The long wait to find out which countries will get the iPhone next ended dramatically over the past week with a flurry of announcements that should have the device on sale in 26 more nations by year’s end.

Not that you can’t buy an iPhone almost anywhere in the world already. But those unlocked iPhones are unauthorized -- purchased primarily in the United States for resale in places with demand but no supply.

In its past several earnings conference calls, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer has described this worldwide “grey market” not as a problem for Apple but as an opportunity, a demonstration of extraordinary demand for the product.

While Apple makes a profit from iPhones that end up in the grey market, it would make more by selling them to customers in those countries via a cellular partner along with a service contract.

Perhaps that’s why we’re seeing such a large number of countries on Apple’s iPhone schedule – the longer it takes Apple to set up its international iPhone distribution network, the more money it loses from the lucrative revenue-sharing deals it makes with the carriers.Depending upon how the iPhone is priced, grey markets may continue to thrive in many places. But a legitimate iPhone should take back the bulk of sales in most countries.

So just who is getting the iPhone this year? Canada made the list when Rogers Communications announced its deal with Apple last week.

On Tuesday U.K. -based Vodafone – the world’s largest mobile carrier – said it would be selling the iPhone in 10 countries by the end of 2008.

And yesterday America Movil SAB, Latin America’s largest wireless carrier with 37 percent of the market, announced plans to “bring the iPhone to its Latin American operations,” which includes 15 countries and Puerto Rico.

Expect the list to keep growing, as reports of several unconfirmed deals also surfaced this week. Yesterday the Swiss newspaper Le Matin said that mobile carrier Swisscom had forged a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Switzerland this summer.

And France Telecom CFO Gervais Pellissier hinted during a conference call that his company, owner of the Orange network, is in talks with Apple to sell the iPhone in countries besides France. Two prime suspects are Spain and Poland, but Pellissier said the discussions extend to more than just two countries.
On top of all that Apple also announced that in Italy, Vodafone will not have exclusive rights to the iPhone, breaking its policy of one country, one carrier. Vodafone will share the privilege with Telcom Italia TIM. Some suspect the Australia deal also may not be exclusive, but that is not yet confirmed.

But the Italy situation alone marks a major shift in strategy for Apple. Here we have proof that -- at least with the iPhone -- Apple is willing to break with its traditional stubbornness and pursue whatever business model works best in a given situation.

What we don’t know is how much (if any) shared revenue Apple will get in a country with multiple carriers. Until now, Apple had used the exclusivity as a bargaining chip to obtain a percentage of revenue from the service contracts.

We also don’t know if this new willingness to experiment means Apple itself will start selling unlocked versions of the iPhone, at least in countries where Apple considers it practical.

What we do know is that Apple’s global iPhone strategy has kicked in to high gear. The countries lined up so far constitute a huge chunk of the worldwide market, which should accelerate sales substantially.

And then factor in the impact of the 3G iPhone everyone expects Apple to announce next month. Whoa.

Posted by David Zeiler at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
                    

If you’re shopping for a computer with a good balance of features, performance and price, check out a Mac. And if solid tech support is a major concern, your choice is even clearer – Apple’s support tops all competitors.

So says Consumer Reports in its annual computer-buying extravaganza (June issue). The latest data continues the trend, as it has the past few years, of overall praise for Apple’s line of Mac laptops and desktops an in particular for its customer support.

On tech support issues, Apple stands out. Its reader score for laptops is 83 out of 100 (meaning it solved the problem 83 percent of the time), well ahead of Lenovo’s 66 and Dell’s 60.

Apple beats its rivals by an even greater degree in the desktop category. Its score of 81 percent led the field by an embarrassingly large margin; second-place Dell (56 percent) trailed by 25 points, just ahead of Gateway (54 percent).

Not that Consumer Reports has been chugging Steve Jobs’ Kool-Aid. As it has done often, CR criticized Apple for its brief 90 days of free tech support compared with a year for most other PC makers.

Because of that, as well as the above-average service Apple customers get with paid support plans, the magazine advises Mac buyers purchase an AppleCare plan.

Consumer Reports also points out, however, that all Mac owners can get free tech support at the Genius Bar in Apple’s retail stores, which CR says solved problems an impressive 90 percent of the time. But the customer is responsible for the cost of any required repairs.

However, the CR piece misleads a bit when it describes the Genius Bar as “walk-in support.” Yes, you can walk in to any Apple Store with a Mac problem but you can’t consult with a Mac Genius unless you’ve made a reservation.

The only truly bad news for Apple appears in the main article, in the “Brand Repair history” survey chart. While Apple’s desktops boast the fewest repairs – 12 percent versus 17 percent for its closest PC competitors – Apple’s laptops sit at the bottom of their category.

According to the CR survey, 23 percent of Mac laptops required repair or had a serious problem. While that’s not so far from Lenovo’s category leading 20 percent, Apple should take note that the quality control of its laptop line could stand improvement.

Elsewhere in the main article, in which CR makes its general recommendations, both Mac laptops and desktops earn high marks.

