Here we go…

Two days before the iPhone’s launch, fans around Asia are queuing up to buy Apple’s latest offering. They don’t seem to care that it’s raining or freezing cold or if lining up early means missing work or school.

The July 11 launch will be the first chance, after all,  for Asian consumers to own an iPhone.

“I’ve told my professor I was going to go buy an iPhone, and he gave me permission,” said Hiroyuki Sano, a 24-year-old graduate student who early on Tuesday arrived in rainy Tokyo from Nagoya to be first in line. Sano, speaking to Reuters, and incidentally wearing a T-shirt with an Apple logo, described his professor as an equally big Apple fan. “He sent me off cheerfully.”

The United States has already been through this, when the iPhone first went on sale as year ago. As the New York Times recalls, “TV news coverage was relentless. Hard-core fans camped out to be the first in line. Bloggers referred to Apple’s new product as the ‘Jesus phone’.”

The paper adds, “This time, though, when the iPhone 3G goes on sale in AT&T and Apple stores, iPhone Mania will be considerably more muted. That’s partly because the mystery is gone, partly because the AT&T service costs more and partly because there aren’t many new features in what Apple is calling the iPhone 3G. ”

But let’s be clear: There’s still a boatload of interest in this phone and plenty of people will be talking about it this week, offering their two cents on what they like and dislike about the iPhone.

One big name, the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, is already weighing in, with a mixed review, knocking the battery life but applauding the phone’s introduction of third party software. 

“I’ve been testing the iPhone 3G for a couple of weeks, and have found that it mostly keeps its promises. In particular, I found that doing email and surfing the Internet typically was between three and five times as fast using AT&T’s 3G network as it was with the older AT&T network to which the first iPhone was limited.”

“Bottom line: If you’ve been waiting to buy an iPhone until it dropped in price, or ran on faster cell networks, you might want to take the plunge, if you can live with the higher service costs and the weaker battery life. The same goes for those with existing iPhones who love the device but crave faster cellular data speeds. But if you already own an iPhone, and can usually use Wi-Fi for data, you probably should hold off and get the free software upgrade before deciding whether it’s worth getting the new hardware.”

But is it worth a two-day wait in line, in the rain, wearing a silly T-shirt?

Keep an eye on: 

• Carl Icahn would have more support in his proxy battle against Yahoo if he pledged not to sell the company for less than $33 a share, said Legg Mason portfolio manager Bill Miller (Reuters) 
• WPP Group, the world’s second-largest advertising company, made a hostile 1.08 billion pound ($2.13 billion) bid for Britain’s Taylor Nelson Sofres, challenging its agreed merger with GfK Holdings AG (Reuters)
• A blind trust run by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is willing to pay between $4.5 billion and $5 billion to buy Merrill Lynch & Co’s 20 percent stake in financial news and data provider Bloomberg LP (NY Post)
• The smaller of Hollywood’s two performers unions ratified a new prime-time TV contract on Tuesday, undermining a last-ditch bid by the larger, more militant Screen Actors Guild to secure a richer deal (Reuters)
• NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker is looking to spin off or sell some of the company’s assets when he attends a media conference (NY Post)

(Photo: Reuters)

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1975

Microsoft (then spelled “Micro Soft”) is founded by William “Bill” Gates, a 20-year-old Harvard dropout, and Paul Allen, his 22-year-old school chum. They begin selling its first product, a BASIC programming language interpreter.

1980

Microsoft signs an agreement to build the operating system that became known as MS-DOS for IBM’s new personal computer, which was launched in 1981. Microsoft was allowed to license the operating system to others, spawning an industry of “IBM-compatible” machines dependent on Microsoft software.

1983

February: Paul Allen, ill with Hodgkin’s disease, resigns from active management of the company but remains on the board of directors.

1986

March 13: Microsoft’s stock goes public with an initial price of $21 a share, closing the first day of trading at $28. Revenue for its previous fiscal year (which ended June 1985) $140.4 million.

1989

August: Microsoft introduces earliest version of its “Office” software suite, which includes the popular word processing program “Word”. Today, the company says it has more than 500 million users.

1990

June: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission begins a secret probe focusing on possible collusion between Microsoft and IBM. Microsoft remains under the microscope of regulators for another 18 years.

1992

January: Gates, 32, is named the richest American, with more than $6.5 billion, thanks to his one-third stake in Microsoft.

