Kryptonlogic.com

Apple Inc. may begin selling its next-generation iPhone handset sometime on or after the third week of June, hints a recent memo from AT&T to its retail staffers.

In the message to employees this week, the nation’s No. 1 wireless carrier spoke of an “exciting Summer Promotional Launch” that will kick off next month and offer the opportunity for sales representatives to “soar” past their sales quotas.

“To ensure proper staffing during this period, Sales personnel planning to take approved time off are encouraged to schedule their vacations before June 15 or after July 12 to participate in the heavy selling period,” the company wrote.

Almost one year ago to the date, AT&T made a similar request of its retail staff, announcing vacation blackout days from June 15 through July 15.

The carrier, alongside Apple, began selling the iPhone on June 29th at 6:00 p.m.

In the weeks leading up to last year’s iPhone launch, AT&T went on to appoint addition part time staffers, hire crowd control, and acquire stanchions to corral patrons. It also announce a plan to close down its 1800 retail stores at around 4:00 p.m. on June 29th and reopen them again at 6:00 p.m. with iPhones on hand.

According to the Chinese-language Commercial Times, Apple has reportedly ordered 24-25 million 3G iPhones form Foxconn Electronics. Foxconn is the current exclusive builder of first-generation iPhone. The Commercial Times cites sources at component suppliers and foreign institutional investors in Taipei.

Shipments are expected to hit three million in June with the 24-25 million shipping throughout the life of the product.

The report coincides with WWDC and Steve Jobs announcing the next generation iPhone during his annual keynote. Engadget reported the alleged specs of the new iPhone last week.

Here’s what they reported

• The new iPhone will be about the same size and shape as the first-gen model.
• It’s 3G.

• It will have built-in GPS.
• The back will be glossy and black from top to bottom. No more metallic back, as seen on the current iPhones.
• The back will be smoother, less angular, and slightly thicker.
• The headphone jack will no longer be recessed. Yippee!
• The screen size and resolution will stay roughly the same.
• No solid word on battery capacity.

Walt Mossberg talks about how the US cable companies and DSL providers are screwing the US over with tricks and slow speeds.

…AppleTV is nice but currently has limited appeal because of bandwidth…..

Oh and a little bombshell….Says iPhone will be 3G in 60 days (at about 6:53 in)! As someone who regularly gets to tests Apple products way ahead of the public, he would know!

Go Walt!

From Engadget

At AT&T’s press feast today, the focus was unquestionably the trial deployment of Microsoft’s Surface kiosks to stores later this month — the presence of Microsoft’s own Robbie Bach was testament to that fact. But there was more to the action by the time the show was over. Deployment of 3G and 4G services was a hot topic both during CEO Ralph de la Vega’s presentation and in the post-conference Q&A (one member of the press lamented the fact that AT&T’s BlackBerrys still lack HSDPA), and at one point he mentioned that all of the carrier’s smartphones would be 3G within a matter of mere “months.”

We figure that instantly thrusts several devices onto (and off of) AT&T’s roadmap in the very near future, including a 3G iPhone and the BlackBerry 9000 we recently saw strutting its stuff. Of course, that would also preclude the just-introduced Palm Centro from hanging around for very long, since it tops out with EDGE speeds; last time we checked Garnet had a hard time handling HSDPA, so something’s got to give. We’re not writing the obit just yet — CEOs’ statements are often a mere shadow of reality, after all — but it’s certainly food for thought.

Well this can be good or not. I hope Apple decides on a trade-in plan to get the 3G phone. Look forward to this and more that AT&T will be bringing us in the next month or so.

From AppleInsider:

Investment bank Piper Jaffray is out with a bullish research note on Apple today predicting a diversification of the iPhone line into a multi-tiered family of handsets that will combine for sales of 45 million units next year.

The 4-page report, authored by analyst Gene Munster, attempts to outline the future direction of the iPhone family for Apple shareholders, offering guidance on how to best think about unit growth, changes in revenue share, and strategic shifts that may play out as the company enters new international markets like China where local dynamics may complicate its model of working with only one exclusive carrier.