In the 15.4-inch “workhorse” laptop category, the MacBook Pro was the magazine’s top choice: “The Apple weighed the least and had the best battery life among the 15-inch models.”

The beefier 17-inch MacBook Pro earned top honors in the “Best Desktop replacement category despite its much higher price relative to its competition (it costs $1,000 more than the next cheapest laptop in that category – a Sony Vaio VGN-AR770).

Meanwhile the newest member of the MacBook family, the MacBook Air, managed to take second in the “Best Lightweight laptops” category on the strength of its exceptionally low weight (3 pounds), strong battery life and slim form factor. The CR editors apparently decided those characteristics trumped the Air’s higher price and missing features (no CD/DVD drive or Ethernet port).

Here’s how CR assesses the Air: “This somewhat pricey, ultra-thin ultra-portable won’t replace your everyday laptop, but the generous keyboard, touchpad technology, and small size make it worth considering. The compromises are in performance and ease of loading and unloading data.”

On the desktop side, the Mac appears absent at first, but it turns out Consumer Reports has added a third Apple-inspired category: all-in-ones.

CR says the best inexpensive all-in-one is the 20-inch iMac (“excellent performance and good ergonomics”) -- and that was before last week’s processor upgrade. Going from a 2.0 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo to a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, the 20-inch iMac represents an even better value now.

The 24-inch iMac was ranked behind the HP TouchSmart IQ775 (who comes up with these names?), but that model’s processor upgrade to a 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo from 2.4 GHz enhances its value quite a bit, too.

Curiously, the Mac Pro got no mention in the “high-end” desktop category, perhaps because it’s not aimed at ordinary consumers but rather video and graphics professionals.

Overall, this year’s CR report card looks as more favorably upon the Mac than ever. That’s the sort of positive reinforcement that could encourage more potential Windows users to switch in the months ahead, maintaining the Mac’s market share growth momentum.

Posted by David Zeiler at 5:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
                    

Despite the sea of red flags that accompanied the public debut of Miami-based Mac clone maker Psystar Corporation, the company appears to be for real. This week customers have reported delivery of working Psystar clones, and several tech sites have posted first impressions.

That brings us back to the questions people were asking when Psystar’s sudden appearance two weeks ago first sent the Mac blogosphere into a frenzy: does buying from Psystar make sense?

At first it may seem that way. What’s not to love about a $399 computer that runs Mac OS X? Oh, let me count the ways….

Let’s begin with the price. You don’t get Leopard with a $399 Psystar “Open Computer,” that’s $155 extra. Now we’re up to $554.

You don’t get FireWire, either, which is standard on all Macs. You can add three FireWire ports for another $50, though. That puts you at $604.

Built-in wireless networking? It’s standard on the Mac Mini (which starts at $599) and iMac models, but an extra $90 on the Psystar. That raises the cost to $694.

How about the iLife suite, free with every Mac? Not on a Psystar. You’ll have to buy it for $79 if you want it.

And unlike the $1,199 20-inch iMac, Psystar clones don’t come with a monitor. Unless you have a spare monitor to attach, that’s another added expense. The Open Computer doesn’t even come with a mouse or keyboard (though neither does the Mini).

Suddenly that cheap clone isn’t quite as cheap as you thought.

To be fair, the Psystar has some beefier hardware than the Mac Mini: a faster CPU, twice the RAM and a much larger, faster hard drive. Specs like that help when it comes to performance, which is where the Psystar shines.

Two tech sites, Engadget and ZDNet, have already posted benchmarks on Psystar machines that arrived as ordered. The Open Computer performed about as well as a MacBook laptop in the Engadget tests.

The folks at ZDNet compared the Psystar to a Mac mini, the closest Apple equivalent. The Psystar beat the Mac mini in every hardware test ZDNet ran, although they added some options to both machines to make them comparably priced ($740 for the Psystar and $799 for the Mini).

But beyond the basic price-performance equation, potential Psystar customers need to consider the long-term consequences of owning hardware Apple has not blessed.

If you need technical support, you will need to get it from Psystar. Apple surely won’t get involved.

When it comes to system updates, forget it. Psystar has disabled the Software Update feature on its clones probably to prevent “bricking” in the event an Apple update disagrees with the unauthorized hardware.

And that just scratches the surface of the myriad compatibility problems one could encounter.

The Engadget review has a list of clone oddities, such as its outrageously loud fan and the inability of the Apple System Profiler to detect such things as the amount of RAM, the graphics card or the machine’s audio capabilities.

I would advise careful consideration to ordinary computer users who see Psystar as a way to obtain a Mac inexpensively. I don’t think the money saved is worth the potential headaches.

But for technophiles and hobbyists – the sort of people who think building a PC from scratch is fun – Psystar’s clones should be great. Such people can work around any technical limitations they encounter, and should understand all the risks up front.

And finally, there’s Apple itself. It has remained dead silent on the issue. Will it continue to look the other way or are its lawyers now huddling over the details of an impending lawsuit? Even if Psystar were on solid legal ground, a lawsuit from Apple would be no picnic.

Proceed with caution.

Posted by David Zeiler at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)