Deutsche Telekom Signed Up 70,000 iPhone Customers

It appears that Germans are just as interested in Apple Incorporated’s iPhone as American customers. German telecoms operator Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) said that it had signed up 70,000 iPhone customers in the 11 weeks since November 9, 2007.

Deutsche Telekom's mobile telephony arm T-Mobile is the exclusive seller of U.S. Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone.

"The iPhone is by far the most sold multimedia device in T-Mobile's portfolio," the head of T-Mobile Germany, Philipp Humm, said in an interview published on T-Mobile's Intranet, or in-house Internet web site.

French operator France Telecom (FTE.PA) had sold more than 70,000 iPhones since they arrived on November 28.

Apple Inc said on January 15 it had sold 4 million iPhones since the launch at the end of June.

Hacker creativity drives Apple iPhone innovation

Since the iPhone was born, there’s been a rift in the user community between those who keep the iPhone the way Apple intended, only updating when Apple releases something new. On the flip side, there’s the “jailbreak” community, who has been opening up the iPhone to new applications and uses, though admittedly to the detriment of some user’s phones, for the same amount of time. Whether Apple admits to it or not, the iPhone “hackers” have been responsible for all the recent innovation to the iPhone.

That isn’t really limited to the iPhone. Apple is famous for working off the ideas established by open source programmers. For instance, Virtue Desktops, an open source free app that allowed users to have multiple desktop spaces available, was essentially copied and made better by Apple in the application Spaces for Leopard.

With the iPhone, there were tons of games and applications created by “hackers” who wanted users to have the full range of the iPhone platform without all the nuisances of Apple’s limitations. That looked like games, multiple home screens, rearrangeable icons, ringtones, and more.

Far be it from Apple or Steve Jobs to not jump on an opportunity to release the ideas of others in a more streamlined, secure format to the general public. In the wake of those hacks, look how closely Apple’s updates have paralleled the works of the hacking community. That isn’t to say Apple is wrong for doing so. It just goes to prove that open source platforms and “hacking” or creativity as some like to call it are a necessity, and the companies that follow that community’s lead will benefit.

All the users who never jailbroke their iPhones are holding their noses high because Apple came around with the innovations in a secure form, but without those revolutionaries, there is a very good chance the majority of users wouldn’t have the features in their iPhones they now do. So keep on jailbraking and pushing the limits, oh programmers and vigilantes.

Apple's Math Could Point To iPhone Overstock

Financial analysts are looking for an answer to Apple's iPhone mathematics problem. What raised concern on Wall Street is the discrepancy between the number of iPhones Apple says it has shipped since launching the gadget last summer and the number of iPhones sold by AT&T, the exclusive wireless service provider in the United States.

In reporting quarterly earnings this week, Apple said it had shipped 4 million iPhones. During its quarterly report, AT&T said it had about 2 million iPhone customers as of the end of 2007.

Both sides have said they're happy with the product's performance in the market, and Apple remains confident that it can hit its target of 10 million phones shipped within its first year of sales. But financial analysts are wondering whether there's trouble brewing.

Analysts at Sanford Bernstein have come up with some slightly different numbers than the vendors, TheStreet.com reported Friday. Bernstein estimates that Apple shipped 3.75 million phones in total, and telephone companies worldwide have activated 2.35 million. Assuming that 20% of the unactivated phones may have been unlocked to work on other networks that still leaves 670,000 iPhones unaccounted for.

If Bernstein's estimates are correct, then Apple may have to contend with a growing pile of unsold iPhones, TheStreet said.

Apple did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Beyond the troubling iPhone numbers, Apple's stock took a beating in after-hours trading following its financial report, despite record earnings. Investors apparently are getting the jitters over a possible global economic slowdown that could hurt Apple's consumer electronics sales, which include the iPhone, iPod, iMac, and MacBook. Financial analysts also are concerned that Apple's iPod sales may be slowing.

What has been going gangbusters at Apple are Macintosh computer sales? The company reported it shipped 2.32 million computers in the fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 29, which represented a 44% increase in shipments and a 47% boost in revenue when compared with the same period a year ago.