“While most investors view our estimate of 45 million iPhones in 2009 as outrageously aggressive, we are maintaining our estimate based on several factors,” Munster wrote. “First, we expect Apple to introduce a 3G iPhone model with additional features in the next 3-6 months. We also expect Apple to offer an entire family of iPhones by January 2009 at the latest including lower priced models that decrease the average selling price (ASP).”

More specifically, the analyst expects a 3G model to arrive in June followed by a “perhaps more significant” introduction of a model by next year that will be priced between $200 and $300, addressing a more price sensitive market. As such, he expects iPhone ASPs to drop from $489 in 2007 to $365 in 2008 to $314 in 2009.

This pattern would mirror the path taken by Apple as it matured the iPod family, he said, where a slow by steady diversification saw the company enter lower price points with every new revision of the player. However, he noted that the iPhone’s unit growth curve stands to be significantly steeper than the iPods, given that Apple sold more iPhones in the first two days of sales than it did in the first three quarters of iPod sales.

“And the company did not sell over 2 million iPods in a quarter until the iPod’s third year of sales, whereas the company sold over 2m iPhones in the second full quarter of sales,” Munster added. “In sum, we believe the iPhone is a full 2-3 years ahead of the iPod in terms of its historical growth pattern.”

Compared to iPod units, which grew a radical 409 percent between Apple’s fiscal 2004 and 2005, the analyst is modeling iPhone units to grow slightly slower at 304 percent between fiscal 2008 and 2009, given some uncertainty as to how quickly the company roll out cheaper models.

Munster’s estimates also take into account the continued international rollout of the handset, which he believes will double the addressable market for the device every year for the next two years. With 3.7 million units having been sold through December via 6 carriers (who combined for a subscriber base of 153 million), he estimates the iPhone’s penetration into this addressable market to be just 3 percent.

Investment bank Piper Jaffray is out with a bullish research note on Apple today predicting a diversification of the iPhone line into a multi-tiered family of handsets that will combine for sales of 45 million units next year.

The 4-page report, authored by analyst Gene Munster, attempts to outline the future direction of the iPhone family for Apple shareholders, offering guidance on how to best think about unit growth, changes in revenue share, and strategic shifts that may play out as the company enters new international markets like China where local dynamics may complicate its model of working with only one exclusive carrier.

“While most investors view our estimate of 45 million iPhones in 2009 as outrageously aggressive, we are maintaining our estimate based on several factors,” Munster wrote. “First, we expect Apple to introduce a 3G iPhone model with additional features in the next 3-6 months. We also expect Apple to offer an entire family of iPhones by January 2009 at the latest including lower priced models that decrease the average selling price (ASP).”

More specifically, the analyst expects a 3G model to arrive in June followed by a “perhaps more significant” introduction of a model by next year that will be priced between $200 and $300, addressing a more price sensitive market. As such, he expects iPhone ASPs to drop from $489 in 2007 to $365 in 2008 to $314 in 2009.

This pattern would mirror the path taken by Apple as it matured the iPod family, he said, where a slow by steady diversification saw the company enter lower price points with every new revision of the player. However, he noted that the iPhone’s unit growth curve stands to be significantly steeper than the iPods, given that Apple sold more iPhones in the first two days of sales than it did in the first three quarters of iPod sales.

“And the company did not sell over 2 million iPods in a quarter until the iPod’s third year of sales, whereas the company sold over 2m iPhones in the second full quarter of sales,” Munster added. “In sum, we believe the iPhone is a full 2-3 years ahead of the iPod in terms of its historical growth pattern.”

Compared to iPod units, which grew a radical 409 percent between Apple’s fiscal 2004 and 2005, the analyst is modeling iPhone units to grow slightly slower at 304 percent between fiscal 2008 and 2009, given some uncertainty as to how quickly the company roll out cheaper models.

Munster’s estimates also take into account the continued international rollout of the handset, which he believes will double the addressable market for the device every year for the next two years. With 3.7 million units having been sold through December via 6 carriers (who combined for a subscriber base of 153 million), he estimates the iPhone’s penetration into this addressable market to be just 3 percent.

