MacRumors

In February, Apple's COO, Timothy Cook said that Apple was "not married to any business model" with regard to the iPhone. Specifically, Apple's has received some criticism about their exclusivity contracts with specific mobile carriers, preventing customers from easily using other networks.

It appears this model appears to be eroding, at least in some countries. A recent report claimed that the 3G iPhone would launch in Italy as an unlocked phone, available for use with any carrier. The side effect of this move, however, could be higher retail prices for the iPhones. With the exclusivity deals Apple has in place, Apple earns a portion of monthly subscription fees from their network partners, such as AT&T.

Another report from Belgium makes identical claims that a 3G iPhone will be arriving by the end of June. Again, the iPhone is expected to be compatible with all Belgian operators, though is expected to launch on Mobistar first as early as May. The decision may have been forced upon Apple, however, as Belgium specifically prohibits the sale of "locked" mobile phones.

Still, other reports have hinted at similar distribution models in India and Australia later this year.

Despite technical measures in place to prevent the use of the iPhone on unauthorized networks, the practice of "unlocking" iPhones has become a big business with reports that as many as 400,000 unlocked iPhones running on China Mobile's network.

MobileToday reports that O2's 100 price drop on the iPhone last week successfully spurred sales. O2 stores in Newcastle, Birmingham, and London reportedly sold out on the day of the price cuts, while Carphone Warehouse stores noticed a sharp uptick in sales:

We usually sell one or two a day, but yesterday we sold about 20 it was like launch day again.'

Customers are reassured that O2 expected more stock to be delivered this past weekend. Apple is said to be in talks with France Telecom to similarly drop the price of the iPhone in France, due to poor initial sales.

Earlier reports have claimed that the price cuts were put in place to clear inventory ahead of the expected 3G iPhone. An Italian report today pinpoints the 3G iPhone release in the next few weeks.

Repubblica.it reports that Telecom Italia will be launching the iPhone in Italy in the next few weeks for sale by the summer.

The new model is said to be based on 3G (UMTS) technology and will be sold originally through Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM). The 3G iPhone, however, will not be locked to any provider, but TIM will have the inital advantage with a few month lead time over other carriers.

According to MacRumors reader grigio, the main points are as follows:

1) Direct introduction of UMTS-capable 3G iPhones on the Italian market, skipping the current 2G version.
2) No revenue sharing, instead a higher selling price.
3) No permanent exclusive distribution by a single operator. Instead, TIM will be given the right to distribute the iPhone with some months of advance with respect to its UMTS competitors.

Apple has been rumored to be launching the 3G iPhone in the coming months with most expecations at a June (WWDC) U.S. launch. Repubblica is a well respected publication in Italy.

MacNN detailed a new patent application from Apple that explores methods of "enhancing online shopping atmosphere". Specifically, Apple notes that while online shopping can be far more convenient than traditional retail stores, the experience can feel "sterile and isolating".

To address that point, they propose showing users where other customers are in the store, even allowing customers to interact with others while shopping.

This would allow you to see what products people are looking at, and by clicking on one of the other visitor icons, customers could even ask questions to users about why they'd left one product or gone to another product. This visual representation can be used to help with live real-time changes in interest:

For example, if an author has been invited to participate in a live chat hosted by the Acme store, an icon of the book may appear in [a region] alerting customers (in all departments) that a special event is occurring.

Users could, of course, opt-out in certain privacy settings, but these techniques could be applied to both Apple's Online Store as well as their iTunes Store.

Apple will be webcasting a conference call on Wednesday, April 23rd to discuss their financial results for the second fiscal quarter of 2008 spanning January through March. The conference call begins at 2:00pm PDT/5:00pm EDT.

Please note that comments made during this call may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. For more information on the factors that could influence results, please refer to Apples SEC filings.

On the Mac front, the early portion of this quarter saw the release of upgraded Mac Pros and Xserves just prior to Macworld San Francisco, with the new MacBook Air following suit at the expo. New Penryn-based MacBook Pros and MacBooks followed at the end of February.

This quarter also saw the release of Time Capsule, revitalized AppleTV and AirPort Express offerings, and higher-capacity models of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPod shuffle. Also of note, Apple released a limited beta version of the iPhone 2.0 software, including a Software Development Kit (SDK) to allow developers to create third-party applications for the iPhone.

Apple's fiscal year begins on approximately October 1st of the prior calendar year, and their record-breaking Q1 2008 results were reported in January. Their outlook for this quarter, however, fell below analyst estimates raising some concerns about Apple's expected performance.

