World of Apple

Japanese based research firm Impress R&D has released a report showing that the iPhone has 46.1% of the Japanese smartphone market. Impress goes onto break down individual iPhone models stating that the iPhone 3G has a 24.6% share whilst the 3GS has a 21.5% share.

MobileCrunch offers some analysis pointing towards aggressive advertising via print and TV adverts and competitive pricing from the exclusive carrier Softbank.

China Unicom chairman Chang Xiaobing has confirmed that the official iPhone carrier in China has sold 100,000 iPhones in the first 40 days of sales.

The comment comes after company Wednesday Marbridge Consulting reported that Unicom had sold only 10,000 units. This figure has now been confirmed to have been a typo.

Further on in the interview Xiaobing criticised the media for focussing on the high price of the contract-free 32GB iPhone 3GS which sells for an equivalent value of $1033. The chairman also refers to previous reports that China Unicom purchased 5 million units from Apple which Xiaobing describes as “not entirely accurate”.

Pandav a company that develops iPhone apps has contacted Mac Rumors to inform them of an erroneous entry into iBart’s app logs could suggest the testing of a new iPhone.

The data specifically comes from Pinch Media who provides analytics for apps like iBart which provides a public transportation guide for the San Francisco mass transit system, the data Pinch Media provides contains the individual hardware identifiers for iPhone models, for example the first iPhone released in 2007 was iPhone1,1 and the latest iPhone 3GS is labelled iPhone2,1.

Evidence of iPhone3,1 was first found in August just after the release of iPhone OS 3.1. Now with the discovery of iPhone3,1 in the wild it would suggest that Apple has begun field testing the new iPhone.

Few rumours have begun circulating about the next iPhone but some have suggested that Apple could begin using processors being developed by the acquired P.A. Semi arm of Apple.

Britains largest supermarket Tesco announced today that it will begin selling the iPhone through an agreement with O2, the supermarket hopes to have pay-as-you-go and contract models available before Christmas 2009.

Tesco is not currently offering any pricing or tariff details. But did describe the pricing as “competitive”.

Tesco Mobile which is a joint venture with O2 will be offering the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in Tesco Phone Shops and online through Tesco Direct in the UK.

Apple has begun running all App Store submissions through a static analysis tool which will identify apps using private API calls.

Apple offers developers for the iPhone and iPod touch a list of public application programming interface (APIs) which are free to be used and well documented. Apple also has a collection of private APIs which only Apple is allowed to use and generally don’t inform developers about. There are several reasons why Apple doesn’t want private APIs being used; security reasons, consistency reasons, or that the API is subject to change potentially breaking the app in the future.

Many apps currently on the App Store already use private APIs but as finding them is incredibly difficult they often slip through the strict Apple approval process but now Apple has added an automated search of app code to find such banned APIs.

The automated process is already creating stories of apps being rejected for use of private APIs which developers are denying.

It is being reported that the iPhone is set to make a debut in just a few weeks in South Korea after clearing regulatory hurdles.

Korea Communications Commission issued a statement on Wednesday saying that it will grant Apple a license that will allow the collecting of information about location and provide services such “as map, phone locating and related marketing.”

KT Corp is rumoured to be the carrier that has been selected to sell the handset in South Korea with some Korean newspapers suggesting that a launch could be as early as next week.

November 10 marked the day that O2 lost its grip as the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the UK, a title it held for 2 years and one day. The first competitor to enter the scene is Orange UK who is offering little savings over O2 for those wishing to sign up.

Orange announced via a Twitter account that it had sold 30,000 iPhone units today, what it claims was a UK record for handset sales in the UK.

Meanwhile O2 was today allowing customers to unlock their iPhones for use on other networks although existing contracts will have to be seen through.

Radioshack has released a brief statement announcing that it will begin selling the iPhone in some markets later this month with a complete U.S. rollout in 2010.

“As part of its ongoing mobility strategy, RadioShack is pleased to announce that it will introduce Apple’s iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in a limited number of company-owned stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth and New York City metropolitan areas beginning later this month. RadioShack expects to introduce iPhone in stores nationwide in 2010. For more information about exact store locations and product availability, visit www.radioshack.com. For more information about iPhone, visit www.apple.com/iphone.”

In an question and answer session with Times online readers, O2 head Matthew Key spoke about the iPhone and how the company is addressing network issues.

When asked about how O2 was handling losing the exclusivity of the iPhone Key responded by saying that O2 will allow current iPhone owners to unlock their iPhones for use on other UK networks.

, we will allow O2 customers to unlock their iPhones, although of course they will still need to honour any outstanding contract period they have. At the end of their contract period, they are entirely free to move to another operator

Additionally when asked about poor 3G network coverage across the UK Key outlined some of O2’s future plans for network capacity expansion. In particular in London where capacity has been stretched severely in the last few months. The O2 boss said that the UK carrier had seen an 18-fold increase in data usage over the last year and would start by investing £30 million to “address capacity issues in London alone between now and Christmas and I’m confident that we’ll see much improved levels of service as a result.”

Boy Genius Report has today briefly noted that AT&T and Apple are “contemplating” launching an 8GB iPhone 3GS for just $99.

AT&T and Apple currently offer an older 8GB iPhone 3G but this move would represent a complete departure from the iPhone 3G.