So I have embarked on a new adventure — to beta test new iPhone applications.

Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? For some, yes. Others may be wondering what the heck I’m talking about. With thousands of new iPhone applications being introduced to the App Store on a regular basis, it’s hard to know which ones are total junk and which ones have real promise, and I’m tired of downloading a new app, only to be let down by bad quality, bugs, crashes, or just bad implementation. Beta testing is a great way for developers to improve their app and make sure it can be of actual use to iPhone users.

And frankly, I feel that I can make an excellent contribution to developers by giving them publicity on my blog in addition to helping them find ways to improve the product. And it’s just neat to play with a product that’s not publicly available yet.

Now, while the idea sounds quite glamorous, betas are not public for a very good reason — they have a LOT of bugs that need to get worked out before the final product gets submitted and hopefully accepted. The last thing any developer wants is to sell a buggy app that everyone has issues with and nobody likes. It certainly wouldn’t help their reputation, either. So while I enjoy testing out and previewing apps that nobody else has been able to play around with, it’s no pleasure trip. There are certainly some responsibilities that go along with the privilege.

I know most of you would like to know about the latest and greatest apps coming out, and I want to continue raising the bar of expectations for iPhone apps. In the 3 months since the App Store came out, the bar of expectations has been raised significantly, and there’s no reason why it can’t keep going up. I have doubled the productivity of my iPhone in the last 2 weeks alone due to several new apps.

How does one become a beta tester? A little mixture of luck, associations, prior experience, digging, and asking around. My new adventure is all about learning what it takes to become one. So far I have been able to test two, and am eager to add more to my list.

So my plan is to use my blog as a vehicle of publicity for developers, and to give myself something else to do late at night that doesn’t involve TV.

Tell me — are you interested in knowing what to be on the lookout for? Would you like to know how to get the most out of your phone?

My mission is to help you get the most out of your phone, and to keep an eye on the newest trends in wireless. And I love playing with new stuff. So that is why I beta test iPhone apps.

Written by Brad Molen

While millions of consumers have purchased the iPhone, and overall is a pretty good device, by no means is it perfect. In order to fix bugs and come out with new features Apple has instituted several updates to the iPhone OS and continues to develop more updates.

I am concerned, however, that these updates do not follow a logical path. Obviously the 2.0 update was the largest update with the introduction of the App Store amongst a large number of other things, while 2.1 attempted to fix bugs as well as boost battery life and phone reception. Recently apple developers received a beta version of OS 2.2, which does…Google Street View?

Street Maps is neat, sure. But it’s not copy/paste. It’s not email in landscape mode. No picture messaging still. Take a look at this website and you’ll see thousands of iPhone users voting for the features they want the most. But the pleas remain ignored.

It makes no sense to me that Apple would come out with an update solely to include Google Street View. There HAS to be something else to it. There just has to be! And why wouldn’t they add more? I don’t think it would be that hard to include some of these much-desired features. I wonder if Google is paying Apple quite a bit just to have their features included in a Apple software update.

But if you’re going to come out with a software update and go through the process of redoing OS X code, sending out betas for developers to test, and spending a couple months to do all this, wouldn’t it be more cost and time efficient to involve a few extra programmers and include some of these features that would appease millions of loyal fanboys?

After 2.0 and the iPhone 3G came out, I read that Apple decided not to include copy and paste because it just wasn’t a high enough priority at the time. That’s okay, I can accept that. But some of these minor updates are the perfect time to introduce features that weren’t high enough priority to make it into the major update.

So, I’m starting to think that Apple doesn’t have a planned path for the iPhone updates; and if it does have a plan, it doesn’t make any logical sense. To me it looks as though Apple got done with 2.1 and said “okay, what should we do next for 2.2?” and decided Street View was the next big focus. Have they planned 2.3 yet? 2.4?

Millions of phones are being sold, yes, but there are still many people who won’t get the iPhone because it doesn’t have certain features. Maybe it’s worth investing a few extra bucks to get these features added, and perhaps another million or so could be sold already.

I could be completely wrong; the real version of 2.2 could include a lot more than the devs have leaked to us. But, so far it doesn’t look all that spectacular.