From AppleInsider:

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., a long time Apple manufacturing partner and the largest builder of electronics components worldwide, is rumored to have landed the 3G iPhone contract. Meanwhile, Gartner is backtracking on claims that Apple has placed orders for 10 million of the next-generation handsets.

Without citing sources, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported Friday that Taiwan-based Hon Hai, which operates stateside under the trade name Foxconn Electronics, is currently in the bidding for the 3G iPhone contract from Apple.

Should Hon Hai successfully land the contract, it could ship an additional 10 million mobile handsets per year, the paper said.

However, a subsequent report filed by Dow Jones cited a person familiar with the matter as saying the Taiwanese assembler has already closed on the deal and will serve as the exclusive manufacturer of the next-generation Apple handset, which would presumably go into production soon.

Meanwhile, Gartner is attempting to clarify earlier statements about the 3G iPhone, specifically a claim by analyst Ken Dulaney that Apple placed an order for 10 million of the handsets.

The market research firm now admits that it’s uncertain about the accuracy of that claim, saying that it has no solid information to suggest that a contract has been signed or that a definitive order has been placed.

“If Apple was to place an order, than 10 million would be a reasonable number,” analyst Bob Hafner explained. “And we absolutely believe that in the next-generation iPhone 3G will be there.”

For their part, both Apple and its exclusive US wireless provider AT&T have both made comments by way of their top brass to suggest that a version of the iPhone capable of running on third-generation wireless networks would hit the market sometime this year.

“We’ve got to see the battery lives for 3G get back up into the five-plus-hour range,” Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said last September in response to inquiries over a 3G model at the UK iPhone launch. “Hopefully we’ll see that late next year.”

Two months later, AT&T Inc. chief executive Randall Stephenson flat out stated that a 3G model was in the cards for 2008.

“You’ll have it next year,” he said while speaking during a November 2007 meeting of the Churchill Club in Santa Clara, Calif.

Well if this is true, I look forward to seeing this roll out sometime over the summer, maybe I’ll upgrade. Anyone with any information out there, hit me up on Email or Comments below.

[Via AppleInsider]

Via Digg and Unwired View:

Apple filed for clamshell iPhone patent. The idea is to separate phone display and touch sensor array. Put the array on transparent panel and connect it to the display via hinge. When closed - it’s standard iPhone. Open it and the cover becomes a trackpad to control the phone. The same tech fits iTablet and brings Vista Sideshow like display to Mac…

It would be awesome to see an iPhone clamsell like phone with a clear display on the second screen. Only Apple knows what technology it has, they are always 15 years ahead of everyone else in technology. Yes, thats the Apple geek in me coming out

Another press event, another 3G iPhone no-show. Man, just think how nice it would be to have a brand spankin’ new HSDPA capable iPhone for downloading all those fancy new apps. Sure would come in handy for syncing your massive corporate email accounts (with attachments), too. Otherwise, you iPhone users will be stuck with your paltry EDGE when WiFi isn’t available. Will that all change in June with the launch of the 2.0 firmware? That’s what the rumor mill says — and it makes sense to us. What say you?

Alright iPhone nerds, it’s the eve of iPhone’s next big day. The SDK may or may not actually be released tomorrow, but we’ll finally find out what’s going on with it — and what those “exciting new enterprise features” are that Apple teased. Check back tomorrow (and feel free to leave your local time zone in comments), we’ll see you there!

08:00AM - Hawaii
10:00AM - Pacific
11:00AM - Mountain
12:00PM - Central
01:00PM - Eastern
06:00PM - London
07:00PM - Paris
09:00PM - Moscow
03:00AM - Tokyo (March 7th)

Our friends over at Engadget will be providing “LIVE” coverage, don’t miss out:
Live from Apple’s iPhone SDK press conference

Oh sure, Apple’s been offering up a couple of refurbished iPhones on its own web store for some time now, but actually finding one in stock has proven to be quite a challenge. Nevertheless, a purported internal memo has explained that select AT&T stores in the New England region (sorry, rest of the solar system) will be stocking refurbished iPhones for $199 (4GB) and $249 (8GB) — of course, the deal only applies to new activations. Has anyone actually seen this go down first hand? We wonder how quickly it’ll be before this offer bleeds out from the Northeast.

Read