iPhone App Blog

According to Apple 2.0, a 50-hour survey of Apple stores by investment banking firm Piper Jaffray’sGene Munster found that the iPhone’s price cut has increased iPhone sales by a crazy amount. With the news that Apple sold its 1 millionth iPhone Sunday Munster was able to calculate that after the price decrease on the 5th the iPhone’s sales tripled. That’s an increase of 300%…that’s insane.

The numbers as reported by Apple 2.0 back it up, though. Munster estimates that Apple had sold 864,000 iPhones at 9,000 iPhones a day before the price increase. That means Apple would have to sell 136,000 iPhones, or 27,000 a day, to reach the 1 million mark by Sunday. Make sure you read their article to get all the numbers as well as read the rather combative comments it stirred up.

Former Apple employee Steve Chazin has an interesting post on his blog, Marketing Apple, about Apple’s transformation from underdog to big dog…also something about market share and stocks, I dunno. With Apple at the top of the heap in MP3 players and gaining popularity how long will it be before Apple becomes more like Microsoft?

Anyway, back to iPhone’s sales figures, Munster makes the point that this 300% increase is not sustainable. Furthermore, he estimates that sales will stabilize at a 50% increase. Only time will tell if his estimates are correct and how long it will take for Apple to sell its 10 millionth iPhone.

The discussion continues at Techmeme…

Good news for bloggers on the go! Six Aparthas announced new iPhone optimized versions of their blogging and website software TypePad and MovableType. These applications have been designed from the ground up to both mimic native iPhone apps and include all the features of TypePad and MovableType in an iPhone friendly format.

TypePad users only need to direct their safari browser to http://www.i.typepad.com/and sign in using their TypePad IDs. The TypePad iPhone interface has a tap-based interface and has been designed with custom integration to the iPhone’s functions. With TypePad’s new app you can create and edit posts as well as manage comments and view your blog right on your iPhone. You can add pictures, but it involves configuring your mobile settings.

Users of MovableType will have to download a special pluginthat offers a customized format for iPhone users. The plugin automatically identifies when the site is being accessed by an iPhone and displays special templates that are used in place of the primary MovableType interface. MovableType’s iPhone interface has been completely designed from the ground up and features all new graphics, layouts, and screens that make the plugin look like a native iPhone app.

Both TypePad and MovableType have details and useful user instruction on their respective blogs; Everything TypePad and the MovableType Community Blog have screenshots and lots of other information so make sure you check them out. There’s also a nice article about the new apps over at iLounge.

Yesterday Cisco-owned online collaboration company WebEx announced a new version of its remote access software. WebEx PCNow ver. 3.0 is now compatible with the iPhone as well as several other mobile devices. Now you can access your home or work PC from anywhere and from any device.

PCNow is the only remote access service that is available for both PCs and mobile devices. With PCNow you can access desktop PC files, Microsoft Outlook, contacts, tasks, and appointments straight from your iPhone. Thanks to WebEx’s partnership with SoonR iPhone users can also make and recieve VoIP calls via Skype.

Programs like PCNow are allowing the iPhone to become a more business minded mobile device. Although iPhone has yet to become a heavy hitter in the corporate world, there are many applications and programs that are making it a little easier for business folk to let go of their Blackberries and other PDAs. Whether or not iPhone will ever replace those bastions of mobile business, though, will take time.

Meanwhile, WebEx’s PCNow represents a nice step in the right direction for businessmen and women on the go. If you’re interested, head over to PCNow’s website to take advantage of their free 30 day trial period. After the first 30 days PCNow offers many different package options depending on how many PCs you have.

UK company Synchronica has released a free 60 day trial of their Mobile 3.0 which provides mobile synchronization between Microsoft Exchange and the iPhone’s ail service. This service requires no software to download and no connectors or redirectors need to be installed on the corporate network.

Until now, most users of the iPhone weren’t able to access their corporate e-mail. This is because iPhone’s e-mail client only connects to Microsoft Exchange via direct IMAP/SMTP connections which is often blocked by corporate firewalls. Synchronica’s mobile system creates a secure gateway that utilizes Microsoft’s Outlook Mobile Web Access to retrieve e-mail from the Exchange server.

The gateway works closely with Exchange allowing iPhone users to send and recieve corporate e-mail on the go. When they return to the office their sent and received e-mail is automatically updated so there is no need for a “copy to self” workaround.

The iPhone is the latest smartphone to be added to Synchronica’s Mobile 3.0 system. With the addition of this mail gateway, iPhone is taking strides in becoming a corporate smartphone. For more information about Synchronica and their Microsoft Exchange gateway check out Synchronica’s press release or website.

The iPhone was released two days before the end of the fiscal quarter and weeks later Apple and AT&T are panicking. First of all, the iPhone didn’t sell nearly as well as many predicted it would. Most analysts predicted anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 iPhones to be sold in the first few days of availability with some sure that up to 700,000 would be sold.

With such pomp and circumstance surrounding the release, it’s no wonder that the real numbers were a bit disappointing. Apple announced yesterday in its fiscal third-quarter earnings report that 270,000 iPhones were sold in the last 30 hours of the quarter. While still impressive, the number falls short of many predictions.

The real headscratcher comes when AT&T reported that they activated only 146,000 iPhones during the same period. So the question becomes, “Where did those 124,000 iPhones go?” Both Apple and AT&T reported that a small percentage of iPhone users had trouble activating their accounts, but the percentage was in the single digits.

An AT&T spokesman gave several reasons for the discrepancy, but most of them don’t hold water.While some of those who bought iPhones may have waited a day or two to activate them after waiting in line for hours to purchase them it certainly wouldn’t be a huge number. Another explanation given was that the discrepancy was due to people buying iPhones to sell on eBay or CraigsList.

Ok, so maybe 124,000 people had activation problems, procrastination problems, and problems re-selling the things. The real point is that it really isn’t that big a deal. It was almost certain that the iPhone wouldn’t live up to sales hype in the first thirty hours it was available, but that doesn’t stop some from freaking out.

Both Apple’s and AT&T’s stock fell after the third-quarter reports were delivered. Despite that fact that Apple’s net profit has risen over 50% compared to the same time last year and that quarterly sales of the Mac were the highest EVER, there were panicky doomsayers dropping their stock.

The point is that even though iPhone’s sales weren’t as high as predicted it still kicked major selling butt. For an interesting comparison of iPhone’s early sales to that of its sibling the iPod check out this article by Arik Hesseldahl of Business Week.

Remember how I told you that there are new iPhone apps coming all the time? Well, yeah, I totally wasn’t lying. Yesterday NetSuite, Inc announced its very own business app for the iPhone. NetSuite, Inc is one of the leading companies for providing integrated online business applications for small and mid-size companies and now offers those services for business people on the go.

Introducing SuitePhone, not just a series of apps but NetSuite FOR YOUR iPHONE. The nature of NetSuite’s on-demand system allows the transfer onto the iPhone to happen nearly seamlessly. Since there’s no hardware required for this online business it makes a lot of sense to be able to access NetSuite on the iPhone.

NetSuite users simply access their existing accounts for, get this, no extra charge. That’s right, there’s no charge for the SuitePhone app. Awesome. Now, I’m not business minded, but this makes a lot of sense. With business apps like this its completely possible that the iPhone could replace the Blackberry and other PDAs as the go-to guy for busy business people. Especially if they use NetSuite.

Of course there are some issues that will have to be worked out if the iPhone is going to be a must-have for entrepreneurs, but it’s young…give it time. With the kind of names it’s attracting, iPhone has a future so bright its gotta wear shades.

For more info on the new SuitePhone check out this Internet News article.