Nielsen has unveiled the latest figures for the smartphone market. iOS has held steady at about 26% while Android is still 36% of the market in the latest numbers.

A rumor has surfaced that the iPhone 4S will have an integrated SIM card. The same rumor claims that the iPhone 5 will come in the spring of 2012. This is the first time a rumor has pointed to the iPhone 4S and 5 being different devices.

Despite the lack of revenue from the deal, Best Buy does stand to earn big from accessory sales. And while no one knows exactly how the numbers work out, Colin A. McGranahan with Sanford C. Berstein & Co told BusinessWeek that since the wholesale price of the iPhone 3G is probably around $550, AT&T could make up to a $350 subsidy from the voice and data fees. Likewise, Apple would get a $450 subsidy from AT&T.

But the picture is not so rosy for Best Buy:

If it paid a $550 wholesale price for an iPhone that it then sells for $199, it may only receive $350 to $400 back from AT&T, leaving it with a $0 to $50 profit. On another smartphone with a price to consumers of $199, Mr. McGranahan estimated the profit could easily be $100 to $200.

Yikes! The deals Apple cuts with retailers are not very generous, but they seem to work for now. Because when someone goes into a store looking for an iPod or an iPhone, that’s precisely what they want.

[via Bits at New York Times Blog]

“We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain Infineon is the 3G supplier” Richard Windsor, analyst, Nomura Securities

It’s the second comment on the iPhone 3G’s reception today, after US carrier AT&T spoke to our network site SlashGear today about the criticism their network has faced.  Stopping short of taking blame for the handset’s 3G shortcomings, the suggestion seemed to be that a firmware update would be the most likely fix for any signal problems:

“Customer experience on iPhone 3G or any device can vary based on a number of factors including proximity to the cell site, buildings, trees, terrain, and the number of people on the network at a given time.  We and Apple are working continuously to ensure people have a great experience on the iPhone, and we urge our customers to synch iPhone 3G to iTunes frequently to ensure they have the latest software updates” AT&T representative

However Windsor paints a much more serious picture, claiming that the issue is unlikely to be rectified with changes in firmware.  Instead, according to the analyst, Apple would have to actually replace the 3G chipset in question in order to avoid consumers claiming they are not getting the performance they paid for.

Apple has generally remained silent on the issue, and is yet to comment (or more likely say “no comment”) on these latest Infineon rumors.  There is also no word from the chipset company themselves, who were first rumored to be supplying Apple with their S-GOLD3 back in April.

[via GigaOM] Image via iFixit

Trism requires that you slide the trisms so that they create a combo of three of the same color. Once you do this, they are eliminated from the board and new ones slide down into their place. Here’s where the neat part comes in. You can tilt the iPhone in any direction to change the gravity so the trisms fall and fill in spaces. Open spaces in the board make it more difficult to make matches, says the tutorial, so turning the iPhone on its head can actually help you score big points!

This game only costs $4.99 and it seems to offer hours of gameplay and really, it’s like three games in one. First, there is “Infinism,” a game that allows you to take your time and really plan out your matches. The second version is called “Terminism” which is timed and if you can’t make a match by the time the counter counts down, you lose the game. Lastly, there’s “Syllogism” which is my personal favorite. It really makes use of the accelerometer. To play this game, you must hold the iPhone flat and tilt it so that the trisms fall and match up with each other. It starts out easy, as you can see from the photo below, but then it picks up and can get quite complicated.

To spice it up, there’s also bombs, locks and obstacles that can get in your way and require strategic matching to eliminate. And when you make a match of five trism or more, a rainbow trism will appear and, you guessed it, this allows you to match two trisms of any color with it.

All in all, I enjoyed this game. It’s a fun way to pass the time and with clear graphics, fun sound effects and challenging gameplay, you’re sure to get caught up in all the matching fun.

Stripping off the new iPhone 3G for component lists and price them individually, iSuppli determined that a 8GB iPhone 3G costs $173.33 to build. AT&T is rumored to be paying Apple $300 subsidy on each iPhone 3G sales, that put the iPhone 3G total prices to $499 for the 8GB version and translate to the fifty five percent margin stated above.

“iSuppli believes Apple aimed for a more cost-effective design for the 3G iPhone compared to the 2G, in order to lower the retail price – which will allow the company to seed adoption and to capture maximum market share now – while the company still has buzz and a perceived differentiation relative to its competitors.”

If this number hold any truth, Apple’s one million iPhone 3G sold during the weekend should put its quarterly earning higher than before.

[via zdnet]

According to the recent findings from iSuppli, they believe Apple will be paying roughly $173 for materials and manufacturing of the 8GB iPhone 3G. While they are estimating $73 higher than Portelligent, that’s still considerably less than the original iPhone, which was around $226.

You can bet that Apple is hoping you spring for the 16GB model (I know I am) as it is estimated that the additional memory will only cost them $23 more than the 8GB model. Of course, we’ll be paying an extra $100, so that’s a nice $77 in Apple’s pocket.

[via AppleInsider]

Munster believes that Apple is charging carriers around $425 for the phone, which they will in turn sell for $600 or more. He believes that roughly 1 out of every 10 3G iPhones sold will be one of these unsubsidized pre-paid phones.

[via Infinite Loop]

Reiner suggests that AT&T is paying roughly $325 in subsidies on every new iPhone sold. What’s more is that he also believes that Apple is receiving a $100 bonus for every new customer that signs up at one of their stores. It sounds like Apple might have thought things through a little more this time around. Now they’re selling a phone that’s cheaper than the original (and will thus likely sell even better) and they’re getting their money up-front from AT&T. Well played.

