UK iPhone

As promised, Apple is now offering a free iPhone 4 case to every iPhone 4 owner. The process is being managed through a free app, which you can download through the App Store.

There is a choice of cases, from Apple’s own bumper case through to a range of third-party cases, so you should be able to find the case you want.

UPDATE: Turns out that link is for the US store: looks like Apple haven’t launched the free case programme in the UK yet. Will update with news on this. The programme has launched, and the link is now fixed.

After Apple’s blowout best-ever quarter on Tuesday there was some speculation that Microsoft would not beat its forecast earnings for the quarter, and thus Apple would have higher revenue for the first time. Well, Microsoft did announce record revenue for its fourth quarter yesterday, and thus stays ahead of Apple for now.

Apple has already beaten Microsoft on market capitalisation (total value of all shares outstanding) and so the revenue benchmark is the next battleground between the two companies. But even when Apple wins that one, next quarter most likely, Microsoft will still remain ahead of Apple on one measure: net income. As Apple sells hardware as well as software, its margins are not as stellar as Microsoft’s: it will take a lot more revenue for Apple to surpass Microsoft at the net income game. But if Microsoft continues to flounder under Ballmer’s unsteady hand, and Apple continues with new products and stellar sales, it seems in time that hurdle will fall too.

So Apple have done it again, blowing past analysts’ estimates to post its all-time record quarterly revenue of $15.7 billion and a profit of $3.25 billion. Earnings per share (EPS) increased by a mind-blowing 78% over the same quarter last year, finishing up at $3.51 per share.

Apple, which trades under the stock ticker AAPL, sold 8.4 million iPhones in the quarter, and 3.27 million iPads, which is close to the number of Macs sold (3.47 million). This is a stunning start for the iPad. According to Apple, they can’t make iPhones and iPads fast enough to keep up with the demand; they’re selling them as fast as they can make them.

Most of the professional Wall Street analysts got the revenue way too low, but Daniel Tello, an amateur blogger, was spot-on. Daniel was also the closest on EPS at $3.57. The blogger consensus was much closer than that of the pros. Remember that the next time someone tries to sell you a managed fund!

Disclosure: author is long AAPL shares.

The updated version of the iPhone’s operating system, IOS 4.0.1, has been released, and it fixes the problematic signal strength display in all iPhones. Anand Lal Shimpi of Anandtech was the first to spot the fact that the old software showed a full signal even when the actual signal strength had dropped by half, and he now confirms that the new software has a much more evenly spaced indication.

I’ve always felt that there was something a bit odd about the iPhone’s signal strength indicator: it always seemed an “all-or-nothing” thing, either full-strength or minimum, very few indications inbetween. And unfortunately I think that this has been convincing people that the “iPhone 4 antenna bug” is a bigger problem than it really is. When you touch the new phone’s metal case, especially at the critical bottom-left corner area, it does reduce the phone’s signal a bit. But because the phone had such a drastic response to signal changes, it made it look as if you were going from 5 bars to nothing.

Anandtech reports that under the new software, the drop is only two bars, so it won’t look as if the phone’s reception is completely compromised. And if you look at all the reports by people with the “problem”, they mostly talk about the signal indicator dropping. Very few people are talking about actual dropped calls (and it would be hard to know that the call was dropped specifically for that reason anyway). I know from my own experience that the antenna is so much BETTER than the old iPhone that holding it “wrong” does not reduce the performance much, and Anandtech confirms that the new iPhone holds onto a weak signal much better than any other phone.

I feel that a lot of commentators are indulging in the usual Apple-bashing, or are jumping on the bandwagon to get publicity for themselves (why else is Consumer Reports constantly changing their story?) The truth is that the iPhone 4 has an amazingly good antenna; the (small) price for that is that it doesn’t perform at 100% in certain circumstances. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with the phone; it certainly performs better as a phone than any previous iPhone. The whole thing reminds me of the “non-replaceable battery” nonsense that attended the iPod’s launch. Some people will find fault no matter what you do. “Haters gonna hate!”

So Apple have called a press conference for tomorrow, Friday 16th of July 2010. They will only say that it is about the iPhone. Wild speculation has ensued. Most seem to think it will be about the iPhone 4’s supposed antenna issues. (I say “supposed” because my iPhone has much BETTER reception than my old iPhone.)

Some expect Apple to announce a recall of the iPhone 4. This seems completely ridiculous to me. If there really was a major problem with the phone, people would be returning them in droves: don’t forget you have 14 days to do so. Yet iPhones remain difficult to get. I very, very much doubt there will be any recall.

In fact I wonder whether the conference is about the antenna issue at all. Apple usually only call press conferences to announce something. It could be IOS 4.1 (the next update to the operating system that runs on iPhones, iPod touches and iPads). It could be the long-awaited announcement that AT&T’s monopoly on the iPhone in the US is over, and that Verizon is the new carrier.

But if it is anything to do with the reception issues, I have a feeling it will be nothing more than a voucher for a free bumper (the £25 rubber strip that fits around your iPhone 4, protecting it, and in the experience of some, further improving the iPhone’s antenna performance).

