Definitely not the sort of news you’d expect to hear from the makers of the iPhone but it’s certainly food for thought but will Apple be able to take a big bite out of the gaming sector? Looking at the news that’s appearing on the web it would seem so.

A number of games are now available for the iPod Touch through iTunes App Store that have put paid to the rumours about the supposed quality of games. Take a look around iTunes and you’ll find goodies such as Gameloft’s Real Soccer 2009 (easily rivals the Nintendo DS version) and demos for the likes of Sim City (this one is getting rave reviews).

The market penetration of the iPhone 3G alone is enough to make most manufacturers drool with envy and gives Apple a very competitive edge. Add in the iPod Touch and some analysts are suggesting potential sales figures in the region of 40 milliion units per year! This compares to about 42 million DS consoles sold between January 2007 to June 2008 - Apple looks set to top the sales charts in the near future which will, in turn, allow them to dominate the games market.

Another key component of Apples massive gaming potential reach is the huge success of iTunes; can you honestly point to anyone between the ages of 15 and 50 and say they’ve never heard of iTunes? The move into games downloads is a logical, if somewhat surprising, move by Apple which has probably been planned since the launch of the iPod Touch and iPhone 3G.

Pricing of games is also weighted in Apples favour - £10 and under through App Store versus £20 - £40 for DS games…you get the picture. No shipping or associated costs as the game is downloaded and bug fixes can be pushed out through App Store - it makes you wonder why Nintendo etc didn’t think of distributing games via download! That said, comparitively speaking the actual cost of the Apple devices is considerably higher than Nintendo or Sony consoles - no problem; just think of all the money you’ll save in the long run by downloading through App Store!

Ok, not everyone who buys an iPhone or iPod Touch wants to play games and the devices don’t seem to have been designed with gaming in mind but the touchscreen functionality allows for some pretty impressive moves inside a game. Who knows, maybe this is the start of the next big thing in gaming.

So, with 1500 games already available to download competitors such as Sony and Nintendo will have to work hard to keep up with Apple. Will the T-Mobile G1 follow suit at some stage? It wouldn’t surprise me - successful ideas always have their mimics.

It seems that rumours of iTunes demise at the hands of competing music download sites have been massively exaggerated; Apple has made the move to the gaming arena and, based on the current quality of games downloads, look set to be a big winner. Time for Nintendo, et al to respond!

Popularity: 49% [?]

Bad news for iPhone fans - Macrumors have an article which suggest that Apple won’t be allowing the Opera browser into App store. Various rumours are circulating as to why Apple have made this decision but the most credible would be one of minimising the competition to the Safari browser. The Opera Mini can run on the iPhone so it’s a real shame this browser won’t make it into App store.

Apple has been widely criticised for its refusal to allow competing apps into App Store and this latest decision is a prime example of the stranglehold they have over users decisions. Therefore, don’t expect to see any other freebies like Firefox being made available through App Store.

There is one option available; buy yourself a G1, the Android based Google handset. Although the G1 has a supposed ‘kill switch‘ (just like the iPhone) you’re likely to find all your favourite free applications being made available to download. Hey, the choice is yours!

Popularity: 43% [?]

Apple is synonymous with cool software backed up by stylish hardware and…a pretty hefty price tag. To most fans of all-things Apple this is a fairly moot point but, in my opinion, the price alone has probably been enough to put off new buyers. Look at it another way; MacBook Pro - about £1300, PC with Windows that, in the eyes of many, does the same thing - £350 upwards. Bit of a no brainer for many buyers.

The latest news to come out of the US suggests that Apple are about to give everyone the chance to own a Mac by launching an $800 notebook.

The information isn’t official. According to the source, Apple retail stores have been given price sheets that list prices between $800-$3100. There aren’t any tech specs either. What does this mean? It could be something as simple as a price reduction on the MacBook range, a stab at the netbook/sub-notebook market or even an entry level device. Personally, I’d say we’re looking the entry level model (although I’d like to see an Apple netbook). This may not appeal to many hardcore Mac fans but it should be enough to convince potential buyers to have a look at what Apple has to offer. Pretty much the same way that many other OS vendors work - give them basics, get ‘em hooked, reel ‘em in.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Ok, first I have to point out that IBM don’t fully support this app but it should keep users happy and, best of all, it’s free.

iNotes Ultralite was launched today Notes admins and iPhone users. At its heart, iNotes Ultralite is a web app which allows users to access Lotus Notes email through Safari on the iPhone (hopefully it’ll be more stable than IE). You’ll also need to install IBM Lotus Domino Web Access 8.0.2 on your servers.

As yet, we’re not aware of a formal deal between Apple and IBM but never rule anything out. The iPhone 3G’s support of MS Exchange has been a big hit and helped the handsets adoption in the enterprise so expect to hear more news on an IBM/Apple collaboration soon.

Update: An IBM representative has said that the two companies are working to bring the Lotus Notes Traveler software to the iPhone. ’nuff said!

Here’s the link to iNotes Ultralite

Popularity: 8% [?]

Marriage of convenience?