[via Crave]

It’s pretty obvious why there will be a bigger demand for Apple’s latest headset. According to a representative of Morgan Stanley “We believe the market generally expects a doubling of iPhone units with the lower price point ($199) and we believe this is realistic, if not conservative.”  They have even raised their price target on Apple’s stock up to $210, which is up $25 from their last target.

Carriers such as O2 in the UK and Optus in Australia are already receiving more interested customers than expected. Optus was taking $100 deposits from customers wanting to get their hands on an iPhone 3G, however, they have received so many that they had to stop taking such deposits. Looks like you’d better get lined up pretty early this year.

[via 9to5 Mac]

Unfortunately the survey conducted by iSHARE isn’t very clear as to why those polled aren’t interested in the new iPhone. Some suggested reasons are that the carrier SoftBank is a relatively small player in the Japanese market, as well as the lack of removable battery and inability to play 1Stg digital TV.

[via Electronista]

Portelligent estimates that with this lower manufacturing cost that Apple stands to make around $90 per phone on hardware alone. While that is significantly lower than the estimated $229 profit earned on the original iPhone, the extra money from AT&T that they are likely making in addition to the number of new users that will be attracted by the lower price will no doubt make up for the difference.

According to David Carey, president of Portelligent “Gen2 iPhone pricing is aggressive enough that it made me think Apple’s really taking the gloves off on this one. They are probably not as worried about iPhone hardware profits as they are about getting a piece of the action on service revenues and getting more Macs in homes and offices all around the globe.”

I have to agree with Carey on those points. With such a low price point, it’s going to be hard for other high-end phone manufactures to compete. Not to mention the number of new users that will be introduced to Apple’s products and therefore be tempted to “switch” to a Mac.

[via Macnn]

It seems that Apple again has their eye on P.A. Semi, but it does not answer the question of why they bought them. It would appear that P.A. Semi had acquired a little obligatory debt, that Apple paid off, and brought P.A. Semi under Apple’s control. Now Apple has access to all of P.A. Semi’s intellectual property and patents, and to Apple they must have been worth the cash.

Apple’s plans behind the acquisition are foggy. They want P.A. Semi not for a product that they currently design, but for their experience. Apple most likely will use P.A. Semi to design a chip for a new portable device, as it is very unlikely they would switch CPU architectures again for the Mac line. Unfortunately, we will just have to wait and see.

[Via MacRumors]

“We continue to expect Apple to offer a family of iPhones (2-3 separate models) in the first half of 2009, including lower priced ($200-$300) models. Just as the company slowly diversified the iPod lineup and entered lower price points with every new version of the iPod, we expect Apple to launch new models of the iPhone at lower price points in CY09. This expectation, along with the expectation for lower price points, and world wide availability of the phone, is critical to our CY09 iPhone estimate of 45m units” Gene Munster, analyst, Piper Jaffray

“[W]e believe Apple is not hesitant to try business models other than the exclusive models the company has chosen during the iPhone’s first year. It has enabled Apple to maintain tight control on the user experience of the iPhone, but expanded availability will likely become a higher priority, and we believe it will eventually drive Apple to offer the iPhone on multiple carriers in each country” Gene Munster

Munster also addresses Apple’s introduction of the App Store, describing it as a recognition that the iPhone user base was “dissatisfied with the simplified Web 2.0 apps available on the iPhone’s web browser.”  He describes the developing iPhone and iPod ranges as a sign that Apple is looking to “transform the MP3 market into a portable computing market” and that the iPod touch is the first of many WiFi-enabled, internet-friendly PMPs.  For anybody hoping for an Apple Tablet, Gene suggests it may take a few years, but will come as an evolution of the MacBook’s MultiTouch trackpad (which itself will evolve to an embedded color touchscreen):

“Eventually, we expect Apple to change the trackpad to backlit color screens for a more dynamic user interface on the Mac. And ultimately, we expect Apple to develop a full touch-screen MacBook, although not until the technology has fully matured over the next 3-5 years” Gene Munster

Nothing especially new on the iPhone, overall, but the omission of the 3G iPhone from any of Munster’s answers is a curious one.  You can read the full list of questions and answers at Apple Insider.

[via iPhone Investigator - thanks Michelle!]

The iPhone may be selling great, but there is quite a bit more exciting news for Apple than the iPhone. The amount of Macs sold is up 51%, and the amount of profit from them is 54%, over last year. This is of course in line with the exploding popularity of Macs lately. Apple is not longer a US only affair, as 44% of Apple’s revenue came from international sales.

iPod sales are still high, but seem to be pretty flat. No real growth there. 1% growth in sales, and 8% growth in revenue. Any growth is good though, so it is not like the iPod division is not performing well or anything. The iPod still carries 73% of the MP3 player market.

[Via Apple]

Some of this success no doubt must be contributed to the huge hit that has been the iPhone. Never before has a single phone captured the eye of so many people. It is absolutely unprecedented. It is not to say that Mac and iPod sales were not good last year, but with 4 million plus iPhones sold so far, and that revenue sharing agreement, Apple is living large off the iPhone.

Interesting note as well, AT&T made a huge jump on the list as well. They jumped from spot 27 to 10. This is speaking of the main AT&T division. The mobile interests of AT&T were no doubt flooded with money this year, meaning the iPhone may be responsible for at least part of AT&T’s great year.

[Via Macsimus News]