June 19, 2008

As expected, the 3G iPhone is following in the footsteps of its predecessor--the iPhone EDGE--and dominating the news cycle in the wake of its launch. Yankee Group's director of enterprise research, Carl Howe covered the pricing loopholes, bill of materials, profit margins and consumer expectations for the 3G iPhone for this week's Mobile Internet Trends.

Caroline Gabriel also focused on the iPhone this week by chronicling the ongoing debate over whether the iPhone should make use of Adobe's Flash. Apple CEO Steve Jobs won't deign to include Flash on the company's device because he claims the iPhone is too advanced for it, while Adobe holds out hope that Apple would eventually give in it is hard at work perfecting an iPhone Flash emulator.

The choice passage from Gabriel's column this week can be found in the final paragraphs, where she quotes one analyst group that staunchly refuses to categorize the iPhone as a mobile internet device. Why you ask? Because mobile internet devices, they claim, should feature screens four to six inches across with VGA resolution, plus TV-out and optional mobile TV capabilities.

The iPhone produces more traffic for the mobile internet than any other device! Safe to say the heights of mobile internet-related comedy don't soar much higher than that.

Last week we polled our readers to find out how often they use mobile banking services--Turns out about 50 percent of readers don't use them at all while 5 percent use them daily, 27 percent use them once a week, 14 percent use them once a month and 5 percent use them once a year. Certainly encouraging. This week's poll: What form of mobile entertainment (if any) will be the most profitable for the mobile internet ecosystem? Choices: Mobile television/video, Mobile gaming, Mobile music/radio or None--mobile entertainment won't be viable. Vote here!