtaken Opera as the world’s most popular mobile browser according to research conducted by StatCounter which tracks traffic to websites. Its new free research tool StatCounter Global Stats (http://gs.statcounter.com) finds that iPhone now has 24% of the global browser market followed by Opera with 22%.* Nokia has 18% followed by Apple’s iPod Touch with 14%. BlackBerry has 5.8% of the global mobile browser market and Sony PSP 3.4%.
“We are talking about nothing less than a global phenomenon here,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO and founder, StatCounter. “Apple through the iPhone and iPod Touch is making mobile Internet browsing accessible to the masses. Globally iPhone has been consistently ahead of Opera since mid February.”
In North America StatCounter finds that Apple is starting to dominate the mobile browser market. iPhone has 36.5% followed by iPod Touch with 25%. BlackBerry has 13% and Sony PSP 6%.
In the UK iPhone and iPod Touch also lead the market with 31% and 20% respectively. This is followed by Nokia (13%), BlackBerry (9.6%) and Opera (7.5%). Sony PSP has 6% of the mobile browser market in the UK.
The StatCounter research data is based on four billion pageloads per month. Other regional and country breakdowns can be viewed at: http://gs.statcounter.com
I just saw this piece of news from TelecomAsia.net today:
“Only a fifth of users who download free applications from Apple’s app store use the program the next day, according to data collected by iPhone analytics firm Pinch Media.
Among paid apps, the figure is only slightly higher. According to the data, collected from around 30 million downloads of several hundred applications, the drop-off rate for paid apps is around 70%. Only 1% of users who download an application become permanent users.
Cutting the price of paid apps increases demand by 130%, whereas raising the price drops demand by 25%. In general, sports apps were more likely to keep users’ attention for more than a day, whereas utilities were the least likely to.
App developers can take solace in the fact that appearing on a top-100 list increases downloads by an average of 230%, and that appearing on a top-25 or top-10 list increases downloads by “orders of magnitude” further.
But this gain is temporary, Pinch warns, as the lists are updated every 24 hours. And whereas three months ago, an app only needed 1,500 downloads to appear on a top-100 list, today it needs 5,000 to make the grade. And appearing on a top-25 list requires 20,000 downloads, a figure that has doubled in six months.”
Are you an Apple iPhone apps developer? Or are you an iPhone apps enthusiast? I welcome your thoughts, views and experiences on downloading and using iPhone applications below. Feel free to submit your comments!