The iPhone 3G blog

With regard to whether the iPhone officially entered the Chinese market, can be effective in China’s 3G market, speculation that the past year interruption, but with the mobile phone OPhone debut, I believe that occupied the technical superiority, with support for operators and terminal manufacturers, but also has made 3G mobile phone market opportunities OPhone will be in the Chinese market to replace the iPhone had been given the 3G Internet phone myth, the main reason is reflected in three aspects.

Lenovo OPhone with Apple iPhone

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The battle to dent the dominance of Apple’s iPhone will intensify next month. Orange and T-Mobile are expected to unveil exclusive deals to stock the latest touchscreen phones that use Google’s Android software to British gadget fans.

Orange is understood to have secured the exclusive rights to Motorola’s first Android mobile, which the US handset maker hopes will help revive its fortunes. T-Mobile, meanwhile, has secured the rights to sell the first Android device from China’s Huawei, which until now has been known primarily as a manufacturer of “dongles” that enable laptop computers to get mobile broadband services. Both phones will be available in the UK in time for Christmas.

T-Mobile G1 running Google Android software

Both devices are designed to compete with the iPhone and both look similar to the Apple handset, though the Motorola phone has a slide-out qwerty keyboard. But it is the fact that they use Android which has excited gadget fans. The operating system has been developed under Google’s auspices and is open to any developer and any handset manufacturer to build applications or devices that use it. It is seen as a major competitor to not only the iPhone platform but Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Nokia’s Symbian.

The first Android phone, the G1 made by Taiwan’s HTC, was launched late last year by T-Mobile. Since then, the company has started selling a new version of that phone – the G2. Meanwhile, Vodafone has clinched an exclusive deal to sell the another HTC Android phone called the Magic. But the Motorola device, codenamed Morrison, will be the first Android phone from a big-name maker. It will be unveiled in the US on 10 September and in the UK five days later.

Motorola has fallen from grace over the past half decade to such an extent that bosses at the US giant considered closing the cellphone division before bowing to pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn to demerge the unit.

Motorola had about a quarter of the global handset market four years ago, in part thanks to its successful and ultra-slim Razr phone. But since then, its share has crashed to about 5% amid intense competition from rivals Samsung and LG and, more recently, Apple.

T-Mobile, meanwhile, will widen its range of Android devices in the UK with its own exclusive deal, expected to be announced later this week, to stock the first Android device from Huawei. The phone, codenamed the Pulse, is a touchscreen device but it is designed to appeal to cash-strapped consumers.

The G1 is free to customers willing to sign up to a £30 a month contract, and the G2 is free on a £36.50 a month deal.

Neither T-Mobile nor Orange would comment.

iPhone MMS lawsuit

For at least the third time this month, Apple and AT&T are being sued by a consumer complaining of being duped into believing that multimedia messaging, or MMS, was already available on the iPhone.

Filed in the Northern District of Ohio on Wednesday (PDF hosted by Wired), plaintiff Deborah Carr says Apple and AT&T misled the public into believing that the iPhone 3GS was capable of sending and receiving MMS messages on the device. The lawsuit claims that Apple’s “print and video advertisements…on television, the Internet, the radio, newspapers, and direct mailers” all mention the availability of MMS on the device.

Two similar cases–one in Illinois and another in Louisiana–were also filed against the companies in August.

According to the latest lawsuit, first reported by InformationWeek, customers were told that MMS would be enabled on June 17, 2009, when iPhone OS 3.0 was released.

That seems rather strange, considering that Apple and AT&T announced on June 8, during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote that MMS would not be available until later in the summer. AT&T confirmed that time frame to Wired on Friday.

“We absolutely will offer MMS on iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G with 3.0 upgrades in late summer, once we complete some system upgrades that will ensure our customers have the best experience with MMS,” an AT&T representative said in a statement cited by Wired.

Carr’s lawsuit does admit that Apple has a notice on its Web site explaining that support for MMS would be available from AT&T in late summer. However, the suit characterizes the note as a “mouseprint disclaimer,” referring to the small print.

Technically, Apple has enabled MMS in iPhone OS 3.0. The proof is that 29 carriers around the world activated MMS on the iPhone when the new operating system was released on June 17. It’s not available in the United States because AT&T isn’t ready to activate it yet, which was disclosed on June 8. Read more… »

iphone-china-unicom

Always keep we in suspense for the introduction of matters relating to the licensed iPhone yesterday finally settled.

China Unicom yesterday’s performance held daily news conferences, announced a partnership with Apple on future cooperation in the years to sell iPhone handsets in China have reached a consensus regarding the. iPhone mobile phone in the fourth quarter of this year, an official in the Chinese market. Although China Unicom and Apple aspects of the cooperation agreements and marketing programs tight-lipped about the details, but according to informed sources, China Unicom will be the earliest version of iPhone handsets by the end of September or early October in the official market, China Unicom is likely to use package bundle model sales, its price is not expected to exceeded 3,000 yuan.

iPhone手机将在今年第四季度正式在中国市场上市。虽然联通和苹果方面均对合作协议及销售方案细节三缄其口，但据知情人士透露，联通版iPhone手机最快将在9月底或10月初正式面市，联通很可能采用套餐捆绑模式销售，其单价预计不超过3000元。 Read more… »