iLounge

By Charles Starrett

Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, November 20, 2008
News Category: Mix

Softbank Chief Strategy Officer Tetsuzo Matsumoto recently said that the company is “happy” with its current situation regarding the iPhone 3G, despite reports of slower-than-expected sales. “We introduced the iPhone without any big market trial, so the initial package had some problems,” Matsumoto told Dow Jones Newswire at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress. Citing research from MM Research Institute, Newswire reports that Apple sold about 200,000 iPhones in Japan in the first two months, but has seen falling demand, leading analysts to speculate that total sales are unlikely to reach 500,000, or around half of what Apple expected. Despite these figures, Matsumoto said iPhone users have been downloading data at ten times the rate of other phones, adding, “as new applications are being introduced, the attraction of the handset is increasing daily. So we are pretty happy about the present situation.”

The Iconfactory and ARTIS Software have announced the release of their game Frenzic for the iPhone and iPod touch. Frenzic is a puzzle-based game in which players attempt to move colored pie pieces from a central circle to surrounding circles; the outer circles are removed from the board as they are filled. Features include location-awareness to compare the player’s scores with those of nearby players or players across the globe, and integration with the frenzic.com website, which offers friend tracking, stats, and more. Frenzic is available now from the App Store and sells for $5.

Goldstriker has introduced three new precious stone-bezeled iPhone 3Gs (pictured). Available in black and white diamonds, ruby and white diamond, or white diamonds, each is a 16GB model and fully unlocked for compatibility with most GSM providers. The three new models are available now and sell for £3,595 (roughly $5,370), £3,095 (~$4,625), and £4,095 (~$6,120), respectively.

Microsoft has announced changes to its Zune Pass music subscription model, establishing a new value-conscious purchasing alternative to the iTunes Store. The new $15 Pass gives users on-demand access to millions of tracks from all four major labels and independents, then lets them keep 10 DRM-free tracks per month to add to their permanent collection, effectively reducing the monthly rental cost to only $5.