1993

June: A federal judge rules in favor of Microsoft, ending 63 months of litigation by Apple Computer Inc., which charged that Windows copied the look and feel of its Macintosh computers.

August: After the FTC deadlocks twice on the issue, the Justice Department announces it has taken over the Microsoft investigation, which now focuses on its business practices.

1995

January: Microsoft unveil one of it more celebrated flops, a software companion called “Bob”.

July: Gates is named the world’s wealthiest man for the first time with an estimated worth of $12.9 billion.

August: Microsoft launches Windows 95 with a marketing blitz five times bigger than any of its previous efforts. Experts say the system offers no technological breakthrough but adds features enjoyed for years by users of the rival Apple system.

1999

Microsoft added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Its revenue for the fiscal year ending in June reaches $19.75 billion.

2000

January: Steve Ballmer named to succeed Gates as CEO. Gates remains Chairman.

June: At an event with university students in Tokyo, Gates is asked what more he wanted in life. He promptly replies, “privacy.”

2001

May: Microsoft launches Windows XP operating system.

November: Microsoft jumps into the interactive game business with the launch of the Xbox , taking on rivals such as Sony and Nintendo. Its most important day-of-release game, “Halo: Combat Evolved”, is a huge hit, helping to drive Xbox sales, and eventually sells more than 5 million copies

2003

February: Microsoft shares split for the 9th time. One original share is now equal to 288 shares.

2006

June: Gates says he will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company in July 2008. Steve Ballmer is the companies top decision maker; Ray Ozzie steps up to be Chief Software Architect.

2007

January: Microsoft launches “Vista” , the latest version of its ubiquitous Windows operating system software, in 70 countries, and expects it to be installed on over 100 million PCs worldwide. Influential Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg, in his review of Vista, called it a “worthy, but largely unexciting, product.”

2008

January: Ballmer makes a $44.6 billion takeover offer to Yahoo’s board. Yahoo later rejects the offer, setting off a lengthy battle over the future of Yahoo.

March: While still wealthier than many nations, Gates falls to third on the list of Earth’s richest man, behind famed investor Warren Buffet and telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim. Forbes magazine estimates Gates wealth at $58 billion.

June 27: Bill Gates steps down out of a day-to-day role in the company, to focus on philanthropy. He still holds nearly a 9 percent stake in Microsoft, and remains its biggest shareholder. Since 2000, Microsoft’s stock has fallen 52 percent.

(Photos: From Reuters, Microsoft.com, Flickr, Google Finance)

Don’t think that Apple’s executives are great humanitarians or just a bunch of really nice guys for cutting the price of the new iPhone in half. They are in it for the money — and they stand to make more and more of it with this second generation iPhone.

Research firm iSuppli “virtually” cracked open the 3G iPhone “using insights from our analysis staff to develop estimates of iPhone content, suppliers and costs.” (It plans to really deconstruct the phone when it is released on July 11.)

ISuppli concluded that each iPhone costs $173 to make. It will sell at retail at $199. When you tack on an estimated $300 Apple gets in subsidies from wireless carriers, that puts the value of each iPhone to Apple at about $500.

The similarly priced first-generation iPhone cost $256 — $226 after “component price reductions” — and sold for $499.

This is how iSuppli breaks down the iPhone it (virtually) broke down :

(The data does not include other costs, including software development, shipping and distribution, packaging, and miscellaneous accessories included with each phone, iSuppli says.)

(Source: iSuppli, Photo: Reuters)

Susan Lyne is leaving Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, but the shakeup at the lifestyle brand probably isn’t over yet. 

Lyne steered the company through some rough waters as chief executive (let’s not forget she ran things as Martha Stewart trudged off to prison) and now she’ll be replaced by Wenda Harris Millard and Robin Marino. That’s right, Millard and Marino. Co-CEO’s. Two at the top. Power sharing.

How often does that work? ”They are fairly rare and they typically don’t work out to be that great,” said Noble Financial research director Michael Kupinski.

Wall Street’s reaction? Shares fell by about 6 percent yesterday.

Both Millard and Marino joined the company under Lyne’s watch, and have bigtime experience in advertising and retail merchandising. Marino was previously president and chief operating officer at luxury designer Kate Spade, while Millard served as a high-ranking ad executive at Yahoo.