Android’s here and it seems like everyman and his handset is going pie eyed over the open source mobile phone software - including Motorola. To be fair, Mototola has been a supporter of Android since the early days but now they’re really starting to show their commitment. Motorola are upping the number of Android development team from 50 to 350. This indicates a serious attempt to unseat Apples iPhone 3G as THE target for web developers.  As we all know, the better the app the more likely the phone will be adopte as the choice of users.

The most notable absence from the Android huddle is Nokia. The mobile phone manufacturer currently uses it’s own OS for mobile phones; Symbian. Although Nokia has open sourced Symbian other vendors are slowly chipping away at the market dominance of Nokia’s operating system. It would be fairly logical to accept that Nokia could, at some stage, join the party and launch their own Android based handset.

So, an act of benevolence on the part of Motorola or a shotgun wedding in an attempt to get a nice slice of juicey, sale pie? Considering Motorola’s falling market share I know which option I’d plump for!

Food for thought, eh Apple?

Popularity: 48% [?]

…according to Google

Figures forecasthing the sale of up to 130,000+ Android handsets are being touted by Google and T-Mobile. Apparently, the sheer level of anticipation over the Android-based mobile phones has analyists suggesting sales in the region of 400,000 handsets by 2009. Whilst I agree that there would appear to be a strong interest in Android handsets, I’m not so sure these figures add up especially when you consider how little marketing has been done so far. This means that the end of year market share of 4% that Google and T-Mobile want will be extremely hard going.

Now, if you think that T-Mobile is aiming high, take a look at this - HTC and Google are thinking even bigger. Some rumours suggest that around 700,000 handsets will shipped worldwide in order to prevent shortages! Now that’s thinking big.

HTC and T-Mobile are the only companies looking for big gains. Apple has sold a huge number of iPhones, both generation 1 and 3G, albeit on the back of a lot of hype and a huge marketing campaign. But they’re not stopping there. Jobs and Co are hoping to sell 10 million iPhones by 2009!

The key battleground for Google and Apple will be the availability of apps that can be used to customise the handsets. Currently, 1 - 0 to Apple but we mustn’t forget that the Android OS is Linux based and will have huge appeal to the Open Source commmunity. This rather clever move on the part of Google could just tip the odds.

I’m going to put my feet up with a beer and watch as battle commences. By the time the dust settles…I’ll be very drunk!

Popularity: 31% [?]

Only £2.99, but only for a limited time. This app, which puts Google Earth on your iPhone, usually costs $10. Now I have to admit it’s pretty impressive; touch screen control of Google Earth and integration into the iPhones GPS makes this application a must have - even if only for the ‘look at me’ factor!

Other nice little features include highlight locations with Wikipedia information and Flickr phont’s, where provided. You can even take photos of locations visited and add them to the Earthscape database. This images can then be presented to other users with geotags attached.

Admittedly, Google Earth is free but the level of integration in EarthScape puts makes it worth every penny.

Popularity: 30% [?]

6 million units sold

Sometime this week, the sales of iPhone 3G will hit the 6 million figure. So, only 7 weeks after being launched, the new Apple mobile phone has outsold the first generation iPhone. That’s a pretty impressive achievement even though the battery isn’t great and their have been a lot of owners complaining about 3G.

The original iPhone took about a year before they sold 6 million units - looks like Apples marketing department went into overdrive on the 3G. Even more impressive is the point at which iPhone sales hit the one million mark - about twodays for the 3G and 74 days for the first generation handset. I’m sure this is only the starting point for Apple; Businessweek has suggested that Foxconn will be building 150,000 handsets per day.Add the figures up and you can see that Apple is aiming to sell 40 million iPhones over the next year. There’s a lot of animosity in the mobile phone market with Open Source fans eagerly awaiting the launch of Android but Apple may have an edge here as well; by throwing open the iPhone Apps code Apple has already made significant headway into the ‘grow your own applications’ market.

Let’s see what Android has to offer.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Watch out for the Apple imitators

At the recent IDF, Intel stated that their second-generation dual-core mobile processors for … ultra thin and light notebook PCs” are soon to made available to all hardware manufacturers. This effectively means that any PC builder can create a MacBook clone.

I’m not entirely sure of the reasoning behind this announcement (apart from the money factor). Let’s face it, if any of these othere companies were half as innovative as Apple we’d have seen a waifer thin laptop a long time ago.

I don’t expect to see this go unanswered by Apple either. Knowing Jobs and Co. I’d expect to see an Air replacement hitting the market soon after the launch of a Far Eastern copycat.

Popularity: 29% [?]

But only for existing customers!

Earlier this week an avalanche of pre-orders crashed the O2 website - now that’s demand! But they’re back. There’s one small problem - you can only order an iPhone 3G if you’re currently contracted to O2. Disappointing I know, but demand has outstripped supply (I got my order in this morning!)

Limtied numbers of iPhone stock have caused O2 to state that its stores only hold a “few dozen” devices - which are probably sold out now.

If you go to O2’s website and click order now, you’ll notice that all devices are sold out.

Popularity: 2% [?]