Yankee Group's Carl Howe writes over at the YGBlog that Apple sold about 4 times more phones than it did last year at this time, but the 3G iPhone was still probably the largest consumer electronics launch in history.

Howe notes that "the original 2007 iPhone launch was the largest first weekend consumer electronics launch in history as measured in inflation-adjusted dollars, garnering somewhere around $150 million in its first weekend on sale. That eclipsed the Microsoft XBox 360 ($128 million in the first weekend), Microsoft Windows 95 ($122 million in the first four days), and the Sony Betamax (not even close at $58 million in the first 7 months). But Apple just broke its own record. Assuming an average price after carrier subsidy of $433 (2/3 8 GByte models, 1/3 16 GByte models), Apple just posted approximately $433 million in first weekend iPhone sales."

So maybe it wasn't a smooth launch, but it didn't seem to hurt sales much.

On the carrier side of the mobile internet, the newscycle is still enamored with the idea of Sprint Nextel as an acquisition target. When SK Telecom and Earthlink sold Helio to Virgin Mobile USA a few weeks ago, the Korean telco suddenly lost its U.S. footprint: It only owned a stake in the new Virgin Mobile USA. It's not surprising then that SK Telecom is the object of the rumor mill's affection these days--especially as a potential suitor for Sprint Nextel. Helio made use of Sprint's network as does Virgin Mobile USA. Add in another report that SK and Sprint have held talks about working together on networking technologies and you have a juicy speculative piece that is worthy of all the major blogs and a few of the more daring newspapers.

Poll: Last week we asked our readers whether they would buy a 3G iPhone--the majority, 70 percent, said "Yes" and I'm tempted to join them. This week we want to know what you think SK Telecom and Sprint Nextel are up to: Is SK Telecom serious about buying Sprint? Are the two carriers simply collaborating on a technology, as some reports phrased it? Or are these reports just bunch of hot air?

Most smartphone makers know that the hot buttons in the mobile internet are location-based services and social networking, and if you put GPS in the handset and mix the two features together, this drives significant increases in mobile web usage. Even greater uptake - and greater differentiation from PC-based services - could be stimulated by going hyper-local, and there will be a race between the big names like Facebook, and the mobile specialists, to get there first.