With more than 285 million handsets from various mobile phone manufacturers sold globally between July and September of this year, the Apple Iphone has other manufactures running scared. The Apple Iphone has managed a marketing coup by having sold 1.4 million units in the first 90 days of launch. Even though just a fraction of the market, it is a coup that has never been seen before.

Other manufacturers are now emulating the Iphone. It has become apparent that the iPhone’s touch screen experience was the application that most competitors would be seeking to emulate. The question remains is how much value does the Apple Itunes add to the value of the overall package. The Apple iTunes music store and its integration with the iPhone and might just give the IPhone a further boost over its competitors. Maybe it just has considering the latest uttering from Vodafone:

Al Russell, Vodafone’s head of internet and content services, said the iPhone was a “significant development in our marketplace”.

But he said Vodafone’s MusicStation, which is a subscription-based music service, offered functionality that the iPhone could not match.

“This generation does not want an archive of music. We offer unlimited music on a rental model - no-one has done this in the marketplace, and certainly not the iPhone.

Nokia comes back with all guns blazing with their comments that the model of the iPod and iTunes had been very successful but they had relatively little penetration outside the US and UK. They might just have to eat their words!

In France this week, it was reveled by Orange that they sold 30,000 iPhones in the first five days of launch. Adding that 48% of people buying the phones were new customers for the network. So the Iphone has been great for mobile phone services. What is remarkable thought is that 20% of customers who have bought iPhones from it in France have opted for unlocked ones. Looking at the costs of that makes one wonder. Orange sold the popular Apple product for 399 euros with a two-year contract, or 749 euros without one. Even with the price tag almost twice the price, 20% of people still forked out the money for it.

So what makes the Iphone so unique? From all the Internet boards and websites it is apparent that Apple has been listening to their user bases and provided what people wanted - finger-touch technology.

As the anticipation about an Apple iPod-phone hybrid builds with a steady stream rumors and news stories, a new research study from the Toronto-based Solutions Research Group shows that an iPod phone has the potential to be a big hit with consumers.

Among key highlights of the research:

16% of Americans aged 12+ (about 40 million) say that an “iPod” phone is a “great idea” for them personally based on a description of its likely features. In comparison, 24% of Americans aged 12+ (or 28% of cell users) own a Motorola phone and Nokia is used by 17%.

An iPod phone would have the potential to increase Apple’s customer footprint substantially. Currently just over 20% of Americans 12+ (about 50 million) own an Apple product - within 18 months of the introduction of a new iPod phone, Apple’s footprint can increase to over 30% according to forecasts based on the study.

www.cellular-news.com

A cross-site scripting vulnerability revealed in Google’s Gmail was swiftly patched ove the holiday weekend, while the opening salvo in January’s Month of Apple Bugs proves to be significant for both Mac and Windows users.Apple’s QuickTime software has a highly serious bug that could leave Windows and Mac users open to attacks by malicious Web sites, according to a project aimed at disclosing Apple bugs throughout January.

The QuickTime flaw launches the Month of Apple Bugs (MOAB), which follows on from efforts such as the Month of Kernel Bugs and the Month of Browser Bugs. The bug was discovered by LMH, a MOAB organizer who hasn’t disclosed his name.

The flaw affects any Windows or Mac OS X bug with QuickTime Player Version 7.1.3 installed; previous versions are also probably vulnerable. The problem lies in the way QuickTime handles addresses beginning with “rtsp://”, and can be exploited to create a stack-based buffer overflow using HTML, JavaScript or a QTL file, LMH wrote.

www.techworld.com

The latest Apple rumor has the computer maker entering the gaming console, taking on Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.

In a note to clients published Monday, Prudential Equity Analyst Jesse Tortora said his checks show the Cupertino, California computer maker is hiring video game designers. Mr. Tortora wrote that the hires could indicate a move into either the gaming console market or that Apple could add fresh gaming capabilities to its existing line of iPod music players.

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“I know next to nothing about Apple, so it really surprised me when I received an email from them this morning, threatening to sue me for a post on the forums,” says SomethingAwful.

“The thread in question was posted to help people who purchased a MacBook Pro, which apparently overheats due to Apple engineers failing to apply thermal grease properly or something else completely asinine. It also linked to the Apple Service Manual, to help people get inside their computer. Apparently, this is grounds for Apple to sue me.”

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