TamsIJungle

Even though Apple itself has not stated anything as of this writing, Gizmodo claims to have heard from an Apple support rep who was willing to talk about overheating problems related to the iPhone.

In particular, he had to say the following:

I’m a Tier 2 iPhone agent for Apple. I’d like to add that roughly one to two calls out of every thousand that I take deal with the battery “overheating”.

Generally, this incident can be described as “uncomfortably warm”, and I have not ever received or heard of a coworker receiving a call about someone being injured by the iPhone, including people too stupid to stop using their phones after the screen is broken.

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As of now, no further information is available…

Image: John Sullivan

Apple’s tablet apparently has just become a lot less important – Gizmodo reports the following:

…it comes from a source that has always been 100% reliable: Not only Apple may be working on a 10-inch tablet, but also in 13″ and 15″ models, one running Mac OS X.

This source claims that the two touchscreen prototypes—made of aluminum, but on the shape of big iPhones—were in a factory in Shenzuen, China. One of them “was running Mac OS X 10.5.”

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With that, we’re dealing with little more than a TabletPC running Mac OS X…which should not be too much of a problem for Apple to pull off (especially now that Microsoft’s TabletPCs are starting to become usable)…

Hutchison Austria’s CEO Berthold Thoma is known to be extremely talkative when faced with journalists – the interview below has him talking about a few interesting things.

Before diving into the (translated) interview, let me give you some background information from other sources: this carrier has always invested heavily into smartphones due to their multimedia features. Originally being deep in Microsoft’s camp, they have since moved over to the S60 camp (which makes up for about 30% of the offered handset models). The carrier is known for its great service at affordable prices – here we go:

The Hutchison Group was the first to offer free roaming all over its network. Why that?
At Hutchison’s, we are convinced that having cheap data access all over the world is an integral part of information society. We have realized thiis vision inside our group via the 3LikeHome service.

Of course, there is a business plan behind all of that. Our research has shown that cheap roaming is in demand. Lowering prices causes usage to explode: in the first year, voice usage in 3likehome networks increased by 427 percent, with data usage being multiplied by a factor of 90.

Do you think that we will see further carrier mergers?
The trend has already started. Three of the four Austrian carrieirs are already in international networks, which will consolidate even more on a long term.

Where do you see Windows Mobile in two years?
We currently sell three Windows Mobile handsets. Our business customers love the Exchange integration, and Microsoft furthermore does a great job integrating Live into the OS.

I predict that WM’s market share will raise over the next two years. The main risk IMHO is Android…if it continues to fare as well as it did, it could become a significant competitor.

What do you think about S60
S60 has had some problems staying in line with other OS’s, especially when apps and the web browser are concerned. I wonder which future updates Nokia will deploy in order to remain competitive…

The iPhone is said to dominate the handset market. Do you think that Apple can keep this position?
Apple has caused movement in the handset market, but has since maxed out at a 13 percent smartphone market share…which is not something I call dominance.
Nevertheless: customers benefit from every movement on the market which leads to better handsets.

What do you think about picocells?
In general, these do not pay off financially. However, I can envision them being deployed to cover hot spots like shopping centres….

Will VoIP replace classic voice calls?
VoIP definitely is interesting, especially for customers who are into international calls. Teens furthermore love Skype. Unlike most other carriers, we want to help our customers realize the benefits of these services and thus provide pre-bundled Skype with some of our handsets.

As for VoIP replacing classic calls: unlikely.

The folks at AdMob’s usually compile monthly reports on device market share. Even though these usually are pretty valuable, they pale in comparison to their recent special report on iPhone and Android applications.

I have personally been so impressed by the report, that I felt like publishing it in its entity for you below without further comments:

Source PDF file here

One can’t deny that the French have at least some degree of experience with blowing things up – their latest exploit puts them on the defense. The threat: the iPhone. Let’s quote the BBC:

A number of iPhones that reportedly “exploded” in France were not due to the battery overheating as had been suggested, Apple has said.

The firm said that all of the handsets they had seen with broken screens were caused by an “external force”.

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As of now, no further information is available – let’s see how it all plays out…

Image: John Sullivan

DigiTimes has just claimed the following:

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OmniVision will be the sole supplier of 3.2-megapixel CIS products for new iPod nano, iPod classic and iPod Touch models which will be launched in September, the sources indicated.

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As of now, all I know is about camera-enabled iPod Nano and touch devices – my sources have not told me anything about an upcoming revision of the Classic. However, it would theoretically make sense – let’s see how it all plays out….

My request for comments has not led to too much motion at my partners – at first glance, Apple’s method of spreading FUD among developers seems to work fine.

Astraware’s response went via multiple people, and looked similar to the one from DataViz:

We don’t have a comment here as our games and applications are developed for consumers, not businesses. Sorry L

Thanks, Erica

As I had a call with Mark/Space anyways, I then proceeded to ask Jackie Macapanpan. His statement shows the amount of importance most developers give to the matter, and could also explain why most of the other developers didn’t bother getting back to us:

…I have to openly admit that I didn’t hear anything from Apple re that. All I know is what sites say…and this is not much.

So no comment here…

As of now, no further statements have arrived. However, I am skeptical whether we will see any more – lets see what happens.

Yours truly promised you to give you some statements from developers regarding the recent iTunes App Store blunder. As I have a few developers I know well, I thought that getting statements would be easy – quite the contrary, I apologize.

36 hours after my request went out, all I got was the quote from DataViz’s Danny Tu – it is below:

Hi Tam,

At this time, DataViz is not commenting on this issue. I apologize.

Regards,

Danny

Even though all my partners could have miraculously been on a vacation at the same time, I personally think that Apple has put some sort of “gag order” in place.

Let’s see how it all plays out…

The Wall Street Journal reports the following:

Since his return in late June, the 54-year-old has been pouring almost all of his attention into a new touch-screen gadget that Apple is developing, said people familiar with the situation.

Those working on the project are under intense scrutiny from Mr. Jobs, particularly with regard to the product’s advertising and marketing strategy, said one of these people. The people familiar with the matter declined to give details on the tablet or disclose when the device would come out.

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As of now, no further information is available – let’s see how it all plays out…

The last few days have brought us quite a few reports about “manipulative” PR agencies buying apps and writing fake reviews in order to boost the iTunes App Store placements of their client’s products.

PocketGamer now claims the following:

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For example, using figures provided by Firemint for its game Flight Control, the only countries where you regularly have to sell over 1,000 units daily to get the #1 position are the US (anywhere between 13,000 – 20,000), the UK (around 3,000), Canada, Germany, France (each around 1,000).

For many smaller countries, a couple of hundred daily sales can gain you the #1 slot.

In this way, a war chest of around $10,000, correctly deployed, should be able to gain a 99c game a solid Top 100 launch, especially combined with decent PR and targeted Facebook advertising.

And what’s really sweet about the deal is that 70 per cent of the money goes back to the developer through the standard App Store business model.

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I personally think that all of this is normal for a simple reason: the App Store toplists remain the only viable route to market for iPhone apps. As long as this doesn’t change, top list trickery is here to stay…