Analyst Says T-Mobile iDeal for iPhone
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The iPhone&#39;s dance card in Europe is filling up this week. On Wednesday, Apple announced that T-Mobile would be the exclusive carrier for the much-publicized handset in Germany.
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Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile division will sell Apple Inc.'s iPhone in Germany, where the eagerly awaited gadget will go on sale in November, company officials said Wednesday.
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(InfoWorld) - Deutsche Telekom AG is in talks with Apple Inc. about selling the iPhone in Germany and expects the U.S. company to announce its German distribution partner soon, a senior executive said Wednesday in Berlin. "We have held talks with Apple but have nothing more to say at this time," Hamid Akhavan, CEO of the German telco's mobile phone subsidiary T-Mobile International AG & Co. KG, said at a news conference ahead of the IFA consumer electronics show, which opens Friday. Akhavan said he expects Apple to announce its European partners "well ahead" of the important holiday shopping season. Discussion of the iPhone's arrival in Europe intensified following a report in the Financial Times last week about a deal between Apple and mobile phone operators in three key European markets: Germany's T-Mobile, France's Orange SA and Britain's O2 (UK) Ltd. Rumors have been swirling that Apple plans to announce one or more European partners at the IFA event. Apple has not provided details about its iPhone strategy in Europe, other than to sayÂ it plans to launch the device later this year. Akhavan was asked about the iPhone during a question-and-answer session with journalists at the news conference, which was called by T-Mobile to make a variety of announcements, including word of its MyFaves service. T-Mobile plans to launch the service developed by its U.S. subsidiary, in Germany in October, with the U.K. and Czech Republic to follow some time in the fourth quarter. The service, which has attracted more than 2.5 million users in the U.S., allows customers to make inexpensive calls and send text messages to five selected numbers. Users of the MyFaves service in Germany will pay a base fee of â¬15 (US$20) per month and â¬0.05 per call or SMS (Short Message Service) to the selected users, regardless of the network, whether mobile or fixed, T-Mobile or a competitor. MyFaves users making or receiving calls outside of Germany must pay roaming fees, however. "This cross-net offer is unique in Europe, and we expect it to attract lots of users," Akhavan said. More than two-thirds of mobile phone calls are made to the same five people, he said. Â
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T-Mobile USA, the fourth largest US mobile carrier, is expected to announce plans on Friday to deploy a nationwide 3G wireless network.
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Among the hundreds waiting in line yesterday to buy an iPhone were Computerworld's Michael DeAgonia and Seth Weintraub. It's been less than a day, but they're sold: It's worth the high price and offers a peak into the future.
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Users may see an iPhone with 3G technology in the next six months, a financial analyst said Monday, citing waning inventory of Apple's current iPhone and the increasing demand in Europe for 3G products.
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Users may see an iPhone with 3G technology in the next six months, a financial analyst said Monday, citing waning inventory of Apple&#39;s current iPhone and the increasing demand in Europe for 3G products.The iPhone shipments are likely to be weak during the March quarter, and inclusion of 3G technology in the phone could ensure that Apple meets its target of shipping 10 million iPhones in 2008, analyst Richard Gardner of Citigroup said in a research note on Monday. 3G is a high-speed wireless communications standard that provides broadband Internet capabilities to cell phones and mobile devices.An iPhone upgrade to include 3G technology could help the company forge more relationships with carriers as it builds a European presence. &quot;We believe that lack of 3G has been a significant headwind for iPhone in Europe where 3G is already pervasive,&quot; Gardner said.During meetings with Citigroup, Apple reiterated its plan to introduce the iPhone into additional European countries and Asia by the end of 2008, Gardner said.In a December report, Shaw Wu of American Technology Research said a 3G iPhone would likely ship around the middle or in the second half of this year after network coverage and battery life issues are addressed.During the iPhone rollout in the U.K. last year, Jobs said that 3G chips were &quot;power hogs&quot; but also said he expected to see better battery consumption this year. Chip vendors, including Broadcom and Arm, are developing power-efficient 3G mobile chips with multimedia capabilities.3G is still not widely deployed in the U.S., Wu wrote in a report. Apple could possibly position the new iPhone as a high-end smart phone with the current iPhone being shipped as a more mainstream product, Wu said.Apple&#39;s 3G plans in the U.S. could get a boost from AT&amp;T&#39;s announcement last week that it was expanding its 3G wireless coverage to 350 major U.S. markets, including all 100 of the largest cities.Until the iPhone becomes available in more countries, unlocking numbers will remain high. But as the iPhone&#39;s presence expands, &quot;most consumers will prefer to use iPhone on the network with which Apple has a relationship -- only then can they take advantage of innovative features, such as visual voicemail and ongoing software updates,&quot; Gardner said.Up to 35 percent of all iPhones sold since its launch in June have been unlocked and sold in countries where Apple does not yet have a formal relationship with a wireless carrier, Citigroup&#39;s Gardner said.There has been plenty of speculation surrounding the release of a 3G iPhone. Last year, Apple CEO Steve Jobs and AT&amp;T CEO Randall Stephenson separately said a 3G iPhone was coming in 2008, though the exact date is shrouded in secrecy.