On paper, it would seem a good combination for a media company with footholds in both advertising and retailing. Besides, Millard points out that she and Marino already coordinate closely. “We saw an opportunity for even more collaboration,” she said in an interview with Reuters.

Paul Bernard, who runs executive-coaching and management-consulting firm Paul Bernard & Associates, noted in the Wall Street Journal that the track record of power-sharing deals in the corporate world is “dismal.”

“Inevitably what will happen is someone will be pushed out,” he said.

As one media insider told us yesterday, these sharing things are often an attempt keep everyone happy and onboard — and just as often have the opposite effect.

Keep an eye on:

• A fierce battle has broken out among top executives at Live Nation over the concert-promotion company’s ambitious strategy to reshape the struggling music industry by making wide-ranging but expensive deals with artists such as Madonna and Jay-Z (WSJ.com)
• The Screen Actors Guild on Wednesday continued its campaign against a rival actors’ union’s tentative contract with Hollywood producers (Hollywood Reporter)
• Apple will make less money off each new iPhone, but Wall Street expects only a minor impact on the company’s bottom line as the cheaper price spurs mass-market buying (Reuters)

(Photo of Susan Lyne from Reuters)

While all eyes are on Steve Jobs’s presentation at Apple’s developers conference, rivals to the iPhone want you to know that they are not afraid to shout during a hurricane — in hopes that someone hears their thunder.

At least that’s what we suppose is the reason Samsung and Nokia both have news today, about one year after the original iPhone was introduced.

While Apple’s CEO was unveiling a new “more affordable” iPhone with 3G network support and integrated GPS support, Korea’s Samsung launched a new touchscreen smartphone called Omnia that aims to make Internet browsing easy. It has a wide screen for viewing video as well as music capabilities and a 5 megapixel camera, and runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile software.

Also, Nokia is set to start selling top-of-the-range N96 multimedia device, and expects Apple’s new iPhone to boosting sales of multimedia handsets in general.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile will sell the new iPhone exclusively in Germany and the Netherlands, according to Reuters sources.

(Photo: Reuters)

“The big news is $399 to $199,” CEO Steve Jobs said of sharp price-cuts Apple is making on its iPhone 3G.

Eight-gigabyte 3G iPhone to be priced at $199

 16-gigabyte 3G iPhone at $299

3G iPhone features:

• • Jobs calls it iPhone 3G.
  • Offers two to four times faster speeds that existing models working on so-called 2.5G “Edge” networks, he says.
  • The phone offers GPS - Global Positioning Services for real-time location tracking on one’s iPhone.
  • Same 3.5 inch display.
  • Jobs says it is thinner at the edges and has “dramatically improved audio”
  • Promises five hours of 3G talk time. Five to six hours of Web browsing. Video viewing can run seven hours.
  • In the first year of sales, six million of first-generation iPhones have been sold, Jobs says.
  • The new phone will be available in 70 countries over the next few months — in 29 European countries, 15 Latin American countries and 8 in the Asia Pacific, not including China.
  • price: $199 for 8GB ; $299 for 16 GB
  • Available July 11, in more than 20 countries, with 70 by the end of the year, Jobs says. “We are going to be in 70 countries, this year,” he said.

A side-by-side demonstration of faster Web download speeds of iPhone 3G devives versus existing iPhone.

Promised improvements in battery life for selected functions on iPhone 3G: 

Here is a side shot of the slimmer iPhone 3G

A shot of the back of the new iPhone in black and white versions:

MobileMe

Apple head of worldwide sales and marketing Phil Schiller introduces MobileMe, a desktop-quality e-mail, calendar and contacts Web service. It’s a companion Web service for iPhone users. It’s priced at $99 a year and will be available in early July, he says.  

MobileMe provides automatic synchronization between an iPhone and the Web for e-mail, pictures and contacts. For example, a photo shot on the iPhone can instantly be uploaded to the Web using MobileMe. 

It offers drag-and-drop capability to move messages from inbox into folders. The service replaces Apple’s existing .Mac service.

“It’s feels like a desktop application,” Schiller boasts. He calls it (Microsoft) “Exchange for the rest of us.” 

