Katie Marsal
The iPhone's launch in France was marked by large lines and a VIP visit. Meanwhile, Nokia may square off against Apple if it releases a touchscreen phone, and Apple has overtaken Dell in Black Friday site traffic.
Despite ongoing strikes in the transportation system, Apple's final European iPhone launch for 2007 created an extra-wide line running more than 100 meters (328 feet) from the central Orange store on the Champs Elysées in Paris, according to one report from enthusiasts standing in line for PCInpact.
A VIP section triggered much attention from the press, though only one recognizable figure — Orange France president Louis-Pierre Wenes — has so far been identified in the mix.
But that executive has reason to be happy, says the chief of Orange's parent company France Telecom. President Didier Lombard has told journalists at a press conference that he expects between 400,000 and 500,000 iPhones to be sold in France during its first year on sale, though his company has not revealed how many of the phones it expects will sell unlocked and thus lose out on subscription revenue.
The exclusivity deal for the iPhone that allows Orange to be the sole provider of locked phones will last "more than two years," Wenes says.
A PCInpact snapshot of the line along the Champs Elysées.
Orange France president Louis-Pierre Wenes holds an iPhone at the Champs Elysées launch (via PCInpact).
Nokia could face Apple legal action over future phone: analyst
Analyst Richard Windsor of the British financial firm Nomura issued an early warning on Wednesday that Nokia's planned upgrade to the Symbian Series 60 OS to add a touchscreen interface could spawn a legal dispute between the Finland-based company and Apple when it appears in late 2008.
The Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker owns about 200 patents related to the iPhone and has already vowed to protect them in the event that a rival's design infringes on the technology — which may be likely. A technology demonstration by Nokia in August appeared to imitate the iPhone's photo browsing and other aspects of the Apple touchscreen interface.
Still, the potential cost of a protracted legal battle may force Nokia to license patents or settle with Apple in 2009 to allow any new smartphones to co-exist with the iPhone, Windsor says.
Apple overtakes Dell in Black Friday website visits
Roughly 1.4 million people visited Apple.com the day following Thanksgiving, notes a ComScore study.
Nicknamed Black Friday for its reputation of bringing stores from losses to profits (or black ink), the period represented a 111 percent jump in traffic to Apple's site from the year before and far eclipsed both the growth and numbers for its frequent opponent Dell. The Texas-based Windows PC maker grew just 29 percent and drew only 1.3 million visitors.
Apple dropped iPod and Mac prices on that day, accounting for at least part of the increase.
Carphone Warehouse caught misleading iPhone buyers
A secret investigation by the BBC has found that Carphone Warehouse is frequently misstating the iPhone's true costs in an attempt to boost commission sales.
Customers are often inaccurately told that only the phone retailer's insurance will adequately cover the device from theft or damage despite O2 offering a similar level of protection.
Prospective shoppers were also falsely warned that they would need to not only buy a new phone if the old one is lost but set up a new 18-month contract, raising the effective price from £269 to £630.
Carphone Warehouse claims the complaints only represent a small portion of its stores and that the investigation doesn't reveal systemic abuse of customer trust.
Apple provides 1.0.3 update for iPod classic, 3G nano
Apple on Wednesday released its 1.0.3 update for the iPod classic and the third-generation iPod nano.
Available through iTunes, the firmware patches are only listed as "bug fixes" but are believed to address problems with games altering song play counts on both media players. The iPod classic's implementation of Cover Flow and the iPod nano's clock have also seen minor updates.
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Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
16 Comments
I'm pretty sure Nokia will review all patents before introducing product... it's not that difficult to circumvent a patent.
1) Apple does not own 200 patents on the iPhone. It has *applied* for 200 patents. It hasn't got them yet.
2) Nokia and Symbian and for that matter others too have been doing touch screen phones and PDAs since the early 1990s and even though Psion (Symbian's original company) was at times a bit dim, I'd not think they were that dim as to not patent.I'd imagine both companies have looked at each other's patents and decided which apply or how to get around them and that neither want to get into a Qualcomm v Broadcomm style embargo situation in America or Europe.
Analyst Richard Windsor of the British financial firm Nomura issued an early warning on Wednesday that Nokia's planned upgrade to the Symbian Series 60 OS to add a touchscreen interface could spawn a legal dispute between the Finland-based company and Apple when it appears in late 2008.
The Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker owns about 200 patents related to the iPhone and has already vowed to protect them in the event that a rival's design infringes on the technology -- which may be likely. A technology demonstration by Nokia in August appeared to imitate the iPhone's photo browsing and other aspects of the Apple touchscreen interface.
Still, the potential cost of a protracted legal battle may force Nokia to license patents or settle with Apple in 2009 to allow any new smartphones to co-exist with the iPhone, Windsor says.
LOL! I doubt Apple has more than a couple patents (and it's more likely applied for and not received) related to their touchscreen ... and even those are in doubt because touchscreens and multiple touch input are nothing new.
Visits? Yeah, I went to the Apple site, nothing I wanted was on sale.
the carphone warehouse tried to con me into that insurance deal.
while he was telling me that if i lost the phone i couldn't just pick another on up without starting a new 18 month contract i was thinking 'hang on a minute, that sounds a bit harsh'.
didn't fall for the talk though, i wasn't paying an extra £35 every 3 months. sack that off!!
in regards to the carphone warehouse report... what a surprise BBC at it again, nothing but bad press for Apple whenever they possibly can. The flip side to this story is the utter bollox spouted by the competition trying to keep customers from jumping ship. But not a mention i doubt.
I'm really not fond of the BBC, they used to be great, but now its just a propaganda machine for the government and microsoft.
Next they will ask for a license fee for every computer in the UK. They will have to prise it from my fingers.