Apple

From the Department of Duh comes word that Apple's recent $200 price drop on the popular 8GB iPhone has led to a sharp increase in sales. Now I know that news will knock my readers over like bowling pins, but do try and steady yourselves.

Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster conducted a 50 hour survey of Apple Stores (I assume the poor guy took a break sometime) compiling concurrent sales data - cause that's what bean counters do. He came away with less than surprising results; iPhone sales are up, w00t! He reckons that Apple sold 27,000 units per day within a five day period in order to arrive at its ballyhooed 1 million unit milestone. Not bad sales performance, what.

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. Rebels. Round pegs in square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of Treos. And they have no respect for BlackBerries.

You can quote them. Disagree with them. Glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them, because they flash their iPhones in your face constantly, trying to impress everyone around them.

So while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see suckers genius. Because the ones who are crazy enough to spend $600 for a phone...just might be crazy enough to convince others to do the same.

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Apple quietly slipped out its promised release of iTunes 7.4, integrating support for yesterdays announced iPod line - as well ringtone support for iPhone, iTunes Wi-Fi Store, and that Starbucks whatchamacallit thing. Beyond that, there really isn't much to say. Once the update is installed a new Ringtone tab is revealed after your iPhone is docked. Guess what that does? I could give a tinker's damn for music ringtones, so I won't be joining you around the campfire singing bad karaoke tunes. Sorry.

The download weighs in roughly 40MB, depending on platform of choice.

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Apple may have opened a can of worms by removing all but one reason for buying an iPhone. For starters, they've given the iPhone a vasectomy, freeing of its GSM radio and carrier entanglements, and re-branded it as a standalone product even identical in appearance to its cellular sibling. On paper that seems like a sound strategy for product growth, and it is...for iPod sales. Unfortunately it's not going to do wonders for iPhone's prospects. Many consumers who otherwise might have purchased iPhones will now be offered a choice that will almost certainly lead them to buy an iPod instead.