Ian Paul, PC World

Apple iPhone 3GS

The iPhone 3GS is hot according to AT&T. No, I’m not talking about the overheating issues, but a alleged leaked memo from the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. carrier. In the memo, AT&T reports the iPhone 3GS launch day on June 6 was the best-ever sales day for AT&T retail stores, according to MacDaily News. June 6 was also the second largest traffic day for AT&T stores, and the most upgrade eligibility checks in a single day were performed during the iPhone 3GS launch day. The 3GS debut was so huge, for AT&T retail stores anyway, that sales for the device surpassed launch day sales for the iPhone 3G by noon Central Time.

After the iPhone 3GS initial launch weekend, Apple also reported a successful launch of its latest smart phone reporting that it had sold more than one million iPhone 3GS devices at Apple retail locations. That’s the same number Apple used to describe the iPhone 3G launch weekend last year.

What’s surprising, however, is a growing consensus that the iPhone 3GS debut may have been far bigger than the launch of the iPhone 3G. Last summer, the iPhone 3G debut was lauded as the most successful launch of any tech product in history. For days after its initial availability, fans were lining up around the block at Apple Stores across the United States and the world to get their hands on the iPhone 3G. Device shortages were a regular occurrence, and customers in less populated areas were left waiting for months to get their own wonder gadget from Apple.

This year, the lines were not as long for the iPhone 3GS, and the frenzy that accompanied the 2008 iPhone 3G launch was not present. This could have been for a number of reasons including better inventory supplies on Apple’s part, and a public less willing to line up for days on end just to get their hands on a smartphone. But if suspicison are correct, then relative customer apathy was not an issue for Apple this year, and the recession may not have made much of an impact on iPhone 3GS sales either.

Other signs of the iPhone 3GS’ popularity are also starting to crop up. Earlier this month, Apple resurrected its iPhone availability tool to help you find the Apple Store with the best 3GS supplies near you. Customers in the United Kingdom and Canada may find it harder to get the iPhone 3GS in the coming weeks. The World of Apple is reporting that two carriers–O2 in Britain and Fido in Canada–have run out of their iPhone inventories; however, Apple Stores in both countries are still stocked up with inventory.

So the iPhone 3GS is shaping up to be the hottest iPhone ever, but we may not know how hot until Apple releases its quarterly earnings report later this month.

According to an AT&T company memo, the launch of the iPhone 3GS wasn’t just a banner sales day for the carrier this year but broke records for any single day of retail sales in the company’s history — including for already stellar iPhone sales.

The leaked e-mail characterizes “iLaunch Day 2009,” its nickname for the June 19th iPhone 3GS release date, as the “best-ever sales day” and just second in terms of actual floor traffic. Many of its other sales-related records were also shattered at the same time, ranging from the number of upgrade eligibility checks made in a day to the sheer volume of orders taken through AT&T’s website.

The notice obtained by multiple anonymous MacDailyNews readers also illustrates just how quickly the seemingly more modest iPhone update outpaced the already large-scale iPhone 3G launch last year. 3GS sales not only exceeded the first days after both Thanksgiving and Christmas, either of which have always been popular shopping days, but were so brisk as to overtake the iPhone 3G’s launch day count by just noon in Texas time.

Interest in the stores was so high that AT&T stores were considered at “peak” activity for 11 hours, or nearly half a day, despite the company accepting pre-orders online for day in advance.

As could be expected, the cellular company doesn’t provide a concrete sales number in the memo and, when contacted by AppleInsider for confirmation, only repeats its mantra that it accepted hundreds of thousands of pre-orders in the run-up to the iPhone 3GS going on sale less than two weeks ago.

“We have no further comment beyond that,” a company spokesman says.

Apple has been slightly more open on the subject and previously said it sold one million iPhone 3GS devices over the course of its launch weekend through all of its outlets. Although the same number as for last year, the California-based electronics firm reached this figure in 2009 with only eight countries onboard for the first day, or less than half the 21 that were ready on July 11th, 2008. The similar numbers, combined with a smaller-scale launch, indirectly confirm that US launch sales, including through AT&T, have spiked that much higher in 2009.

APPLE has unveiled “the most powerful iPhone we’ve ever made”, complete with video camera and a new “Find My iPhone” feature.