What do you think? Am I completely off on this? Or do you see a natural progression in the updates that I just am not seeing? Please sound off.

Before I tell you, go ahead and take a guess. The answer may come as a complete surprise to you.

AT&T had its quarterly earnings call yesterday morning in which it announced how many iPhones were activated, how many new customers were added and the total revenues and profits for the wireless segment. While I am not currently a stockholder, I am certainly interested to see how beneficial the iPhone is to AT&T.

First, a few facts. When a new customer or eligible current customer purchases the iPhone 3G, AT&T subsidizes $375 off each one. In other words, AT&T pays Apple $575 for a 8 GB iPhone 3G, yet only charges the new customer $199 with two-year contract. The normal subsidy for AT&T phones is roughly $150-200 at the most. The big moneymaker, in this case, is Apple.

Because of this large subsidy, AT&T didn’t expect to start profiting from the iPhone until around 2010. In fact, it was announced yesterday that AT&T suffered a $900 million drop in overall income due to the iPhone. But that was something the company was willing to do because it contributed to an additional 1.7 million customers, bringing the total to 74.9 million (still the leader — at least, until Verizon’s acquisition of Alltel is final).

Now to answer my first question: how much did AT&T make off of each customer?

Overall income was $2.322 billion for the quarter. Divide that by the 74.9 million customers, and it comes out to $31.001 per customer per quarter. That means per month, AT&T made an average of $10.30 from each customer.

I always thought these big companies made more than that, but I guess all those dumb fees they make you pay don’t actually go toward padding the stockholders’ wallets. I would love to see a more detailed list of exactly what kinds of costs are involved in maintaining the network, adding new customers, etc. It would certainly be an interesting look into where that $10 per month is coming from.

Questions:

What was your guess on how much AT&T makes?

Does this come as a shock?

According to RCR News, there are currently 577 million people using the internet on their cell phones; this number is predicted to increase to 1.7 billion by 2013. I believe a large part of this is due to what I call the iPhone Revolution.

Web Made Ridiculously Simple and Accessible

While it may be difficult to know exact numbers at this point in the game, the skyrocketing sales of the iPhone worldwide will provide internet and email access to millions of users in the coming years.

One million iPhone 3G units were sold in the first weekend alone to 22 countries, roughly one-third of the countries that will actually release the device in 2008. Launching it in an additional 48 countries between now and December 31 will only make that number grow exponentially. Each iPhone accesses the internet and email on a consistent basis.

This isn’t to say that nobody was surfing the internet or retrieving their email before the age of the iPhone. Far from it — any smartphone on the market could do all of that. Heck, even non-PDA phones could access web and email. So why am I arguing that iPhones are the catalyst for the increase in mobile internet usage?

They are the catalyst because Apple has made the mobile web mainstream. Before, most mobile web and email users were only using it for business; the iPhone has made it readily available to regular consumers.

Hence, Apple has turned mobile internet into part of a lifestyle. They’ve made it ridiculously simple to access internet, and added the App Store and MobileMe to make it more useful to the average phone user. Now the mindset of the consumer is changing from “it would be nice, but for $30/month I don’t need it” to “I can’t live without having it, it will be worth the money to have it.”

The Revolution

Not just that, though — a couple weeks ago I wrote about how the iPhone drives competition to come up with a new unique idea that will completely trump Apple’s flagship device. Other manufacturers have come out with iPhone-like devices that also access the internet as well. That’s why I referred to this as the “iPhone Revolution”, it’s because everyone is trying the same thing, thus causing millions more to latch on to the mobile internet concept.

It’s easy to browse the internet on your phone now. Beyond the iPhone specifically, new browsers are popping up to give you the same experience on your phone as you would get on your computer.

Society is becoming more and more mobile. Phones are becoming like computers, computers are getting smaller to accomodate travel, and the capacity for these devices continue to grow. What the iPhone did was make a statement; Apple handed the world a clever handheld device that makes us capable of being 100% mobile.

Conclusion

Having the world at our fingertips can certainly make us more productive. It sure beats lugging a phone, mp3 player and large 200-page planner around all the time. Granted, it’s not for everyone. Some people have a system in place that works well for them, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

But the popularity of the iPhone shows what people really want. Competition will now come out with ways to outdo Apple; T-Mobile is rumored to be planning an App Store of its own that mimics Apple’s. With 3G coming to T-Mobile soon, this will likely be a huge hit.

