Vodafone to sell iPhone

Vodafone has moved with impressive speed to shore up its position in Britain after winning the right to sell Apple’s iPhone from next year, a deal that should stop the flow of its high-value customers to rival networks.

When Orange revealed that it would be selling the mobile phone in time for Christmas, analysts feared that Vodafone could be left out in the cold as consumer demand for the handset has shown no sign of slowing down. There is going to be a fight for the best iPhone contract!

However, Vodafone quickly moved to plug the gap in its handset range after signing a deal with Apple late on Monday evening to sell the iPhone in the UK and the Republic of Ireland from 2010.

The rush to sign up to sell the iPhone once O2’s exclusive deal with Apple ends in November shows that the bargaining power has shifted back toward device makers, such as Apple and Nokia, and suggests that subscriber acquisition costs — a key metric for the financial performance of mobile phone operators — are set to increase accordingly.

Mark James, an analyst with Evolution Securities, said: “If you get exclusivity of an iconic product like the iPhone, then you can take market share in spades and the manufacturers know that. I don’t think operators hold the cards any more and the issue for the networks now is that all roads lead to costs.”

Operators across Europe, if not worldwide, have struggled to differentiate themselves on service and brand, meaning that signing deals for must-have devices has become paramount, Mr James said. As a result, networks may have to switch their focus from cash preservation and defending their market share to fighting for high-value subscribers.

Cazenove, the investment bank, argued that while the iPhone was “critical” in terms of retaining high-value customers and enhancing an operator’s brand image, the handset could weigh on the profitability of companies that sell it. “We expect weaker margins as operators compete aggressively to attract iPhone users,” it said.

The average subscriber acquisition costs for prepay and contract customers in Britain is about £75. However, that figure is weighed down by the provision of low-end and mid-range phones. Vodafone and Orange’s iPhone aspirations could drive that higher, Mr James said. The two companies hope that rising costs will be offset by much higher data usage by iPhone owners, who use the handset to access the internet and download applications.

This week, Apple said that two billion applications had been downloaded via its store after half a billion were downloaded in the last quarter alone.

Such statistics will cheer Orange and Vodafone, which want to dispel fears that they are entering the iPhone party too late.

While Orange customers have been registering to receive an iPhone for Christmas, Vodafone users can register their interest in the device from today but will have to wait a little longer to get their hands on the mobile phone.

Like Orange, Vodafone has stayed silent on pricing details, although it is widely assumed that competition for iPhone customers could result in lower prices, given the experience in other markets where exclusivity deals have come to an end.

Source: Times Online

Apple rejected Voice app for iPhone

Google Inc. says Apple Inc.'s top marketing executive rejected its Google Voice application because it duplicates the dialer on the iPhone and could be used as a replacement.

Apple earlier denied it rejected the program, and said Friday that the two Silicon Valley companies are still discussing the application.

Google Voice lets people pick a new iPhone number, then route incoming calls to cell, office or home phones. It also lets users place calls from within the application.

Google says Phil Schiller of Apple told Google's Alan Eustace, a senior vice president, during a July phone call that Apple rejected the program.

That's according to an updated letter from Google posted on the Federal Communications Commission's Web site. A previous version redacted the specifics.

Source: Top News

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Iphone update kills Exchange access

OWNERS OF OLDER IPHONES and Ipod Touches will be in for a nasty surprise if they decide to update to the latest OSX for Iphone 3.1.

The point release - which is supposed to improve security, reliability and fix bugs - also stops all devices older than the brand new iPhone 3GS from accessing some Microsoft Exchange 2007 servers, according to reports.

Users are telling us that after installing the update, a message informs them: "Policy Requirement - The account [account name] requires encryption which is not supported on this iPod/iPhone". Although the encryption policy is a server side option, thousands of users have been succesfully syncing to these servers for many months without problem.

Which leads us to conclude that Apple devices have been misleading Exchange servers into thinking that they are capable of carrying out the level of on-device encryption demanded by their system administrators when they quite clearly are not.

