The Chicago Tribune’s RedEye is expressing concern over buying iPhone accessories before the launch of the 3G model, expected later this year. “I can’t buy those headphones because I have no way of being 100 percent sure that the plug will fit into the next iPhone,” RedEye’s Scott Kleinberg writes. “And this problem isn’t just with these headphones, of course. I can’t see myself purchasing an iPod speaker or any special kind of dock.
The pin connector at the bottom could change drastically between now and the 3G iPhone launch.”
An illustration found in a newly-published Apple patent filing covering the handling of “Structured Electronic Documents” on a portable device – websites, in other words – shows a “Share” feature of the Safari browser yet to appear in any iPhone software release. The feature, which is shown as accessed via a button labeled “Share” appearing in the upper-left corner of the screen when entering a URL, would allow users to send a link to the URL via email or SMS, or email the content of the page. It is unknown whether this feature will appear in a future release of the iPhone software, however, the features appear to have been dropped for practicality reasons, and Share transformed into “+” for the current-generation iPhone software. [via MacNN]
Given the iPod’s decelerating sales growth, New York Times editor Saul Hansell has written an article explaining how Apple is preparing for an iPod slump.
Hansell first points to the continuing stream of revenue generated by current iPod owners in the form of music and accessories — a category which brought in $881 million for the company last quarter. This, Hansell believes, combined with the transition of the iPod from a media player into a pocketable computer like the iPod touch, along with strong iPhone and Mac sales, will help Apple overcome any decline in iPod sales it would otherwise face.
Shaw Wu, analyst with American Technology Research, recently told Fortune that the average iPhone user consumes a considerably greater amount of data bandwidth than the typical cellular device user, to the extent that it could affect Apple’s dealings with carriers. “Our sources indicate that the success of iPhone with its Safari web browser is putting strain on AT&T’s EDGE network in areas with higher user density.