iPhone is Top Seller at AT&T

The iPhone, launched on June 29th, has been AT&T's best selling handset since that day. According to projections, Apple and AT&T have sold over 1.325 million handsets, representing 13% of AT&T's handset sales.

The early adopters of the iPhone have been categorized as young, affluent males. Still 25% of buyers were between the ages of 50 and 60. Sales are expected to increase, as Apple expects to gain a broader audience with its recent price drop.

The launch of the iPhone was expected to take business from its main competitors. Those most hurt by the iPhone have been Treo users along with Alltel and T-Mobile subscribers. Research in Motion (RIM), Sprint, and Verizon, although affected, have been able to limit their losses. RIM has been able to hold off the iPhone by offering media capable devices to its business customers. Sprint and Verizon have used their 3G networks and support for over-the-air (OTA) music downloads, two features the iPhone does not have, to keep subscribers.

Apple Cuts Price of iPhone and Announces iPod Touch

For those who have been waiting for the price of the iPhone to drop, wait no longer. Apple just announced they will drop the price of the 8G iPhone by $200, bringing down its sticker price to $399. From the website now only selling the 8G version, it looks like the 4G version has reached End-of-Life.

Apple also announced the availability of the iPod Touch later this month. The iPod Touch will be the first touch screen iPod. It will resemble the iPhone with a 3.5 inch touch screen, but it will be thinner (only 8 mm). It will also have Wi-Fi to enable song downloads directly to the device and web browsing via the Safari browser. It will come in an 8G and 16G version priced at $299 and $399, respectively.

Did You Know: Consumers Not Dowloading Music

According to a new report by Jupiter Research, “Only about 5 percent of US consumers transfer music from PCs to their phones (side-loading), and only 2 percent download songs over the air, according to Jupiter Research’s “Mobile Music: Target Impulse Purchases and Purchasers for Over-the-Air Downloads” report. It is estimated that 28 million US consumers will have music capable phones by the end of 2007.

With newer devices hitting the market with more and more memory capacity, i.e. the iPhone and Sprint's MUZIQ, music use on handsets is poised to continue to grow.

Source: www.moconews.net

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Verizon Ready for iPhone

Verizon is looking to combat the launch of the iPhone by keeping it's retail stores open late on Friday, June 29th - the launch date of the iPhone. Verizon is also looking to lure music phone buyers by offering a free "Music Essentials Kit" to those who purchase the LG VX9400. The kit includes stereo headsets, a cable for transferring songs from a PC, and a 2 GB memory card capable of holding up to 1,000 songs.

Sprint's Announces Another iPhone Killer

Sprint will add another device to it's music lineup on July 15th. The MUZIQ by LG will be the successor to the Fusic by LG. The MUZIQ by LG will be one of the first Sprint devices to support 4 GB microSD cards, giving it the same capacity as the iPhone 4 GB model. As is the trend with successor phones, the MUZIQ will be thinner than the Fusic and will not have the external antenna.

The phone will still support EV-DO, Sprint's high speed mobile broadband network, giving you access to Power Vision services, including over-the-air music downloads. It will also still have a 1.3 megapixels camera, FM transmitter, external music controls, and stereo Bluetooth. The MUZIQ measures 3.8"x1.94"x.61" and weighs 3.14 ounces.

The phone will be available for only $99 with service agreement and rebates, which is a lot less than the $499 price tag of the iPhone. You can register to become one of the first to purchase the MUZIQ by LG by going to www.sprint.com/music

Rate Plans for the iPhone Announced

Apple and AT&T finally released the much anticipated information about rate plans available for the iPhone when it launches this Friday. All the plans will include the following features: unlimited data, Visual Voicemail, 200 text messages, roll-over minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. Visual Voicemail is a cool application that allows users to view their voicemail messages in the same way they view email messages, allowing you to go directly to a message without having to listen to all of them.

