Fanboys exhale: no 3G iPhone yet

Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs today unveiled a modest suite of new software applications for the iPhone during his much-anticipated keynote address at Macworld 2008 in San Francisco, perhaps disappointing those who sought news of a 3G upgrade for the device.
Instead, Jobs announced location-based maps and the ability to bookmark Web sites on the iPhone, among other services. The software upgrades are free to existing iPhone users.
But Jobs – perhaps predictably, given his apparently successful splash in the handheld device space – took the opportunity to extol the sales successes of iPhone’s past 200 days on the market. He said Apple has sold four million iPhones, which equated to 20,000 units per day, across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France. The iPhone went on sale in the U.S. on June 29 last year, and in the aforementioned European countries in November. Jobs has set a goal of selling 10 million units by the end of the year, or a little under 1% of the global market.
Apple thus became the No. 2 best-selling “smartphone” vendor in the U.S. behind Research In Motion Ltd. Jobs said, though many analysts do not consider the device to be a smartphone, because its operating system cannot be modified. According to Jobs, RIM has 39% market share, and Apple – based solely on its iPhone – has captured 20% market share.
Jobs said that a software development kit, or SDK, for the iPhone would be available on time, as previously announced, in February. At some point after developers begin offering new software applications for the iPhone, the device’s OS presumably will be open to those apps, making it a smartphone by the wireless industry’s definitions.
Jobs also made announcements about new software applications for the iPod Touch (a $20 upgrade), a new iTunes movie rental offering, a new Apple flat screen TV that can rent movies and an $1,800 MacBook Air – a slimmed down notebook.
In related news, China Mobile – the largest wireless telecom provider in the world with some 350 million subscribers – has said that talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to its subscribers has ended, according to media reports. The sticking point: The reported demand by Apple that China Mobile deliver 20% to 30% of mobile data revenue attributable to iPhone use. Some level of data revenue-sharing by operators now offering the iPhone has been confirmed, but exact percentages remain confidential.