Sillicon Alley Insider - Dan Frommer | August 1, 2008 5:00 PM

AT&T’s decision to subsidize the new Apple (AAPL) iPhone 3G down to $199 has already paid off — it said last week that it’s selling the new phone twice as fast as it sold the old one. But its restructured deal with Apple could have also landed it another bonus: Longer exclusive distribution rights in the U.S.

In a lengthy profile about AT&T, including an interview with CEO Randall Stephenson, USA Today’s Leslie Cauley reports that the renegotiated deal got AT&T “a year” extension on its exclusive deal, “into 2010,” sourcing the standard people familiar with the matter:
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FORTUNE - July 29, 2008, 9:38 am

By Philip Elmer-DeWitt

The number of offerings on the App Store — the venue for independently produced programs that helps distinguish Apple’s smartphone from all others — hit 1,001 on Monday night.

That’s roughly double the number that were available when the store opened just over two weeks ago (on July 11, the same day the iPhone 3G went on sale), and includes popular games like Texas Hold’em and Crash Bandicoot, business tools like Bloomberg News and Salesforce Mobile, and social networking programs like Facebook, MySpace and AIM. Roughly 20% of the apps are free; 90% cost $10 or less. Most also work on the iPod touch.

Many consider this flood of software to be a bigger deal than the phone itself. Among smartphones, only the RIM (RIMM) Blackberry has created a comparable platform for so-called third-party programs (see its application store here), but because the Blackberry lacks a touch screen and accelerometer, its apps don’t compare with the iPhone’s in terms of features and ease of use. [Several readers note that Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Mobile and the Palm (PALM) OS also provide rich software platforms. You can view their offerings here and here, respectively.]

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NEWSFACTOR -  Fri Jul 25, 4:58 PM ET

Patricia Resende

When Apple released its iPhone 2.0 software earlier this month, CEO Steve Jobs said it would provide the best user experience and the most advanced software platform for a mobile device. However, glitches in the software are leaving users frustrated, with a laundry list of complaints.

Apple launched its App Store just before it released the iPhone 3G, which uses the 2.0 software. Users of both the iPhone 3G and the first-generation iPhone upgraded with the 2.0 software can buy and download apps created by third-party developers.

Strong Expectations

The 2.0 software was also supposed to allow subscribers to Apple’s $99-a-year MobileMe service (formerly called .Mac) to seamlessly share e-mail, calendars and contacts between iPhones, PCs and Macs. It was billed as compatible with Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers.

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Sillicon Alley Insider - Vasanth Sridharan | July 19, 2008 9:00 AM

Want an 8GB iPhone 3G in Russia? Get ready to pay $1,200. What about a 16GB model? How does $1,370 sound?

While Apple negotiates with carriers to bring its iPhones to Russia and China — two of the biggest wireless markets left untapped by Apple — the black market is still thriving, the AP reports. Some 400,000 iPhones are supposedly in Russia, and perhaps twice that in China.

So what’s taking so long? Apple (AAPL) boss Steve Jobs told CNBC in June that the company is still trying to jump through regulatory hoops in China, but that iPhones should be available there and in Russia later this year.

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Silicon Alley Insider - Dan Frommer | July 17, 2008 2:24 PM

It’s been about a week since Apple took the cover off the iPhone App Store, and one of our biggest questions has been answered: We weren’t sure if Apple (AAPL) would limit (or ban) advertising in apps. Now we know they won’t — we count at least three apps already running ads, and many more likely on the way via a cottage industry of iPhone-tailored ad networks.

Those three, free apps running ads: Twitterrific, a Twitter app by The Iconfactory; Exposure, a Flickr app by Connected Flow; and the NYTimes app by you-know-who (NYT).

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Silicon Alley Insider - Peter Kafka | July 16, 2008 2:22 PM

After the iPhone euphoria, the crash, in the form a series of small disappointments: Not only is the machine a bit buggy and hard to keep charged, it turns out that not all the gear iPhone 1.0 owners have will work with their new machines.

Apple itself tells you this — but only in the most passive-agressive of ways. For instance, Apple lists 11 power accessories for the iPhone at its online store — but only offers three of those for the iPhone 3g.

Yahoo’s Eran Hammer-Lahav learned the hard way, when he tried to use the generic battery charger that had worked perfectly fine on his old iPhone with his new machine. Results below:

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