Everyone is buying into mobile internet and discovering how useful it can be on a mobile phone. All the iPhone did was convince everyone that mobile web is a product worth buying into.

Post your thoughts here in my comments section!

UPDATE: This morning the Wall Street Journal released an interview it had with Steve Jobs. In just one month the App Store tallied more than $30 million in sales! Jobs is predicting the future of phones will rely on software to differentiate themselves (much like the PC a decade ago). And frankly, a lot of this software may become more reliant on the mobile internet.

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In the U.S. exclusive contracts between phone makers and carriers are nothing new. These agreements have been around for years. In late 2004, for example, the RAZR was an AT&T Wireless exclusive. It is a standard of competition between carriers.

Almost every article or opinion on the subject of exclusivity puts it in a very negative light. Most people feel it is a way to snub the consumer and force them to switch carriers.

Well, that’s the point.

Sorry folks — that’s just the hard truth of business. Each company is attempting to steal customers away from each other, and what better way to do it than offering a handset that cannot be purchased on any other mobile provider?

Competitive Advantage

It’s never really been a huge topic of conversation until the iPhone came out and became such a giant. Now the T-Mobile and Verizon customers who like their cell phone service have to make a choice: do we stick with what we know and like, or do we want the iPhone bad enough we’re willing to change our mobile provider?

The market in the US is completely saturated — in other words, every customer who wants a cell phone has one. In order to gain the edge, every carrier offers exclusive deals on certain phones in hopes that the unique offering will bring interested people. Outside the iPhone, we will witness such deals this year with the Blackberry Bold (AT&T) and the touchscreen Blackberry Thunder (Verizon). The Palm Centro had exclusive rights on Sprint for a few months.

In most cases these carriers will receive a few thousand new customers here and there that they may not have received without those deals, thus making it worth the agreement. The iPhone is the unique phone that has the potential to attract millions of new customers to AT&T.

Talk about a huge competitive advantage! That’s why AT&T was willing to do whatever Apple said in order to get the deal.

Exclusive is Like a Beta Test

Anyone who wants the iPhone but does not want to use AT&T is stuck right now. Resourceful T-Mobile customers could unlock the device and make it compatible with their EDGE network (not 3G…yet). But perhaps it’s not so bad.

Consider the exclusive time a great beta test for phones. Those that get the phones right away are the ones that find all the bugs, experience frustration, and discover how to fix it and make it work. Generally the phones come out of the exclusive period rolling and ready to go, without as many headaches from that point on.

Thus, when the time comes for the iPhone to be released on other carriers, everything will have been greatly tested and tried, all the bugs worked out and secrets figured out, and the new versions will be even better with greater capacity than the very first model.

Exclusivity forces innovation

My bold statement in this article is that exclusive deals force additional innovation. Innovation has been my theme the last couple weeks because I feel strongly that we need more of it in this industry!

In what way does it force additional innovation? Obviously if Sprint cannot sell the iPhone it will turn to other phone makers and demand something similar, yet different enough to entice customers.

This is what happened with the Samsung Instinct — instead of getting all down and sad from news of the first iPhone’s success, Sprint fought back. The extra competition forces each carrier to find a new way to get customers interested. The iPhone’s awesome, sure, but what other awesome phones are out there waiting to be discovered or invented? TONS.

Without competition, innovation takes a back seat. What’s the point of thinking of cool new stuff if people are satisfied with the status quo? Our market can stand a greater variety to choose from, and exclusive deals force the competition to get creative.

Is it healthy?

Some may argue that exclusive deals such as the iPhone deal only brings unhealthy competition. AT&T has too much leverage it can use to gain customers.

The biggest losers, critics claim, are the rural carriers. Having few customers compared to the big four, these companies rarely get exclusive contracts. This means that when phones such as the iPhone hit it big, the rural telecoms dwindle even more in size as their customers leave to go with AT&T.Thus the big companies get even bigger and more monopolistic.

I understand this argument. Competition is good, and absolutely essential. Exclusive contracts help generate extra competition, but at the same time it shouldn’t be completely unfair. It’s just that rural carriers don’t have enough customers or revenue to interest phone makers.

