For Sprint iPhone enthusiast yesterday was a day of good news, it was finally confirmed the third largest carrier in the U.S. would now carry the iPhone.

As promised, Apple shows off its latest iPhone Tuesday at “Let’s Talk iPhone Event”, and although the new handset was packed with new features and hardware like a new chip and improved camera, the general reaction was less than spectacular. Many had hoped to see the new rumored iPhone 5 released but this was not the case.

 On the carrier front, Sprint will become the third U.S. wireless provider to carry the iPhone, but it won’t come easy for the company. Like the other carriers, Sprint will have to buy the phones for around US$600 each, and then sell them at the suggested retail prices, starting at $199 with a two-year contract.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Sprint — the third-largest carrier in the U.S. and in a more difficult financial position relative to rivals AT&T and Verizon — made a commitment to purchase more than 30 million iPhones over the next four years. Neither Apple nor Sprint has confirmed that number.

The move has the potential to be a lifesaver for Sprint, especially as future iPhones with more advanced wireless capabilities come along. However, the initial capital could put a strain on current balance sheets.

John Feland, CEO of Argus Insights, said “It would make sense strategically for both companies. Sprint has the most mature and widespread true 4G network in the U.S. They are in desperate need of a winner. Apple needs a 4G network to push new experiences out to the iPhone faithful, especially in the face of competition heating up from Amazon.”

It’s a risky move for the company, but it’s the kind that can pay off well, especially when the company is in the position of going big or going home.

A new survey taken by ChangeWave has found that more than a third of U.S. smartphone buyers on carriers other than AT&T wish they could have bought the iPhone, expressing buyer’s remorse.

This all started when ChangeWave, on Friday, released the results of a new survey which polled consumers on their new smartphone purchase and how satisfied they were. The results showed that customers who bought Apple’s iPhone were happier than those who invested in handsets from any other manufacturer, with 77% of all iPhone buyers in the last six months saying they are “very satisfied.”

The 1,212 U.S. respondents were also asked what phone they would have bought if it was available from their very own wireless carrier. 46% said they would have stuck with their current smartphone, but a whopping 34% of those surveyed who aren’t on AT&T said they would have bought an iPhone.

Some of you may see this as bad or good. I say that because if the majority of consumers surveyed say they would have stuck with their current phone, I take that as most people don’t wish they had the iPhone as Apple Insider is making it sound like. What do you think when you read the results? Either way, Apple is obviously excited about the survey! See the results in the image above.

Source: AppleInsider

So it appears that the internet has blown up about the Skyfire download being pulled off of iTunes in the US. This comes as a huge surprise to us.  Skyfire is charging users $2.99 for downloads; unlike for windows mobile and android where it is FREE! This was happening so fast that Skyfires servers crashed, and resulted in Skyfire pulling the app from download.

Articles floating around the internet have shown that it was a global pull from the app store. Skyfire pulled it because so many users wanted flash and features not offered in Iphones native browser Safari; when they all began to download the system went haywire. Skyfire then pulled the app because they did not want to give users sub-par experience. This also comes to shock that if and when they become stable and reopen downloading, this might continue to happen because of an overload of users wanting/using.

Should this surprise you – our current Iphone users? Do you guys really miss the ability to watch flash videos on your devices? As it appears you guys do! Should this be something that Apple fixes in the very near future, or do you think that third party is the best way to go? Let us know and your fellow PPCG’s how you feel on this subject, as we hear more news we will update this article. Stay tuned for more Skyfire/Iphone related news!

Source: engadget.com & mobileburn.com

Apple is set to unveil it’s next major OS update for the iPhone on Thursday, April 8th at 10AM PT. Little is known about what the update will contain, but speculation includes the arrival of true multitasking to support for a future CDMA and/or 4G iPhone. Only 3 day’s until the truth is set free from it’s Cupertino cage.

Source- Liliputing.com

The specs include:
-0.5″ thick and 1.5lbs light
-9.7″ IPS display, capacitive multitouch touchscreen
-Built-in accelerometer, mic, 30-pin connector, 802.11n Wi-Fi, compass, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
-10 hours of battery life and one month standby time!
-1GHz Apple A4 processor
-16GB, 32GB and 64GB Flash storage

It can run all the apps currently available on the iPhone/iPod, but it will also have its own development kit available.

So far, there’s been no announcement of the end of the Apple and At&t iPhone exclusivity deal as previously though.

UPDATES:
Pricing – Wi-Fi only – $500 for 16Gb, $600 for 32Gb, $700 for 64Gb. Add $130 to those prices to get 3G.
Data – Will be offered through At&t and will be $30 for unlimited data with no contract. You can also pay $15 for 250Mb.

Source: BGR

Definition of workaround–

• A workaround is a bypass of a recognized problem in a system. A workaround is typically a temporary fix that implies that a genuine solution to the problem is needed. Frequently workarounds are as creative as true solutions, involving outside the box thinking in their creation.

Google has definitely engaged in a workaround of Apple’s App Store as they have updated their mobile Google Voice web site to make Google Voice features accessible to iPhone, WebOS and Windows Mobile users (see below). Through a HTML5-based web app, anybody with a HTML5-capable web browser can access now Google Voice.

HTML5-capable mobile browsers include all Webkit-based mobile browsers, which includes Safari in iPhone 3.0+,the Palm WebOS browser, and the S60 web browser for Symbian as well as Chrome on Android. For Windows Mobile devices, Skyfire 1.5 (verified by myself) and presumably the Iris browser works. However, Opera Mobile 9.5 on Windows Mobile does NOT work  nor does Internet Explorer Mobile (also verified by myself).

After the break is a video by Google showcasing this new-found workaround.

Source- DailyMobile.se

According to a report in PC World, only 5 Apple iPhone’s were sold on the official website in China in the first 2 weeks of availability. The store, Taobao.com, the biggest Chinese e-commerce Web site and is similar to eBay in how it handles transactions, has sold just two 8GB iPhones and three 16GB iPhones, according to figures from the site. Although China Unicom also sells the device directly from their site (ala AT&T here in the states), Taobao is China’s top online retail site and many users turn to it to buy items like mobile phones and laptops.

Issues that could cause such a low take rate?

• The 32GB iPhone 3GS with no service contract costs 6,999 yuan (US$1,024) in China, compared to about US$800 in nearby Hong Kong.
• iPhones bought outside China have Wi-Fi, which was removed from the China Unicom iPhones to comply with local regulations.
• Difficulty using the App Store

Sounds like they need a new marketing strategy to me. What do you guys think?

Source- PCWorld.com via cultofmac.com

It seems that Apple has found a way to circumvent this. Although the Apple iPhone sell’s for on average $590, it looks like they only pay the 5% on the unit price Apple pays Foxconn (the company that actually manufactures the iPhone), which is a mere $244. This loophole has been estimated to save Apple $290 million in fiscal 2009 alone. Qualcomm is only seeing $9.70 for each iPhone sold, instead of making $23.60 per iPhone. That is a savings of $13.90 per device sold, quite a pretty penny when you are selling millions of units per quarter.

How you may ask is Apple able to do this without Qualcomm taking them to court? The entire manufacturing process of the iPhone is done externally, through Foxconn. Qualcomm seems fine with the arrangement as they still make $9.70 per device. Looking at the available data, Qualcomm has raked in close to $27,000,000 in licensing fees.

Source- MaximumPC.com