iPhone News: Japan, App Store growth, iPhone growth, Opera not Safari?

Latest iPhone News: Monday 14th September 2008

Slow Japan sales

Reports suggest that Japan is another country where the iPhone 3G isn't selling too well.

Analysts believe that demand for the phone is now a third of what it was during the initial hype, when around 200,000 iPhones were sold.

Japan is home to some of the most advanced cellphones in the world, and the iPhone doesn't have some of the capabilities of other handsets, such as mobile TV.

Additionally, the report suggests (perhaps surprisingly) that Japanese consumers are wary of buying online via a mobile handset, making the App Store, though unique, difficult to push.

App Store sales could double songs sales in first two years

Projecting the current figures, analysts believe the App Store could hit one billion downloads in just a year -- twice as fast as it took iTunes song downloads.

That's based on the milestone of 100 million applications downloaded in the first two months, with 70 million downloaded in August.

Why is the growth so monumental, given that there are less iPhone and iPod touch devices around than iPods and computers? Probably a number of reasons, including the fact that some applications are free, a high proportion of people rip their own CD collection rather than buying songs online, and many people get their online music from other sources, including P2P and streaming sites.

iPhone fastest growing Internet comms device

Figures from Admob suggest that the iPhone is the fastest growing Internet communications device available, with iPhone users accounting for over 2.9 million page requests every day.

Opera was iPhone browser first choice?

A somewhat bizarre rumour (originally from Valleywag, you decide) is that Apple wanted the Opera browser to sit on the iPhone rather than their own Safari software.

The suggestion is that Apple and Opera were in talks for about six months, trying to broker a deal, but negotiations fell through.

Given Apple's tight control over applications, and its fervent support for its own software, this suggestion is a strange one, at best. Of course, Opera has its own mobile browser, but I find it hard to believe that Apple would want third-party software as part of the core system.

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