Conclusion

In order to attract customers, a critical balance of offerings must exist. Exclusive deals are great, but they aren’t the only thing that will help a mobile provider achieve success.

In addition to unique phones a telecom company needs to attract customers by offering a solid network, good customer service, and unique features that no other telecom offers.

While I feel exclusive deals on phones such as the iPhone are essential to achieve optimal competitive advantage in the wireless industry, I do believe 3 years is too long. That amount of time makes AT&T feel more like a monopoly. My concern is that similar monopolistic tendencies are what contributed to AT&T’s breakup in the 80’s.

Six months is the maximum amount of time any phone carrier should have exclusive rights on any particular handset. This still gives the carrier plenty of competitive advantage, still forces innovation and variety in the market, yet gives other telecoms a fighting chance on game-changing devices such as the iPhone.

The only time I could see 3 years as acceptable is if Apple comes out with a different kind of iPhone for different carriers. Say — iPhone 3G for AT&T, maybe iPhone Nano for T-Mobile for example?

Just an idea.

Now, sound off. You can agree or disagree with me however you want. Fire off your comments to me!

For most of the original iPhone’s existence, clever accessories didn’t seem to be important nor essential to the phone’s success. Fortunately that has all changed with the launch of the 3G version — obviously, manufacturers have realized there is definitely a cash cow at stake now.

So, here are some accessories that we’ve all wanted for a very long time but did not have as options.

FM Transmitter

This will be essential for every iPhone owner that uses it as an iPod and has been frustrated because they could not listen to it in their cars. Finally, Belkin announced a iPhone FM transmitter certified by Apple.

This transmitter, when attached to the phone, turns into its own limited-range FM station that you can tune your car radio to and listen to your music. Just make sure you choose a frequency that is not currently occupied by any other stations to avoid interference.

These transmitters will also double as car chargers. They can be found as low as $50.

Stereo Bluetooth Headphones

Yes! You heard me correctly. This does not mean the iPhone 3G magically got an update with A2DP (stereo bluetooth) support, just that an adapter has been made specifically for the iPhone to enable stereo bluetooth headphones to work with it.

This in essence requires 2 accessories: the adapter and the headphones. If you are lucky you may find them together in a nice package. Grabbing the adapter by itself will cost $50.

External Battery Booster

These battery-life extenders will be crucial if you are using the internet, Wi-Fi, multimedia or any other battery drainer on a constant basis. You may not need them all the time, but it’s better to be safe, just in case.

At the moment they are only available for iPhone 2G, but the company has announced plans to release a 3G version. The current models sell for $99.

Video Projector

This is a brand new concept for cell phones that is slowly gaining support. This video projector will enable you to play movies from your iPhone directly onto any wall. This is wonderful for any movies you may own or rent from the Apple Store.

More details at Honlai’s website.

These are just a few great ideas for iPhone accessories, whether it be as gifts or if you just can’t wait until the next gift-giving holiday. All I have to say is, it’s about darn time some clever stuff came out.

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I had been waiting for the originals to go down in price as soon as the 3G model became available. I figured that everyone would be scrambling to sell their old model at around the same price as the new one, as to not incur extra costs in the new phone.

This was an incorrect assumption. Even now iPhone 2.5G is selling for $300-400 on eBay. What in the world? Thus, I knew the only real option to get my hands on one was to purchase it from someone selling a 4 GB model. Frankly, that’s all I really need at this point, and it’s easy enough to change out playlists whenever I need to listen to something new.

Personally I think the old iPhone is just as good. Some love the 3G model, some hate it. But the original has been a proven model that has the same exact firmware as the new one, just without faster internet or GPS.

And really, that’s fine for me. The way my schedule is, I’m either at home or work, both of which have fast Wi-Fi connections. Between point A and point B, I commute and don’t need internet. As for GPS, I still have Google Maps which triangulates an approximate position for me.

So why would I need to pay a bunch of extra money for the new one? No point — right now, that is.

I can still download the best games and apps from the App Store. I can still get my corporate email. I can even import SIM contacts now, which I couldn’t do on the iPhone before 2.0 came out. Firmware 2.0 has all the goodies I need.

