Three out of five business customers (59 percent) who bought an iPhone said they were “very satisfied” with it, leading all other smart phones, according to a survey on corporate IT spending conducted by Rockville, Md.-based ChangeWave Research.

While Research in Motion ranked second on the customer satisfaction question with 47 percent saying they were “very satisfied” with their BlackBerries, ChangeWave notes this is an 8 percent decline from the previous survey.

Source: Baltimore Sun

Apple released OS X firmware update 1.1.4 Tuesday for the iPhone, saying little about the new features. The last update, 1.1.3, introduced a few new capabilities such as the ability to customize the home page, but the only thing noted as new in 1.1.4 are “bug fixes,” which are probably welcome.

It’s not clear at this early juncture whether the new update does anything to the legions of jailbroken and unlocked iPhones out in the world, but if you’re one of those users living outside Apple’s user agreement, you might want to hold off installing the update until more details are uncovered. We’ll update if we hear more.

In addition, so far on Tuesday we’ve learned nothing new about Apple’s iPhone software development kit, expected to arrive sometime this week before the end of February. It was a busy day for the company, though, with new MacBooks and MacBook Pros making an appearance in Apple stores.

Source: CNET

A story on Electronista.com notes that there wasn’t much change among the top players, with Motorola keeping a lock on the number-one spot with 32% of the US market. The only significant move, according to the NPD report, was Samsung sliding up to 17% and stealing the number-two slot from LG, which remained stagnant with 16%.

Add in Nokia and Sanyo in fourth and fifth place respectively and Apple took sixth place from…whom exactly? Reader comments on both Electronista and Ars Technica, which also picked up the story, note that “6th place” might sound impressive when you first hear it, but then ask: How many people can even name any other mobile phone makers?

By Susan Schrank
Via: PDA Street

Apple has been pursuing an exclusivity contract with China Mobile to introduce the phone there. But contract negotiations have broken down, The New York Times reported.

But, the product is so popular smugglers have been busy supplying the Chinese market with the phones, which sell in China for $400 to $600. Chinese manufacturers are also busy making clones of the iPhone — known collectively as iClones.

Installing Chinese language software in smuggled phones adds about $25 to the price and smugglers charge about $30 per phone, the report said.

The number of iPhones in China is unknown, but there is a gap in the number of iPhones Apple sold last year — 3.7 million — and the 2.3 million that are registered in the United States and Europe.

Apple could lose $1 billion in the next three years by missing out on roughly $120 per phone it would get if an exclusivity contract was signed.

“The (business) model is threatened,” said Charles R. Wolf, an industry analyst.

Via: hispanicbusiness.com

iToner enables users to transfer their own MP3, AAC, WAV and AIF audio files to the iPhone, and use them as custom ringtones — without having to pay additional fees.

In addition to iPhone 1.1.3 support, iToner now has French, German and Italian localizations, intelligent audio processing and other fixes and enhancements.

Source: MacWorld

I’m happy to hear things are apparently ahead of schedule for the SDK. Steve Jobs’ initial deadline for release of the SDK is 10 days away.

 Source: PC World

Forbes is suggesting that prospective iPhone buyers hold off until the much-speculated 3G iPhone, about which the consensus appears to be that it will launch in then next three months. That might seem like a long time if you have cash burning a hole in your pocket, but it’s nothing compared to the tedium of getting locked into a two-year contract with a far slower device.

Source: Phone Mag

Travelocity today announced the availability of a new web application that allows iPhone and iPod touch users to easily manage their Travelocity itineraries by getting up-to-the-minute information on flight status, TSA security point wait times, local weather, maps, traffic and airport driving directions via Safari browser.

The application is available immediately to iPhone and iPod touch users via Safari browser at http://iphone.travelocity.com.

Apple has fought off iPhone unlocking as well as it can but it has been turned into a business for entrepreneurs and an ongoing challenge for intelligent developers and hackers. The lucrative revenue sharing deals Apple has signed with providers do not apply if devices are unlocked to use other networks.

At least it does highlight the demand for the iPhone among China’s massive population. Apple’s talk breakdown with China Mobile was downplayed by CEO Steve Jobs, who claims there was only ever really one meeting. The iPhone is poised to make its Asian debut in 2008 officially.

Source: After Dawn