Support Our Site
Get Better Gear!
- Kensington Windshield/Vent Car Mount with Sound Amplified Cradle for iPhone from Kensington, $39.99
- SigFx Energy iPhone Case Contains Smart Battery from SigFx Energy, US$69.95
- NAVIGON AG - True GPS Software for the iPhone from NAVIGON Inc., 89.99
- Tweetie 2 from atebits, $2.99
- Snood: Flawed Casual Play from Electronic Arts, US$3.99
Premier Sponsors
Top 5 Free Apps
iTunes New Music Releases
Top 5 Paid Apps
Discover New Music
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
- Arctic Monkeys
Get on your dancing shoes
You sexy little swine
-Arctic
- Modern Lovers
This timeless masterpiece is little known, but it has inspired almost as many bands as The Modern Lovers' own inspiration -- and only slightly better known -- The Velvet Underground & Nico.
- Wolfmother
Black Sabbath, The White Stripes, The Stooges. There aren't many bands worth their salt that want to be compared to other bands, but when I listen to Wolfmother's self-titled American debut, I can
- Cake
Pressure Chief, Cake's latest album, didn't immediately grab me. In fact, it took perhaps half a dozen listens before I started truly enjoying it. Any
- Beck
Beck is the modern master of the groove, and Guero is merely the latest example of this. From the opening power chords of "E-Pro," to the Pac-Man cuteness of "Girl," to the dirge-like lullab
Reader Specials
Visit Deals On The Web for the best deals on all consumer electronics, iPods, and more!
News
Apple Exec: Apple Not Married to iPhone Sales Model [Update]
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 3:00 PM - by Bryan Chaffin
Apple Inc. is "not married" to the current iPhone sales model, according to Apple’s Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook. Marketwatch reported that Mr. Cook told attendees at a Goldman Sachs investors conference that Apple is open to new ways of selling the devices.
At issue is Apple’s current model of allowing only one carrier per geographic region to exclusively sell the device, an issue that has earned some criticism from analysts and pundits for limiting potential sales.
At the same time, many of those same analysts have noted that exclusive deals have heretofore been at the heart of the revenue sharing agreement Apple has with those carriers. With AT&T, for instance, Apple collects part of the subscriber fees for the lifetime of the iPhone contract.
The company is thought to have made similar deals in the European countries where the iPhone has been also been released, though some country regulations have required Apple to allow the iPhones to be portable to the customer’s carrier of choice. So far, Apple has worked around this by charging more for an unlocked phone in countries like France where this regulation has been in place.
Apple tends to be very, very close lipped about its future plans, and such comments from a high ranking Apple executive like Mr. Cook should not be taken lightly. In the U.S., AT&T has an exclusive deal with Apple for five years, but these comments suggest that may not be written in stone.
Apple has seen many iPhones entering the grey market, with a large number of phones going to India, China, and other Asian countries where the device has not yet been released. It is certainly possible that Mr. Cook’s comments are aimed more at Apple’s plans for these markets than the existing deals in the U.S. and Europe.
To that effect, Mr. Cook commented that the iPhone would likely always be a target for hackers, perhaps signalling that Apple was finally bowing to the inevitable. InformationWeek reported that Mr. Cook talked about the large overseas demand for hacked iPhones during the conference.
Perhaps most importantly, Mr. Cook also said that Apple was well on its way to meeting its goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of calendar 2008. Apple has seem some downward pressure on its stock as some analysts have been lowering their overall target of iPhone unit sales.
Recent Headlines
- Apple TV 3.0.1 Update Fixes Missing Content Bug
- Taiwan Leak Shows Verizon UTMS/CDMA iPhone for Q3 2010
- iPhone Moves Into RadioShack
- Dictionary, Dictionary, Dictionary, And More
- The Latest App Store Games: Gravity Sling, RocketBird, Ground Effect, Checkers!
- iPhone Game Developer Sued for Collecting User’s Cell Numbers
- Apple May Be Bringing RFID to the iPhone
Post Your Comments