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T-Mobile is pitching its against the likes of Apple and Creative with a new smart phone specifically (nominally) designed for digital music playback.
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Analysts predict a new and improved Apple iPhone as soon as mid-next year.
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There's more to gain than lose from the upcoming iPhone.
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BERLIN - Apple Inc. has picked Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile to sell the iPhone in Germany, gaining access to 34 million subscribers in Europe's biggest wireless market.
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T-Mobile USA, owned by Deutsche  Telekom AG , said on Tuesday it would offer unlimited  text messaging and voice calls for $99.99 a month, starting on  Thursday February 21.
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Digg.com founder cites 'solid' source Apple's upcoming iPhone will go on sale next month with two memory capacities and no ties to a specific network, it has been claimed. The 'small as s**t' handset is based on a slider form-factor, it's said - presumably to better match the iPod design ethos.â¦
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InfoWorld - The T-Mobile brand could soon be coming to a market near you. As part of a strategy to revive profits, Deutsche Telekom&#160;intends to expand its T-Mobile cellular business in markets in which the German telecommunications group is already offering fixed-line services and possibly in entirely new markets, the company said Thursday.
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(InfoWorld) - For all the buzz building about Apple's iPhone launch next week, success is not a sure bet, according to a survey released Tuesday. "The first million, no problem," said Chris Hazelton, senior analyst, mobile technology and trends with IDC, talking about iPhone sales. "Interest in this has been building for years. But the '08 goal [of 10 million sold]...that will depend on the iPhone experience. If it's not rock solid...." The IDC survey, which polled online users researching their next cell phone purchase, found a majority were interested in the iPhone but also revealed several hurdles to mass acceptance. About 10 percent, for example, said they were willing to pay full price -- the iPhone will list at $499 and $599 for the 4GB and 8GB models, respectively -- and sign a two-year service contract with AT&T, the iPhone's sole carrier. That's close to the estimate offered by a survey detailed yesterday by M:Metrics, a Seattle research firm, which said that 9 percent, or about 19 million, of all U.S. cell phone subscribers pegged their iPhone purchase intent at high. Although Hazelton didn't argue with M:Metrics' numbers, he stressed the snags that could limit the iPhone to a much smaller group than Apple and AT&T hope. "The exclusivity of AT&T will be the largest barrier," said Hazelton. "Only some people will have timed it right so that they can leave their carrier and won't have to pay an early termination fee." Others, the survey found, were unwilling or unable to eat the penalties. AT&T's rumored five-year exclusivity agreement with Apple will give the two companies the time to "weed out" other carriers from consumers interested in the iPhone, he noted, but again, that could be a slower process than the companies have planned on. "And then there's the price of the iPhone itself, and the need for a data plan on top of a voice plan," Hazelton said. "That's probably $80-plus a month right there. People will pay it if they want the iPhone experience, but moving forward, that may be simply too expensive." If the iPhone doesn't deliver on its promises, though, all might be moot. Dubbing it the "iPhone experience," Hazelton ticked off many of the same potential pitfalls as other analysts, ranging from the lack of a tactile keyboard to the slower speed of AT&T's EDGE-based data network. How users react to the iPhone, and how they expect to use it, said Hazelton, will ultimately be the most important determiner of success. Nothing will kill the buzz faster and brand the iPhone as a failure, said Hazelton, like negative word-of-mouth from the first buyers. And although the early adopters may be especially savvy about technology, one unknown could play a major role. "There are relatively few people who use smartphones in the U.S., and most of them are business users. This will be the first smartphone aimed at consumers," he said. "It's a complicated phone, basically a computer, and like computers, like Macs, it may crash, maybe a lot." Tales of iPhone problems, say frequent crashes, will turn Apple's hope into another Newton, Hazelton argued, referring to the 1993 PDA flop. In other words, there is much that may not go Apple's way after June 29. Ironically, that would make rivals unhappy, rather than glad to see Apple fall flat, Hazelton said. "The iPhone could open up the smartphone market to the U.S. consumer," he said. "When we talk to other device makers and carriers, they generally welcome Apple to the game. It makes sense. The iPhone raises the bar of customer expectations for what a cell phone is. If it succeeds, other vendors will have more ability to drive product upgrades, get customers to pay more for the device, and carriers will be able to get more people to subscribe to the more expensive plans." Apple will launch the iPhone Friday, June 29, at 6 p.m. local time, with the device available then at AT&T and Apple retail stores.
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T-Mobile, the mobile arm of German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, has beaten rival Vodafone in the battle to win the marketing rights for Apple&#39;s iPhone in Germany, the regional daily Rheinische Post reported on Wednesday.
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Deutsche Telekom&#39;s (DTEGn.DE) mobile  phone unit T-Mobile clinched a deal to bring Apple Inc&#39;s iPhone  handset to Germany, according to a report in a German daily.