UPDATE: Seems I was wrong, the conference was all about the antenna issue. Steve had some interesting facts: all phones have this to some extent (tested this on a BlackBerry today, he’s right!), a vanishingly small percentage of iPhone buyers have issues with the reception (there have been far fewer returns of the iPhone 4 than the 3GS, for example), but because Apple want everyone to be happy, you can return your phone for a full refund, no restocking fee, and everyone who has bought an iPhone can get a free bumper, or free case (if Apple run out of bumpers). If you already bought a bumper, you’ll get a refund.

I think that Steve showed that Apple do care deeply about their customers, and that the issue has been blown out of all proportion by the media, with even a US senator climbing on the bandwagon yesterday. I’ve never had a problem with my iPhone 4, but if I did, I think I would feel pretty reassured by Apple’s actions today.

In what may be the first of many such moves, Standard Chartered has announced that it will offer its workers iPhones instead of BlackBerries. The latter are currently the corporate gold standard for work mobile email, but Apple has been making the iPhone steadily more attractive to corporate users, and the strategy seems to be bearing fruit.

Of course it’s good news for everyone if there is more than one player in a market: even die-hard BlackBerry fans can look forward to further improvements in BlackBerry’s offering in response to this challenge: improving the usability of the menu maze would be pretty high up on my priority list!

So there’s been a flurry of news about the 4G iPhone recently. First, rumours of a lost prototype gained substance when pics of it appeared on Engadget. Then Gizmodo posted pictures and video of the actual device. It became incontrovertable when Apple formally requested that Gizmodo return the phone. So we know that a very late, possibly final, version of the 4G iPhone contains a forward-facing camera, a much-higher resolution screen, a bigger battery, and a back made of a glass-like ceramic substance.

Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference is scheduled for June 28th, so some speculate that the new iPhone will be launched then. The conference is devoted mostly to iPhone app development and the new version of the iPhone operating system, iPhone OS 4.0, which will almost certainly be released at the conference. Many of the new features of iPhone OS 4.0 will need the new phone, so it could be launched then. Or maybe before. Or maybe afterwards. The truth is no-one really knows! But I wouldn’t be buying a 3GS iPhone at this stage. Just sayin’.

I think this is pretty ironic: Microsoft have announced that they are dropping cut and paste from Windows 7 Phone, the new version of the Windows operating system that runs on mobile phones. The weirdest thing is that they are claiming this is because “users don’t need it”.

This is ironic given the avalanche of negative publicity that Apple got when the original iPhone was launched without this functionality. It was the major charge against the iPhone by every Apple-hater. And even though Apple still sold plenty of iPhones without cut and paste, they did eventually upgrade the iPhone operating system to allow it.

So it’s pretty clear that people do want cut and paste. (I use it a lot.) For Microsoft to say they are dropping it because no-one wants it is stupid. And Microsoft fanboys were the leaders of the charge against the iPhone for not having it.

It’s far more likely that Microsoft, like Apple before it, are finding out that doing cut and paste is pretty difficult to do well. I think Apple’s solution is pretty good, but it’s not perfect: there is a delay while you hold the selection to get the context menu to come up, and sometimes the system doesn’t understand what you are trying to do.

So this is a shame, really, because if Microsoft had come up with a better way to do it, Apple would have been spurred to improve theirs. Windows 7 Phone looks like a very good effort from Microsoft, and it’s a pity that Microsoft are reverting to their bad old ways.

UPDATE: In this interesting take on the reactions to the news, there is this snippet at the end:

As it turns out, the development team actually knows exactly how they will be implementing copy & paste in WP7S but did not believe it could be implemented without affecting the release schedule they’ve committed too and therefore will be including it in an update down the road.

That is much more likely: the tech team can’t do it in time, so the PR team spin that as “no-one wants the feature”. Wonder how they will announce the feature when it is introduced “down the road”…

Not content with stealing license fee money from a helpless British public, the BBC has now turned its attention to iPhone app developers trying to meet a need. The Rewat.ch app, which would have helped iPhone users to find and watch BBC shows using its iPlayer functionality, has been trashed by the BBC legal department, despite every effort by the developers to meet any requirement, including making it free.

There are two possible conclusions: either the Beeb is shooting itself in the foot again, or it has plans to release its own app, and is clearing the way by eliminating the competition, in the same way that the free and useful railway timetable apps were shut down by National Rail so that it could launch its own ridiculously overpriced paid app with no alternative for long-suffering train passengers. Good old government monopoly strikes again.

UPDATE: The developer of the National Rail app has pointed out that his company is completely independent of National Rail, and that they have developed the app completely off their own bat. They pay a license fee for access to National Rail’s data, which is available to anyone who wishes to pay the fee. Furthermore there are free apps available still. So this is NOT an example of anti-competitive behaviour! Apologies to Dave and all at Agant.

We’ll be doing a full review of all the rail apps shortly. The review is here!

Apple, maker of the iPhone and other cool stuff, has made it to the top of Fortune’s list of Most Admired Companies. Not just the list of computer companies. The whole list.

It’s hard to argue with this: Apple has completely transformed both the music industry and the mobile phone industry with the iPod and iPhone, and continues to be just about the only computer company increasing its profits and earnings year on year, as it produces the most exciting hardware and software in the field.

So congrats to Apple and Steve Jobs, and here’s to even more insanely great stuff! Can’t wait for the iPad myself…