Appletell

The Times has said that the 3G iPhone being released by Apple soon could cost as little as £100 in the UK. Analysts have predicted the drop in price due to ineffective marketing strategies such as “network exclusivity deals” in Europe.

Apple had estimated that the iPhone would sell between 500,000 and 600,000 units across the UK and France, but that they have failed to meet this target with just 330,000 sold. Apple could be scrapping the exclusivity deals across Europe and introducing more tempting pricing to try and reach that “10 million iphones sold” goal. So far, the iPhone has only had incredible success in America, with Europe lagging on behind, hence the predictions.

Although analysts say that the iPhone could be sold for as little as €99 across mainland Europe, the slightly higher price for the UK iPhone is due to a two-year-long exclusivity with UK network O2, thereby lacking incentive for competitive pricing. Unlike when the 2.5G iPhone was released, the 3G version is expected to be released to 3G-iPhone-hungry “United Kingdomers” very shortly after the American version is released.

The 3G iPhone is expected to be unveiled during the World Wide Developers Conference on June the 9th, Keep your fingers crossed ... although it’s almost a given.

There are tons of rumors about Apple’s upcoming second generation phone.  So many that I sometimes don’t know which ones are legit and which ones are not.  Who do I believe?  Who has the right insiders?  It’s time to stop the rumors and start some pure speculation.  Here is what I hope to see with the next iPhone that may be less obvious than some features (3G):

1) A video camera. Video conferencing on an iPhone would not only be awesome, it would be a great draw for business people.  I’m sure Apple will include this is the next release, and they better.  With how often iPhones need to be synced for music, contacts, podcasts, etc, it would be awesome to be able to take videos off of the device.  These videos would be perfect for sites like Flickr Video and maybe even YouTube. Another adaptation of the video camera many people are looking for is support for online streaming services such as Qik (a service that allows you to stream live video from your cellphone).

2) Camera features. The camera on the iPhone isn’t the greatest I’ve used, but it’s up there.  However, it would definitely move up a few notches with some extra features.  Apple should add a zoom, some more control over lighting features such as white balance, and even some Photo Booth effects.  For me, that would set the camera apart from others and make the next iPhone that much better.

3) Dictionary.app. This one is sort of small, but I would absolutely love to see a Dictionary widget on the home screen.  Sure I could just add dictionary.com to my home screen but a built in Dictionary and reference would be extremely useful.  Also, there could be a lot more flexibility with the user interface than from a website and load times could be improved.

4) Openness. Give it to other carriers Apple!  It kills me to see the phones growth hindered by its carrier.  I know a lot of people have simply switched carriers and other have just jailbroken their phone, but people shouldn’t have to take these steps.  I imagine the sales of the device will skyrocket even more once AT&T’s exclusivity deal is up.  There is still the slight chance that iPhone 2.0 will not fall under the same deal with AT&T as the first version, however, which would be great.

What do you really want to see on the next iPhone?

Yesterday, both Goldman Sachs and Caris upped their predictions for things ranging from stock price highs to second quarter revenues.  Goldman Sachs cited “strong Mac sales and a better product mix should offset sluggish iPhone and iPod sales and allow the company to report March quarter results ‘strong enough to satisfy the Street” when asked about their reasoning for increasing their target price for AAPL from $175 to $185.  Sachs also raised their March quarter Earnings Per Share (EPS) from $1.02 to $1.09 and their June quarter EPS from $1.05 to $1.12.  Surprisingly, Goldman and Sachs also predicted a total of 11 million iPhones sold in 2008, which is surprisingly 1 million more then the official Apple Estimate. 

Also of note is Caris’ second quarter profit of $7.04 Billion, an increase from $6.93 Billion

Via [Mac Daily News]

Image by Gizmodo

Well, though Apple pulled a fast one and released them early, Appletell’s predictions were spot on in the case of the new Mac Pros.

Our Prediction:

Penryn processors up to 8-core 3.2 GHz[...] Apple will most likely tout a 32 GB RAM ability as a new feature, even though the current Mac Pros can handle 32 GB of RAM since the introduction of 4 GB RAM Modules. Hard Drive Space will most likely be expanded to a 4 TB Max.

MORE »

As much as the fanboys love their rumour sites, from AppleInsider to MacScoop, there’s another segment of the grapevine that has been known to leak the latest Apple news (and I’m not talking Mossberg here). They are analysts of course - and their latest predictions are in.

Analyst Mike Abramsky for RBC Capital:

Apple will meet it’s iPhone sales goal of 10 million in the first 18 months
16GB and lower priced iPhones for 2007, 3G and larger resolution displays for 2008
Canadian and European iPhone launches between Q4 ‘07 and Q2 ‘08
Asia iPhone launch by mid-2008
New nano and video iPods by the end of 2007 with larger displays, more memory, and Wi-Fi
There will be no “iPhone nanos”

Analyst Gene Munster for Piper Jaffray:

80% chance of new iMacs soon
a 13-inch ultra-portable is under development
Mac OS X-based iPods are under development

Read [AppleInsider] and [MacNN]