iPhone News Updated

AT&T Says iPhone 3GS is Hot in a Good Way

The iPhone 3GS is hot according to AT&T. No, I’m not talking about the overheating issues, but a alleged leaked memo from the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. carrier. In the memo, AT&T reports the iPhone 3GS launch day on June 6 was the best-ever sales day for AT&T retail stores, according to MacDaily News.

June 6 was also the second largest traffic day for AT&T stores, and the most upgrade eligibility checks in a single day were performed during the iPhone 3GS launch day. The 3GS debut was so huge, for AT&T retail stores anyway, that sales for the device surpassed launch day sales for the iPhone 3G by noon Central Time.

After the iPhone 3GS initial launch weekend, Apple also reported a successful launch of its latest smart phone reporting that it had sold more than one million iPhone 3GS devices at Apple retail locations. That’s the same number Apple used to describe the iPhone 3G launch weekend last year.

What’s surprising, however, is a growing consensus that the iPhone 3GS debut may have been far bigger than the launch of the iPhone 3G. Last summer, the iPhone 3G debut was lauded as the most successful launch of any tech product in history. For days after its initial availability, fans were lining up around the block at Apple Stores across the United States and the world to get their hands on the iPhone 3G. Device shortages were a regular occurrence, and customers in less populated areas were left waiting for months to get their own wonder gadget from Apple.
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Sprint Picks on iPhone with Palm Pre

Sprint released the new Palm Pre smartphone into the wild about three weeks ago, putting a lot of hope in the handset’s performance on the market, and now it has begun to market its device a little more aggressively than before. To be more precise, the company touts it as having more capabilities than the iPhone, the leader on the market.

Even before its launch, the Palm Pre had been expected to be an iPhone killer. Although other handsets have been stated to have the power to bring down the iPhone from its throne, they have failed, and it seems that Palm’s handset is the one to do it. Thus, Sprint, which has the Pre exclusively throughout 2009, pinpoints that users should choose its device instead of an iPhone.

The reason for such a choice is simple. The Palm Pre comes to the market with more capabilities than the Apple device, including multitasking and over-the-air updates, while also offering more value than the iPhone and AT&T’s price plans. According to Sprint, and already reported by us, the Pre on its airwaves would allow customers to save up to $1,200 with a two-year contract agreement, when compared with the iPhone on AT&T.

Moreover, the carrier also touts its Now Network as being the most dependable 3G network in the country, and that it will also be the first operator to have a 4G network in place. For what it’s worth, Sprint indeed seems to have a few aces up its sleeve, especially since AT&T’s network is already known to have certain issues when it comes to sustain all the pressure iPhone users put on it.

On the other hand, some early benchmarks on the Pre and the new iPhone 3GS (the latest version of Apple’s phone) have shown that the Palm device falls behind the popular handset. Although it comes with more features, including a physical keypad, removable battery and few others more, the Pre cannot achieve the same performance levels as the iPhone, which doesn’t sound that good for it.

As stated before, Sprint needs the device to prove successful, so as to help it keep its postpaid subscribers, which have left the company in masses lately. At the same time, Palm, the maker of the Pre, has placed almost all its hope in this device, and needs it badly to sell great, for it has seen a drop in shipments of around 60 percent during the last quarter, compared with last year.

The phone has sold rather well until now, with 150,000 units estimated to have been shipped, and is expected to sell in millions in the near future. It remains to be seen whether Sprint chooses to continue an aggressive marketing of the phone and if it will actually pay off, helping it to lure customers from the rival AT&T.

[Thanks: http://news.softpedia.com]