CNet reports that Apple has responded to the criticism of pushing Safari to all Windows users via Software Update.

The practice received some criticism since the "update" appeared for individuals who had never installed a previous version of Safari. Apple has reportedly revamped their Software Update to clearly distinguish "New Software" from "Updates":

Image from Asa Dotzler

Times Online claims the reason for the UK and German iPhone discounts are to clear room for the 3G iPhone. European mobile operators reportedly overestimated demand for the current iPhone and are said to be working to clear excess inventory ahead of the 3G iPhone release.

This claim appears to be somewhat speculative, but Times Online also claims to have heard that Apple has placed orders for the 3G iPhone:

Times Online understands that Apple has placed an order with its Asian suppliers to produce 200,000 of the new 3G iPhones by the end of May, rising to 2 million - 500,000 per week - in June.

Times Online goes on to say that the new version of the iPhone will have a "radically different" appearance.

Among the possibilities are flip version, which would enable the screen to be larger, and a sliding model with a regular qwerty keyboard - as opposed to a touchscreen one.

The reliability of Times Online's sources are unknown, but such a departure from the existing iPhone's design seems very unlikely. Jobs specifically criticized the inclusion of an built-in keyboards amongst existing smartphones when the iPhone was first introduced. Apple is also in the midst of launching a Software Development Kit (SDK) intended for their multi-touch OS X. Radically changing the form factor would splinter the audience for iPhone applications.

While these headset displays already exist, Apple describes decoupling a "laser engine" from the goggles itself. Instead, it is a separate piece which generates the laser light which is piped into the headset. This helps reduce the bulk of the goggles themselves.

"A user simply plugs their handheld video player such as the iPod manufactured by Apple Computer of Cupertino, Calif., into the compact laser engine attached to their belt, and places the headset on their head. The user then selects a video to be played at the handheld video player (viewing through transparent display elements)."

Apple notes that when the unit is not being used for playing video "no images are being created and thus the display unit acts just like glasses." In fact, they suggest that the headset could even include lenses and actually double as daily-wear glasses.

IBM's Research Information Services division is investigating the possibility of moving a significant number of employees to Apple's Macintosh platform according to a report acquired by RoughlyDrafted.

In line with IBMs external strategy of offering a true Open Client that may be Windows, Linux or a Mac, the document noted, [Research Information Services] is focusing on providing an IBM application stack on multiple Operating Systems, rather than be confined to one or the other.

The first phase of the pilot program was conducted between October 2007 and January 2008. During this phase, 24 MacBook Pros were distributed to researchers and used as the primary notebook, with the employees' existing ThinkPads acting as backups if needed.

Of the 22 of 24 who responded, 18 said that the Mac offered a better or best experience compared to their existing computer, one rated it equal or good, and three said the Mac offered a worse experience. Seven reported having no or marginal prior knowledge of using Macs, while 15 reported having moderate or expert knowledge of the platform.

Other highlights:
- 86% of pilot users requested to keep the Mac
- More new hires are requesting Macs
- Research and Academic clients have a growing Mac community
- IBM internal software made for Mac was easy to install
- Some key software was unavailable for Mac, including DB2 and Websphere Application Server, Rational Application Developer IDE for J2EE apps, WebSphere Integration Developer SOA development tool, and Microsoft Visio.

Some Comments:
- "When presenting at customer or external meetings, I have been greeted with the 'wow factor.' 'Where's the ThinkPad, IBM uses Apples now?'"
- "This can free us from the Windows stranglehold."
- "It has been easier learning the Mac than learning Vista."
- "The ability to run Windows XP in a VM under Parallels is a great feature."

An expansion of the pilot is planned for 2008, supporting up to 100 users by the end of the year. As a grain of salt, IBM has been heavily invested in Linux and the pilot is likely to simply fall in line with efforts to break reliance on Microsoft Windows. That being said, the company has been re-invigorating efforts to develop Mac software, including versions of the company's Lotus Notes client for iPhone and Lotus Symphony.

Gartner has published a preliminary report on U.S. and worldwide PC shipments for the first quarter of 2008. According to Gartner's numbers, Apple placed fourth in U.S. marketshare at 6.6%, up from 5.2% in the first quarter of 2007. Apple's U.S. shipments increased 32.5% year-over-year, far outpacing the total industry shipment growth of 3.0%

Previous Gartner reports had placed Apple with a 6.1 % U.S. market share for the fourth quarter of 2007, and 8.1% U.S. market share for the third quarter of 2007. Apple's numbers for the back-to-school third quarter traditionally benefit from its strong educational presence.