There you go. I got a great deal, and have an awesome phone. And I’m perfectly happy with not having the 3G yet.

I know quite a few of my readers and passers-by don’t really care about the iPhone. Too much hype, they say. Big whoop. But I have to say that before 2.0 it was a cool and amazingly innovative phone; after 2.0 it became a much more relevant phone.

The iPhone 3g is a hit. Big surprise. Apparently the only people that were surprised work at Apple — or so they want us to believe.

Even 2 weeks after the release of the iconic gadget, shortages are being reported all over the world. AT&T and O2 are both reporting very limited amounts in stores and recommending that customers use direct fulfillment orders to ensure they are guaranteed a phone within 10-15 days. Apple stores seem to get a small shipment in each day, but most people do not welcome the idea of spending 2-3 hours in line at this point.

Apple reports that the shortages happened because they underestimated the demand of the iPhone 3g.

Seriously???

This is only the biggest phone launch ever. Apple planned to launch in 22 countries the first week, and 70 countries by the end of the year, hopefully. Any phone carrier that allowed pre-orders had to shut down their websites within an hour or two because of the excessive traffic. Apple has even given itself a goal to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.

Frankly, they wouldn’t have such a goal if it were not attainable. And in order to attain it, they need to make that many phones available to the public. Kind of hard to sell 10 million phones when you don’t produce 10 million phones, isn’t it?

It is quite odd to me that Apple seems to continue sending shipments to their own stores while shunning the carriers that provide the phone service for Apple. I believe it makes sense in the US, where AT&T reportedly has offered an additional $100 commission to Apple for each iPhone sold in Apple stores. So of course Apple would favor its own stores in order to get more revenue per phone. What about the rest of the world, though? Does Apple require additional commission from every iPhone carrier in other countries?

Interesting that it’s been announced another 20 countries will be launching the iPhone 3g sometime in August. With such a shortage, where will those phones come from? It’ll be interesting to see if a large shipload of phones magically comes to those countries right in time for launch.

Apple knew the demand would be high. I don’t buy the “underestimated the demand for the iPhone 3g” for one second! Apple decided to take a lesson from Nintendo when it launched the Wii…the short supply causes riots and forces little old ladies to punch defenseless teenagers, if that’s what it takes to get their hands on one. The Wii has been out for months, but with no supply to be found anywhere, it keeps demand and prices higher. If it’s so hard to find one, it’s worth paying more to get one.

That’s all it is. Apple knows 10 million people will buy the product no matter what. But these little tricks will help the company achieve higher revenues. It bugs the heck out of me and it upsets the 10 million others who really want one (They’ll still buy it when the phones come in, but they’re very upset nonetheless).

So lay it on me — am I completely off on this one? Or have I hit bullseye? In my research I have found that Dan Moren from MacWorld agrees with my assessment that this is all part of Apple’s strategy.

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• Faster Internet
• Lower price to get one
• GPS
• Inclusion of third party apps

And I’m sure there will be a lot more to it, but that is plenty to get my point across. I know a lot of people are sick of the hype; anytime there is a lot of hype about ANYTHING, people are going to get sick of it. This happens to be anytime a summer blockbuster is about to come out and we must endure the 50 gazillion trailer commercials (thank heavens for DVR!). But once the hype dies down and the reviews come out, chances are those same people will warm up to the device.

Here’s the thing: let’s say you’re shopping around for a nice smartphone at the local AT&T store. You can choose a 3G iPhone with 8 GB total memory for $199, or you can choose the AT&T Tilt, a similar 3G touchscreen, for $299 (AFTER rebate, thus bringing out-of-pocket totals to $399). So you’re paying twice as much for very similar functionality.

I am interested to see what will happen to the competition. Will the other smartphones in the market feel forced to drop their prices simply to stay afloat? Or will there be enough iPhone-haters willing to pay extra for a Windows or Blackberry? Perhaps that will be the subject of a future poll.

1. 3G iPhone (sometime between June 15 and July 12)

2. Blackberry Bold (after August?)

3. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1



4. Garmin Nuviphone

5. Nokia E71

6. Nokia N95-3

7. Pantech Duo 2 (C820)

No image available at this time.

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