The plans start at $59.99 for 450 minutes, and include options for 900 minutes ($79.99) and 1350 minutes ($99.99). All charges are monthly rates and do not include any discounts on the cost of the iPhone - $499 for the 4 GB model and $599 for the 8 GB model. There is also a one-time activation fee of $36.

The iPhone will be available this Friday at 6:00 PM (local time) at AT&T and Apple stores. At launch, the phone will not be available through distribution channels such as Best Buy and Radio Shack.

iPhone Coming June 29th

After months of speculation, the launch date for the much anticipated iPhone from Apple has finally been announced. June 29th is the date shown in new web and TV ads from Apple and AT&T.

iPhone Gets Approval From FCC

Apple has finally received FCC approval for the much anticipated and much hyped iPhone, stating they still plan to start selling the iPhone in late June.

For those who haven't heard about the new device, the iPhone is a combination of a smartphone and an iPod. It is expected to retail in two versions - 4G ($499) and 8G ($599).

Apple is still being secretive about the device. They've asked the FCC to keep diagrams and descriptionss of the phone confidential for 45 days, giving them plenty of time to launch the device without information being leaked.

Get Episodes of "Lost" and "Grey's" on Your Sprint Phone

Sprint and ABC just inked a deal where episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Ugly Betty will be available on certain Sprint handsets. Programming will also be available from ABC's other stations such as the Disney Channel's Hannah Montana and ABC News' Nightline.

Subscribers of a Sprint Power Vision TV Pack ($20) will be able to view the last four episodes of each series. The shows do not have to be downloaded and can be viewed on demand. This is seen as a benefit over the iPhone, where users will first have to download each show to their PC from iTunes and then sync their phone to their PC.

Cisco Sues Apple over use of iPhone Trademark

Due to all of the buzz over the years, it makes sense that the launch of the Apple iPhone would not happen without some form of controversy. Cisco, who owns the iPhone trademark and already sells Voice over IP products using the iPhone name, sued Apple for trademark infringement just one day after Apple announced the iPhone. Cisco acquired the iPhone trademark when it bought Infogear in 2000. Infogear originally filed for the iPhone trademark in 1996.

Apple has been in negotiations with Cisco for several years, first approaching them in 2001 regarding use of the iPhone trademark. Negotiations broke down the night before the announcement from Apple.

"We think Cisco's trademark lawsuit is silly," Apple spokesman Alan Hely said. "There are already several companies using the name iPhone for Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) products. We are the first company to ever use the iPhone name for a cell phone, and if Cisco wants to challenge us on it we are very confident we will prevail."

The iPhone is Finally Unveiled

After years of buzz, Apple has finally announced the iPhone, a combination of a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and an Internet communication device with email, web browsing, searching and maps. The phone operates similar to an iPod and a Smartphone. One cool feature is the iPhone's Visual Voicemail, co-developed by Apple and Cingular. This feature allows users to look at a listing of their voicemails, decide which messages to listen to, then go directly to those messages without having to listening to the prior messages. The iPhone has a full QWERTY soft keyboard. The touch keyboard will appear when users need to type and uses predictive text. The phone also includes a 2.0-megapixel camera.

iPhone also features Cover Flow, Apple's way to browse the music library by album cover artwork on an iPod. When navigating the music library, consumers are automatically switched into Cover Flow by rotating iPhone into its landscape position. iPhone's stunning 3.5-inch widescreen plays the same videos purchased from the online iTunes Store that users enjoy watching on their computers and iPods. iPhone is a quad-band GSM phone which also features EDGE and Wi-Fi wireless technologies for data networking. iPhone includes support for quad-band GSM, EDGE, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR wireless technologies.

iPhone will be available in the US in June 2007, Europe in late 2007, and Asia in 2008, in a 4GB model for $499 (US) and an 8GB model for $599 (US), and will work with either a PC or Mac. iPhone will be sold in the US through Apple's retail and online stores, and through Cingular's retail and online stores.

Source: www.mobiledia.com