iPhone Customers Report Touch-Screen Dead Spots

Many customers reported bringing the phone back to an Apple store, where in many cases they received a loaner phone at no charge while the broken handset was being repaired.

Apple’s iPhone customers have reported dead spots on the handset’s touch-screen interface, which is considered the most innovative component of the pricey gadget.
The problem, which appears to have affected only a small number of customers, was reported on the discussion forum of Apple’s support site this week. The dead spots were in a variety of locations and occurred irrespective of the software being used.

Many of the customers reported bringing the phone back to an Apple store, where in many cases they received a loaner phone at no charge while the broken handset was being repaired. Apple, according to the reports, was not handing out new phones as replacements.

A minority of customers, however, reported less than satisfactory service at the stores. “I went to the iPhone bar a couple weeks ago, and the guy told me this was just how the screen is, and that it was the length of my nails!!” a Chicago resident who used the name Newtype said.

Another customer reported taking his broken iPhone to an Apple store in Westchester County, N.Y., where a manager denied such a problem existed and refused to waive the $29 fee for a loaner phone. “He denied that he had the discretion to replace the phone or waive the loaner fee. Great product, support not so great,” the person who went by the name Tjrubeo said.

Apple was not immediately available for comment on Friday.

The iPhone’s unique touch-screen interface is among the innovative features that Apple has used in justifying the high cost of the iPhone, which is as much as $600. Other vendors sell less-expensive smartphones that are also capable of surfing the Web and contain similar software.

An advantage of the iPhone, however, is it sleek design and large screen that displays Web pages pretty much as they appear on a PC. According to recently published patent applications, Apple is working on an interface for “computing devices” that would respond to voice commands.

The initial success of the iPhone, which hit the market June 29, has attracted the attention of lawyers. IPhone-related lawsuits have included one for alleged patent infringement, and another over Apple’s decision not to include a user-replaceable battery in the device. Buyers have to ship the phone to Apple to have the battery replaced.

Nokia locates first “satellite” studio in India to design mobile phones

Finnish mobile-phone maker Nokia on Wednesday opened a global design studio in India to stay ahead of rivals such as Motorola in the world’s fastest-growing wireless market.

The studio will be located in Bangalore, known as India’s Silicon Valley, and will be the first of a series of “satellite” design centres being established by Nokia, which plans to open the next in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The world’s second-most populous nation is adding six million mobile-phone users every month, and the location of the studio testifies to the impact that India is having on the development of handsets, Nokia officials said.

“Design is not just about the look and feel of the handset but equally important is what it can do for people and how it fits into their lives,” said Hannu Nieminen, head of innovations at Nokia Design.

“Designers must be exposed to how people live and work in different places around the world,” Nieminen told a news conference here.

India’s mobile revolution is mainly confined to cities, but the real prize for phone companies is the vast rural market where nearly 70 percent of the population lives, analysts say.

Telephone penetration is around 25 per 100 people in urban areas, and as low as 1.6 per 100 in rural areas, leaving vast room for growth.

Nokia designers will work with students at the Bangalore-based Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology to conceive new handsets for India and global markets in the Internet era.

The studio will explore design trends and themes including research into colour and material trends in India, mobile use of the Internet and its implications for design, including new features and uses for mobiles.

“The first experience of the Internet for many future users will be on the mobile phone,” said Nieminen. “India will play a crucial role in designing handsets for them.”

The Indian studio involves a “considerable investment,” said Bangalore-based Jan Blom, senior designer manager at Nokia Design.

“We really want to optimise the way our product is geared to Indian needs,” said Blom, adding the Bangalore centre would help Nokia tailor products for the local market.

India, along with China and the United States, is among the three biggest markets for Nokia.

The first mobile-phone call made in India in 1995 was on a Nokia phone on a Nokia network.

The Finnish company introduced the first Hindi-language mobile menu in 2000, following it up with the first camera phone in 2002, and Hindi short messaging system in 2004.

“Nokia’s decision to open its first design satellite studio in India underscores our commitment to the market and strengthens our presence in the country – distribution and sales, research, manufacturing and now design,” said D. Shivakumar, vice-president and general manager of Nokia India.

Nokia, with a 6,000-strong workforce in India, is competing with global handset makers including Motorola of the US and Ericsson of Sweden in an expanding market that has 157 million cellular subscribers.

Ericsson in July won a US$2 billion order from Bharti Airtel, India’s biggest mobile-phone services provider, to expand its network into rural areas.

It came on the heels of a US$900 million memorandum of understanding that Finnish-German joint venture Nokia Siemens struck earlier in July with Bharti to expand its network

iPhone to be deconstructed

Hundreds of developers to gather Sunday to dissect must-have device and create new programs for it.

Exactly one week after the debut of the iPhone, hundreds of developers and enthusiasts plan to huddle this weekend to work on and play with their new favorite toy.

From sundown today to Sunday at iPhoneDevCamp, or the iPhone Developers Camp, some 200 to 300 engineers, designers, entrepreneurs and iPhone owners will dissect, discuss and dream up new programs for the iPhone, Apple Inc.’s all-in-one cell phone, iPod and Internet tool.

The iPhone, Apple’s first step into the cell phone market, has been lauded as the gadget that will raise the bar for the industry, forcing rivals to produce better mobile phones and encouraging people to do more with their phones, from sending e-mails to watching movies.

Developers are hoping to tap into that potential this weekend.

“It’s a great example of a spontaneous community forming around really compelling technologies,” said Danese Cooper, Intel Corp.’s director of open-source strategies and a former Apple executive.