Software Features

Jobs is back on stage and has begun ticking off new features in the iPhone 2.0 software:

• A new “Contact search” application instead of making users go into phone application to find their list of contact phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
• Expands support for Microsoft PowerPoint to existing support for Microsoft Word and Excel applications.
• Apple has added bulk delete and move features for messages.
• The ability to save photos sent via message straight into photo application.
• Apple has added parental controls to the iPhone.
• The Apple iPhone Apps Store will be available in 62 countries.
• Added language support for more than a dozen languages besides English.

Application Demos

Major League Baseball plans to offer video highlights of games around the league, minutes after they occur, on the iPhone via its MLB.com application. 

Doctors are warming up to the iPhone as a tool for keeping track of patient information. Here is a demonstration for viewing medical imagery

An eBay auction demo

“Productivity deteriorates,” an Apple exec jokes after video game maker Sega shows its Super Monkey Ball game on the iPhone. He was describing the distraction the phone becomes to Apple engineers who have played the game.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs takes the stage and describes how new iPhone 2.0 software will enable features for corporate enterprise users, including support for Microsoft Outlook e-mail users …

You can find Reuters.com full coverage of Monday’s iPhone news here.

(Photos: Reuters/Eric Auchard/Kimberly White, Device screenshot: Apple.com)

Apple Inc Co-founder and Chief Executive Steve Jobs is set to take the stage at the Apple developer conference in San Francisco where he is widely expected to introduce a new generation of iPhone devices that bring the Internet to phone users at faster speeds.

Speculation is rampant that some models will be thinner and cheaper while other models, designed to work on so-called 3G networks and speed data delivery, will make using the Web on your phone more like using the Web on a broadband computer. CrunchGear claims to have obtained promotional marketing materials showing 16-gigabyte iPhone models in black and red and sporting a tiny video camera for live video calls.

In preparation for the news, Apple has taken its Apple store offline temporarily. “We are busy updating the store for you and will be back shortly,” a notice on the store site read Monday morning.

2007

January 9 - Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs unveils iPhone in the tech industry’s most anticipated new product introduction of the decade.

June 29 - Apple and U.S. carrier partner AT&T Inc start selling iPhone as technology enthusiasts form long lines outside Apple stores.

July 25 - After big build-up, first weekend sales figures reports disappoint investors. Apple and AT&T sold 270,000 iPhones in first 30 hours; but customers only activate 146,000 of the devices due to initial AT&T service problems.

Sept 5 - Apple cuts price on iPhone with eight gigabytes of storage to $399 from $599. Discontinues sales of four-gigabyte version. Also introduces iPod Touch, an iPhone without the phone, with Wi-Fi connections.

Sept 7 - Apple offers $100 rebate to appease customers angered over iPhone price cut.

Sept 10 - One millionth iPhone sold 74 days after launch.

Sept 24 - Apple warns users against unlocking iPhones to work with network carriers other than Apple’s exclusive U.S. partner, AT&T.

Nov 9 - Apple introduces iPhone in Europe through exclusive deals in Britain with 02, in Germany with T-Mobile, and in France with Orange.

Dec 3 - Apple sued for patent infringement related to iPhone’s visual voicemail feature by Klausner Technologies Inc.

Dec 31 - Apple sold 3.7 million iPhones in its first six months on sale.

2008

Feb 5 - Apple introduces 16-gigabyte iPhone for $499.

March 6 - Apple says its plans to enable corporate e-mail on iPhones, pitting it against business e-mail market leader Research in Motion and its Blackberry line of devices.  Apple offers tools for independent developers to build iPhone software.

March 31 - Apple has sold 5.4 million iPhone units to date. Apple ranks as world’s third largest maker of smartphones, with 5.3 percent versus mobile phone giant Nokia’s 45.2 percent and Blackberry-maker Research in Motion’s 13.4 percent, market researcher Gartner Inc says.

April 23 - Apple CFO reaffirms the company’s original mid-2007 goal of selling 10 million iPhone units by the end of 2008. 

April/May - Apple stores run out of iPhones. Apple announces plans with carriers in South Asia to sell iPhones in Australia, India, the Philippines and Singapore.

June 9 - Apple unveils 3G iPhone.  

July 11 - iPhone 3G to go on sale in 22 countries.

Reuters iPhone 3G coverage
Sources: (Reuters, Apple Inc, SeekingAlpha.com, Gartner Inc)
(Photos: Reuters, Apple Inc, Scoble: Brian Solis/Flickr.com)

It’s almost time, at least we’re pretty sure it’s almost time. Come Monday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is widely expected to introduce a new iPhone at the company’s developers’ conference.

