World of Apple

Mobile Entertainment adds to recent reports that O2 UK will lose its exclusive arrangement to sell the iPhone in the UK. Mobile Entertainment pinpoints October 9, 2009 as the date that O2 will no longer have an exclusive agreement with Apple in the UK.

O2 will continue to have rights to sell the iPhone through 2012, an O2 spokesperson told Mobile Entertainment, “All I can say is that O2 has a multi-year exclusive on iPhone – and that this remains in place.”

Boy Genius Report is today reporting that multiple tipsters have contacted the site over the last few days to inform them that Rogers in Canada is shipping 8GB iPhones 3GS units to stores.

Boy Genius Report speculates that Apple could be phasing out the iPhone 3G model in favour of an 8GB iPhone 3GS.

Sina.com.cn reports that a number of senior Apple officials have flown to China this week according to an unnamed but “informed source”.

Sina.com.cn adds that “Their visit aims to visit [sic] senior officials of China Unicom and discuss with them how iPhone should enter Chinese market,” the report also adds that Apple officials could meet with officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The Chinese based site has also posted photos of what it claims is an iPhone destined for the Chinese market.

According to a report by Shanghai Securities News Apple and China Unicom have entered into a three-year agreement to begin selling the iPhone in China.

The source stated to Shanghai Securities News that China Unicom could begin selling the iPhone around late September and the agreement set a minimum sales threshold of CNY 5 billion ($731 million), effectively guaranteeing Apple sales of one to two million devices per year.

Following this report Reuters posted that China Unicom spokesperson Sophia Tso had said that “Discussions are still ongoing, we have not reached any formal agreement,” an Apple spokesperson declined to comment.

China Unicom had 135 million subscribers as of February 2009 and runs a standard GSM/UMTS 3G network – the same as AT&T’s network in the United States.

According to a report published last week a specially built iPhone could make its way to China in September. The report credits Foxconn (Hon Hai) as helping piece together a deal between Apple and Chinese carrier China Unicom.

According to Beijing regulations mobile devices can’t feature WiFi, an issue which dates back many years. The device which is said to be in tests by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and codenamed “model 90″ is expected to be available sometime in September.

A screenshot showing T-Mobile Netherlands’ internal phone catalogue system shows an iPhone named “iPhone 2009″ available in 16GB and 32GB capacities.

The image which is posted on iPhoneClub.nl also has two stranger entries, the first reads “iPhone 2009 (NTB)” and “iPhone 3G 8GB Black V2.” It is unclear where these models would fit into Apple’s iPhone lineup.

Apple has been widely expected to release a 32GB iPhone at tomorrow’s WWDC opening keynote.

A report from the Financial Times which cites “people familiar with the initiative” suggests that Apple could unveil an iPhone model with a considerably lower retail price as early as Monday.

“The anticipated new phone is likely to start production in July with the third version of the iPhone operating system, also expected to be released next week as a free upgrade for existing iPhone owners,” writes FT.com.

The article does not go into details on what features a cheaper iPhone would include but cites Morgan Stanley analyst Kathryn Huberty as saying, “it’s either a $50 or a $100 cut” based on a survey of consumers that indicated a $50 drop “could increase demand by 50 per cent and a $100 cut by 100 per cent.” Huberty has a reputation for off the mark predictions.

AppleInsider notes that UK based reseller of the iPhone, Carphone Warehouse has added four new inventory placeholders onto its system in recent days.

The four place holders refer to an iPhone labelled “v3″ but of interest is two place holders for “IPhone 32GbV3 Black” and “IPhone 32GbV3 White”.

It should be added that placeholders on inventory systems are not necessarily a sure sign of a future product, in many cases they are guesses by staff at the retailer. The placeholders however fit with rumours of a 32GB iPhone.

The new iPhone is expected to be announced at the WWDC 2009 opening keynote on June 8th at 10.00 a.m. pacific time.

Mac Rumors reports that Apple has begun putting the finishing touches on it’s Push Notification service testing which the company began several weeks ago.

The AP Mobile application was the first application to be included in the large-scale testing program of Push Notifications which allows applications to receive notifications on the iPhone when they’re not running.

Some are speculating that with the release of iTunes 8.2 this week and the end of Push Notification testing that Apple could be preparing an imminent release of iPhone OS 3.0, although it would not be expected until July.

Boy Genius Report has published a rumour about the possibility of video chat on the new iPhone. The source of the rumour is Fido’s 2009 product roadmap which BGR says it is “very far away from being able to confirm”. The published image shows a $99 4GB iPhone with “Video Calling (iChat)” listed in the features list.

The most notable slide has to do with a 4GB iPhone 3G. While there is a huge disclaimer that the image isn’t the device itself, the slide depicts a 4GB iPhone model that will run for $99 and come with quad-band EDGE, tri-band HSDPA, a 2 megapixel shooter and, believe it or not, iChat video calling (oh hi, front-facing camera).

It is unknown how authentic the image is but BGR doesn’t seem very convinced.