The iPhone 3GS will be available in some countries, including the US and UK, on June 19, but will launch in Australia on June 26.

The 16-gigabyte iPhone 3GS will cost $US199 ($248), and the 32-gigabyte model $US299 ($372), at launch in America. Australian pricing is yet to be released.

Meanwhile, the price of an original eight-gigabyte iPhone 3G will drop to $US99 ($123).

Apple vice president of marketing Phil Schiller told the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco: “The ‘S’ stands for speed, because this is the most powerful iPhone we’ve ever made.

“What is inside is entirely new.”

The iPhone 3GS looks just like the current iPhone, but promises to load messages, games, documents and website more than twice as fast as the current iPhone.

Apple has also improved the iPhone’s widely criticised camera, increasing its resolution from 2-megapixels to 3-megapixels, and adding video capture and an auto-focus mechanism.

Users will be able to focus the camera by tapping objects shown on the iPhone’s screen.

The iPhone 3GS would also be able to respond to voice commands, Mr Schiller said, announcing what song is playing or automatically dialling names saved in its contact list.

Apple’s new phone will also come with a digital compass, a better battery offering up to 9 hours of web surfing or 5 hours of talk time, and will feature new iPhone software offering more than 100 extra features.

The new software will also be available for use on existing iPhone handsets when it is released on June 17. iPod Touch users will also be able to download the software for a fee.

New features include picture messaging, cut and paste for text, a search function for applications including email, and the ability to remotely delete the data from their iPhone if it is stolen.

Senior vice president of iPhone software Scott Forstall said the “Find My iPhone” feature let people use an Apple online Mobile Me service to locate lost or stolen devices.

“It will show you on a map where your phone is,” he said. “You can send it a message and it plays an alert sound whether or not you left it in silent mode.”

The feature also lets people remotely erase all data from lost or stolen iPhones, then reload the information using iTunes if they are reacquainted with their devices.

New Apple 3 GS iPhone

Palm handset beat 8Gb iPhone in cost of goods

Rick Merritt
EE Times
(06/08/2009 7:00 PM EDT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Apple Inc. leapfrogged the Palm Pre with the announcement of its iPhone 3GS Monday (June and undercut the Pre by dropping existing iPhone prices to $99. Palm, however, undercut Apple slightly in the cost of hardware in handsets with 8 Gbytes flash.

The new iPhone 3GS uses an upgraded application processor, baseband and more NAND flash memory to deliver new media capabilities at $199 for a 16 Gbyte model. That’s the same price—figuring in a $100 rebate–as the Pre released Saturday (June 6) with 8 Gbytes flash.

Teardown specialist Portelligent (Austin) estimates the cost of goods of the Pre at just under $160. That compared favorably with the existing iPhone 3G with 8 Gbytes flash that Portelligent pegged at $173.

By comparison the HTC Dream—the first phone to use the Google Android software—cost $143 in hardware to build but had less than 256 Mbytes of flash, according to Portelligent, a division of TechInsights which publishes EE Times.

Details of the Pre teardown including photographs of its internals were released on June 7.

Initial reports said lines of consumers looking to buy the Pre at retail shops over the weekend were significantly lower than those for the first two generations of iPhones.

The new iPhone 3GS now supports HSDPA networks with downloads of speeds up to 7.2 Mbits/second, implying a new baseband processor. It also sports new video, graphics and audio capabilities, implying a significantly upgraded applications processor, said Jeff Brown, principal analyst at Portelligent.

The 3GS can record video at 30 frames/second at VGA resolution. Its camera has been upgraded to an autofocus version supporting 3 Mpixel resolutions.

The camera also has built in video editing capabilities and a feature that allows the camera to focus on whatever spot a user touches on the phone’s LCD. The phone also supports limited voice recognition for hands-free operation.

“All these features will require a significantly more powerful apps processor,” said Brown.

The new iPhones use an upgraded version of the Apple operating system announced earlier this year. Apple said it has put more than 50,000 applications for the iPhone in its App Store.

A 32 Gbyte iPhone 3GS costs $299. The new phones will be available June 19, but the lowered price on existing phones begins immediately.

Separately, Apple announced a new version of its computer operating system that has expanded support for multi-threading. The Snow Leopard software will be available as an upgrade in September for $29.