“People who say it is just a phone do not get it.”

Fueled by Red Bull, Kettle Chips and other donated, geek-appropriate nourishment, they will gather into the night at Adobe Systems Inc.’s San Francisco office with a loose schedule that includes discussions on the do’s and don’ts for creating mobile phone applications and a live autopsy of the iPhone.

Developers will also join in a Hack-a-Thon to produce new iPhone programs, which will be shared and judged — with prizes — by the end of the camp.

“Who knows what’s going to happen?” said William Hurley, one of the event’s organizers and the chief architect of open-source strategy at BMC Software Inc. “We’ll have the largest group of iPhone developers, enthusiasts and users in one room.”

New Touch mobile is no iPhone copycat

Taiwanese smart phone maker HTC has rolled out a new touch screen mobile device which is aimed squarely at the broad consumer market coveted by Apple’s new iPhone.

The difference is that Australian consumers will be able to get their hands on an HTC Touch mobile by the end of the week. Whereas the iPhone, which is not due to arrive here until sometime next year, is still well out of reach.

HTC chief executive officer Peter Chou, who was in Sydney for the local launch, dismissed any suggestion that his company’s phone was a copycat product launched to steal theiPhone’s thunder.

“We are actually very pleased that a company like Apple agrees with our direction,” Mr Chou said.

He said HTC Touch had been in the works for over two years and would have come out sooner but for the fact that he had sent an earlier prototype back to the drawing board because he wasn’t satisfied with it.

The phone is slightly smaller than the iPhone and about 2mm thicker. It features a 2.8 inch LCD screen (versus the iPhone’s 3.5 inch version) and uses Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6 Professional operating system.

An unlocked version of the phone that comes with a 1GB removable microSD storage card will retail for $699 – the same price in Australian dollars as the 8GB iPhone model that was launched in the US on Friday.

The phone’s user interface is – like the iPhone – based on a touch-sensitive screen that employs HTC’s home-grown TouchFLO technology. This allows the user to operate it with their fingers (and thumbs) or with a small stylus that comes with the phone.

TouchFLO enables the the phone to be operated with one hand, using the thumb to scroll though pages, lists or media – like music, videos of photos.
Although the first versions of the new phone will only operate on the slower 2G networks, the company does intend to bring out 3G models down the track.

While HTC is not a household name it has been in business for a decade, making devices for companies such as Compaq , Orange O2 and Vodafone. Last year, HTC took a majority stake in rival smart phone manufacturer Dopod.

HTC has been chosen by Microsoft as a hardware development partner and as such now enjoys close relations with the software giant.

With numerous mobile phone makers planning to bring out touch-screen devices, HTC chief marketing officer John Wang predicted that this year would be remembered as an “inflection point” in the industry.

“Mobile phones are moving from a push button experience to a touch sensory experience,” Mr Wang said. Technologies like TouchFLO mean that users no longer needed to “have to remember the right button to push or when to push the right button,” he said.

The phone will be sold through Optus, Office Works and a distributor called Brightpoint.

Apple creaming profits on iPhone

Apple’s iPhone could deliver a profit margin of more than 55 per cent after hardware and manufacturing costs, research firm iSuppli said on Tuesday, sending shares in the company up nearly 5 per cent.

The iSuppli report provided a glimpse into the financial model of the iPhone, which hit U.S. stores on Friday, and gave a new boost to Apple.

Some analysts had predicted the company’s shares would grind to a halt or even drop after gaining more than 30 per cent in the run-up to the iPhone launch.

Based on an examination of the iPhone’s components, iSuppli estimated that its hardware and manufacturing cost was $US265.83 ($NZ330), or almost 45 per cent of a $US600 retail price for its more expensive model with eight gigabytes of storage.

That leaves a profit margin of more than 55 per cent, but does not include costs such as royalties or logistics.

In comparison, iSuppli said, average gross profit margins range from 20 per cent to 30 per cent for advanced phones from cell phone rivals such as Nokia, Motorola and Samsung.

Other analysts have estimated that traditional cell phone makers tend to achieve gross margins of 40 per cent to 45 per cent for their high-end phones.

The report cheered investors who have bet the iPhone, which combines a phone, Web browsing and a media player, will become a major part of Apple’s business alongside its Mac computers and iPod digital media players. ISuppli has estimated the iPod’s gross margins run at 40 per cent to 50 per cent.

Apple and AT&T, the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. service provider for the next two years, have kept details of their business partnership under wraps.

Some industry experts say that AT&T may reap a portion of the retail price for iPhones sold in its stores.

On the flip side, other analysts say Apple could pocket anywhere from $US5 to $US9 of monthly service charges levied on iPhone customers by AT&T. The minimum required two-year wireless service contracts for the iPhone cost $US60 per month.

Apple was not immediately available for comment on the iSuppli estimates.

ISuppli also shed light on the companies providing parts for the iPhone. The phone’s display, a much lauded feature for the device, costs $US27 or about 10.8 per cent of its hardware costs. The display was supplied by Germany’s Balda AG, iSuppli said.

The phone’s core communications chips, from Infineon Technologies AG, represent $US15.25 or 6.1 percent of the cost.

Estimates for iPhone sales in its first two days on the market ranged from 312,000 to 500,000, analysts contacted by Reuters said. AT&T said that iPhone sales for the weekend were the strongest for any device in the company’s history.

Apple shares were up $5.91 or 4.9 per cent to $US127.17 on Nasdaq. Shares of AT&T were down 35 cents at $US41.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.