Early buzz is that the new iPhone will be faster and accompanied by support for corporate e-mail, which should help expand the gadget’s audience to the business world. Apple has declined to comment on what Jobs will announce, but speculation can be found just about anywhere on the web.

Rather than spending hours today reading through all the rumors, check out TechCrunch, which gives a good roundup of the iPhone chatter.

It’s easy to get excited about all the potential new features on the phone, but keep in mind this is also a big business story for Apple. After all, it’s introducing the new iPhone at a tricky time for the economy.

Sure, it may reach out more to corporate customers with this version, but the iPhone is still heavily reliant on demand from your average consumer. With $4-per-gallon gasoline, underwater mortgages and a tough job outlook, your average consumer isn’t in the best place right now.

Even so, investors seem to believe that demand is holding up for Apple products like the Macintosh or the iPod, given that the company’s stock is up 50 percent over the past three months. We’ll soon find out. 

Keep an eye on:  

• Britain’s Taylor Nelson Sofres and Germany’s GfK have agreed to a merger to create the world’s second-biggest market research company with a market value of about $4 billion (Reuters)
• Yahoo Inc CEO Jerry Yang ordered up a draft press release rejecting a Microsoft Corp takeover bid months before January’s unsolicited bid, company documents unsealed on Monday show (Reuters)
• Fire-damaged Universal Studios reopened Monday as investigators examined the ruins of some of the most famous sets in Hollywood to find the cause of the spectacular weekend blaze (The Wall Street Journal)
• NBC Universal’s Jeff Zucker can no longer rely on GE’s deep financial pockets amid investor pressure, so had looked to private equity firms to help fund a bid for the Weather Channel (NY Post)

(Photo: Reuters)

The bigwigs of the digital world have descended on Carlsbad, California.

The D: All Things Digital conference always attracts the elite of the tech world and this year is no exception, with a lineup that includes Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Jerry Yang, Tom Glocer, Barry Diller, Jeffrey Bewkes, and Mark Zuckerberg, among others.

Kicking it off, Microsoft’s Gates and Ballmer showed off new Windows features that are based on “multi-touch” software that will be part of Windows 7. Ballmer said touchscreens were just one way Windows would be improved.

OK. Cool. But what if you wanted to know about Gates and Ballmer? What were they like up on stage? Were they nervous? Relaxed? Were they funny? Dull? Did Ballmer do his screaming thing?

After all, for some the conference is a little like the Super Bowl, Cannes, and the MTV Video Music Awards wrapped into one big buzzfest. If you’re in that camp, the tech bloggers have your back. A sampling of the reporting:

GigaOM: “It didn’t quite have the sentimental feeling of the Steve Jobs & Bill Gates talk from last year, but it was interesting to see the dynamic of Steve Ballmer & Bill Gates. I think it was great to see Bill step back and let Steve enjoy the limelight, and not take himself too seriously.”

paidContent: “Here at D listening to the Bill and Steve show-Gates and Ballmer this year, no repeat of last year’s star turn by Steve Jobs. It starts with the Microsoft-Gates farewell video from CES with a few tweaks.

And now it’s a group interview with Kara, Walt, Bill and Steve (not quite Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice). We’ve been through Harvard, where the two met in a residence hall. Quite a bit to go before we get to the unveiling of Windows 7.”

Silicon Alley Insider: “The rest of the chat’s highlights include a pretty interesting walk through memory lane, where Bill and Steve discuss their time at Harvard, and early days at the company. They spent quite a bit of time talking about Bill’s reluctance to take any risks with his company’s money, which seems to have implications for the Yahoo deal. It was also interesting to see just how much Apple, popular adulation of the company, have gotten under MSFTs skin. ”

Keep an eye on:

• Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders have landed a major sponsor, Microsoft, which will emblazon the front of the team’s uniforms. They will announce a deal for “Xbox 360 LIVE” to be splashed across the Sounders’ uniforms (The Wall Street Journal)
• Apple watchers believe that a new version of the iPhone will be introduced at the opening day of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9, leading to rampant speculation about the phone’s possible features (The New York Times)
• TV networks are attempting to cut costs for reality shows, already thought of as the cheapest form of prime-time programming (Hollywood Reporter)

(Photo: Reuters)