Vodaphone has already made a public announcement that it is gearing up to introduce the Apple 3G phone to customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey, who will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network. The other GSM mobile operator who will be marketing the Apple iPhone in India as well as some parts of Asia will be none other than Bharati Airtel servicing some 62 million mobile subscribers at present. So between Bharati and Vodafone, the Apple product should be available to most of the Mobile phone users in India as well as other parts of the world.

The rumors that have started anew is that the launch is set to take place somewhere around the Diwali season since it is the time when most Indian families indulge in shopping sprees. But rumors aside, as the date for the official launch comes near, the owners of the pirated iPhones are becoming increasingly worried. One, the cost is less, so it may be that the original versions would cost a lot less than the pirated ones. Two, with both Bharati Airtel and Vodafone supporting the iPhone, they may not take kindly to any illegal use of iPhone and may jam their phones. Three, the Apple corp may not find it amusing that illegal versions of its product is being sold over the counter and would want to take action against all the buyers and sellers. So considering everything, the gray market has due cause to be worried.

The Indian middle class, the versatile consumer playground, has welcomed all the earlier Apple products with open arms and going by reactions posted to this particular announcement, the trend is set to continue for this product as well. What makes this product outstanding is that in addition to offering a cheaper alternative to Blackberry, Apple 3G offers additional advantages, like the option to talk while surfing. That is, with the Apple 3G, you can chat while chatting – sounds a bit confusing does it not? Basically, you can use the phone to hold a verbal conversation while surfing the net at the same time.

These days, if you walk into a net café anywhere in India or the rest of Asia, you are bound to come across a person or two talking on the mobile while surfing the net. Apple has taken note of this and has managed to incorporate this feature into the latest 3G products. The launch date is still being kept very hush-hush, but going by the speed with which Airtel is moving, one can expect the 3G to come around knocking any time soon. The price tag is still a bit of a mystery but since the lesser price tag is one of the major attractions to this product, you can expect it to be a lot less when compared with the blackberry, at the very least.

This is a current feature list. By the time the product rolls out for full use there are suppose to be additional features added.

1. View Calendar, Email, Text Messages, News, Sports, and Weather from your iPhone “Slide To Unlock” screen
2. Smooth scrolling across each item to quickly glimpse at your data
3. Auto-Checks Email when you view the unlock screen - no need to “Refresh” from Mail.app or wait 15 minutes
4. Go directly to the application of your choice with a “Swipe”
5. Precise International Weather (by Zip) provided by Weather Underground.com
6. News Feeds include Yahoo!, CNN, Fox News, and Reuters
7. ESPN Sports Feeds include MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA Men’s Football and NCAA Women’s Basketball
8. Customizing your IntelliScreen is easy! Choose which content you want to view and where
9. Mail and Text Messages can be shown only if new items are available

Another great feature is that if the program fails to engage more than once, a screen will pop up asking the user if they want to disable the program.

I must say that this application looks like it will be a winner if it delivers everything above. Since the product is just in beta and has a lot of the features active already, there is no reason to doubt this product.

The announcement is along all the expected lines as the rumors of the Apple revolution in the works has already hit the Island shores of Hongkong quite a while back. Now with this announcement, with no dates being announced, many are left hanging as to when the ‘launch’ will take place. And one is left in the dark as to whether it is the new generation that is going to be marketed here in Asia or the old model. With rumors flying fast and thick, all that one can do is to literally twiddle one’s thumbs and wait for the launch to take place.

With Apple already planning to notch up the sales upwards of 10 million units by the year end, most of these sales should come from the Asian continent, seeing that nearly half of the world’s populace resides here. The new avatars of the Iphone is already available in most of the developed parts of the world with the United states leading the pack in maximum usage. It is only a matter of time before the rest of the world catches up, not just in usage terms but also in the availability of the latest version of the Apple iPhone.

Hutchinson is the perfect company for Apple to partner with in order to launch its series of Phones in Asia, seeing that Hutchinson has already  quite a base all across this part of the world. Hutchinson provides a multitude of services from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and all the way to India.

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This increase in production could turn out to be a gold mine for Apple and investors. If the production plans are correct, Bank of America analyst, Scott Craig, expects 8 million of the 11 million iPhones produced will be sold this year. Additionally, if the new 3G iPhone model is successful, Apple is looking at an additional $400 million in sales

Via: iPhonesTalk

An online survey showed that out of a total 450 China consumers, almost 70% had known about the iPhone and exactly what it is and does.

Some companies in China have been releasing “iphone clones” for a fraction of the price of what a real iPhone would cost you in China (currently estimated to be around $500).

First, applications could be built to leverage the data from a Blu-ray player, building an iTunes like catalog of movies into the iPhone, for example, and offering title recommendations. Far more exciting though, is the possibility of sending movies direct from disk to the iPhone, ready to play. The demo video on the site is laughably fast, showing a transfer which takes just seconds (if you’ve ever compressed a regular DVD for use on an iPhone, you’ll know how ridiculous this is) but the idea is very attractive.

Via: Wired

The standalone branded gadget will stream films directly to TV sets and is expected to be announced “sometime” this month.

Apple’s Apple TV product received a revamp earlier this year in the face of disappointing sales while Blockbuster rival Netflix has been linked with LG in creating a similar device.

Via: SkyNews