The fact that Apple has been loudly extolling the virtues of the iPhone as a business class device whilst potentially compromising the security of companies all over the world is beyond irony. And any business that has decided to offer Apple devices to its employees for use with Exchange 2007 servers will now have a major headache to deal with.

The immediate solution seems to be either to turn off the need for on-device data encryption - which as anyone who has ever lost a mobile phone will agree is an entirely bad idea - or to upgrade every one of your Iphone-toting employees with a shiny new 3GS. Which is very nice for Apple's Iphone shipments and will make for some happy employees, but does nothing to improve business bottom lines in such troubled times.

The only other option is to 'downgrade' to OSX for Iphone 3.0. All very well if you know what you are doing and a) have a suitable Itunes-recoverable backup, b) use Time Machine and are happy to revert your entire sytem to a previous state or, c) are willing to install a back-up from a dodgy P2P or Usenet download.

It's not clear whether these older devices are capable of offering data encryption and can be fixed with a further update, as Apple is remaining tight-lipped about the problem.

But unless the Cupertino company wakes up and smells the cappuccino, it will do untold damage to the fragile relationship it has built with the few companies - not including the herd of media darlings with £100 haircuts - brave enough to dip their toes into Apple waters.

With much of the marketing surrounding the release of Snow Leopard relying on promises of Exchange support out of the box, we have to wonder whether Apple has betrayed the trust of business users once too often.

Source: The Inquirer

HTC Touch HD to Run Google Android OS?

Taiwanese handset maker HTC, known for its success selling phones powered by Google’s Android platform, may be prepping its updated Touch HD to run the OS as well.

Handset maker HTC is reportedly working to release the update to the company’s Touch HD smartphone, currently running on the Windows Mobile operating system (OS), which is instead powered by Google’s fledgling Android OS. Technology blog Register Hardware quoted sources from the company saying the company is making the switch for the handset, for which a release date hasn’t yet been set.

The source also said the updated handset will use a faster 628MHz Qualcomm chip and feature a 3.8-inch touchscreen. HTC’s decision may not come as great surprise to some, as the company has launched previous handsets with Android, including T-Mobile’s G1 (the first phone to the market that used the Android mobile device platform) and the Vodafone Magic, unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February and Hero (the first Android device to support Adobe Flash).

Earlier this month, wireless carrier Sprint announced the availability of the long-awaited HTC Touch Pro2 on September 8, this Tuesday, when customers can grab the smartphone for $350 including a two-year contract. The device offers Windows Mobile 6.1, TouchFlo user interface and entertainment options like Sprint TV with live and on-demand programming, as well as Sprint’s exclusive sports applications NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile.

Google’s platform, which has experienced a relaxed rate of acceptance in the mobile ecosystem, is nonetheless establishing a foothold. In April, T-Mobile, the U.S.’s fourth-largest wireless network operator with 32.1 million customers, announced it had sold one million G1 Android smartphones since its debut in October 2008. Facing intense competition from the Apple App Store, Google also bolstered Android on the application side. Earlier this year, Google announced a mobile-friendly version of its Product Search application, emphasizing its utility for iPhone and Android-powered devices. Product Search allows users to type whatever they’re searching for into the search bar and receive results pulled from a variety of shopping sites.

However, HTC isn’t quite ready to migrate completely over to Android, if the company’s recent announcement in collaboration with Sprint is any indication. Announced earlier this month, the HTC Touch Pro2 features a 3.6-inch WVGA variable-angle tilting touch-screen,a wide, slide-out keyboard that is larger than its predecessor—and the Windows Mobile 6.1 OS. Features like TouchFlo 3D bring information important to the user—such as quick access to contacts, messaging, e-mail and weather—to the top level of the user interface, and battery life has been expanded by 20 percent.

Sprint claims their mobile broadband network (inclusive of data roaming) reaches more than 271 million people, 18,652 cities and 1,838 airports. The company boasts it has three times the coverage of AT&T’s current 3G network and more than 20 times the coverage of T-Mobile’s current 3G network, both based on square miles.

Author and Source: Nathan Eddy | eweek)