Just a quick rundown of iPhone-related news and bits for the past week or so.
New iPhone in the horizon
iPhone analytics firm, Pinch Media, has gotten the word out that the next generation iPhone is already in the wild. MacRumors says that Pinch Media’s iBart application for the iPhone has logged a device that identified itself as “iPhone 3,1″.
Apple identifies devices by using a number-comma-number designation. The first iPhone was labeled as 1,1 and the iPhone 3GS as 2,1. Major hardware upgrade usually earns it a change in the first number, as is the case of iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 3G, in the meantime, only had minor internal hardware changes compared to the original iPhone, hence it was labeled as iPhone 1,2. The reference to iPhone 3,1 is said to signal an upcoming update to Apple’s smartphone. The iPhone 3GS (iPhone 2,1) started appearing online early 2009 and was subsequently released in June.
Growth
MacDailyNews links (or not) to a graph from Fortune comparing the cumulative sales of the iPhone versus the iPod showing the iPod reaching its 30 millionth sales in a little over 4 years but the iPhone did it in just 2 1/2 years.
Mobile advertising network, AdMob, said in an October 2009 report that the iPhone now represents 50 per cent of global smartphone traffic. According to AdMob’s data, the iPhone is up 10 per cent in absolute market share in August. Android is also making big strides in the world smartphone traffic, having jumped from 7 per cent to 11 per cent in the same two-month time period.
Sales
Based on an IDG report, China’s official iPhone carrier only sold five iPhones in the first two weeks of opening an online iPhone store in China’s equivalent of eBay. China Unicom started selling iPhones on Taobao.com on November 22, and as of December 3, only two 8GB iPhone 3G and three 16GB iPhone 3GS units have been sold, according to IDG. There was no mention of the 32GB iPhone 3GS model.
Though no official word has been made yet, it looks like the Netherlands will be getting its second iPhone carrier soon. MacDailyNews has been tipped off to KPN’s unfinished iPhone page. This has lead some to assume that KPN will be Apple’s second carrier of choice as Apple’s exclusivity deal with TMobile, the country’s first iPhone carrier, is expected to end by mid-2010.
(Where’s our second carrier? Get it on, Smart! ~Jim)
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