According to a report by Fierce Wireless, U.S. Cellular apparently turned down the opportunity to carry Apple’s new iPhone 4S:

U.S. Cellular turned down Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone because it did not make sense for the company economically, CEO Mary Dillon said on the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call. Dillon said that the carrier had the opportunity to sell the iPhone but that Apple’s “terms were unacceptable from a risk and profitability standpoint.”

Dillon mentioned that U.S. Cellular may be open to carrying the iPhone a little further down the road. It’s possible that these “unacceptable terms” could have been similar to the Sprint deal that required a hefty four year investment to get into the iPhone game.

Meanwhile, the three big U.S. carriers that do have the iPhone 4S are booming following huge initial sales.

Canaccord Genuity’s Mike Walkley this morning raised his already fairly high estimate for this quarter’s sales by Apple (AAPL) of its iPhone from 27 million units to 29 million units, after his “checks” last month suggested the iPhone 4S was the top seller at AT&T (T), Sprint-Nextel (S), and Verizon Communications (VZ).

C-Spire Wireless, a much smaller regional carrier with around 875,000 subscribers, was able to pick up the iPhone 4S just fine by working within Apple’s terms.

So what gives, U.S. Wireless?

Source: FierceWireless, Barron’s

Looks like the CDMA variant of Apple’s iPhone might eventually make its way to carriers in China, Korea, and Japan. According to the not always reliable Digitimes, Apple suppliers currently expect around 7 million CDMA iPhones to be sold in the first quarter of 2011. That’s a lot of iPhones, no matter how you look at it.

Apple’s two main suppliers, Foxconn and Pegatron are also slated to turn a large profit this year due to the release of a CDMA variant. Foxconn started shipping the CDMA variant of the iPhone 4 back in December 2010, while Pegatron has started shipping this month. Digitimes maintains that Foxconn will ship solely to the United States while Pegatron will ship to other countries such as China, Japan, and Korea. The Verizon iPhone is set to double the number of iPhone users in the market alone. With these other countries added to the CDMA list, the iPhone will be available to a whole new array of customers as well.

I’d say with the GSM and CDMA variants set to be available on even more carriers and in more countries, Apple is in for a year of record numbers. It’s also great that customers in the US now have a choice. And if you’re in the US and not sure which to pick, take a look at our Verizon vs AT&T iPhone comparison.

[Digitimes]

Given all the Verizon iPhone rumors of late, and given our fears Verizon would try to mutilate iOS the way it’s mutilated Android, it’s rather shocking to hear Android founder Andy Rubin say the following to PCMag‘s Sascha Segan:

If I were to release an operating system that I claimed was open and that forced everybody to make [phones] all look the same and all support very narrow features and functionality, the platform wouldn’t win. It wouldn’t win because the OEMs have a lot of value to bring and the carriers have a lot of value to bring, and they need a vehicle by which to put their interesting differentiating features on these things. Every phone shouldn’t look like every other phone. If that was the case there would just be one SKU, right? The whole idea here is just to figure out what consumers want, build phones and tailor them to what consumers want.

Which must be locked down search engines, aGPS, bloatware, and the various other sins Verizon, AT&T, et. al have visited on other platforms, including Android, right?

No thanks.

He also thinks Microsoft shouldn’t have bother innovating Windows Phone 7 and just used Android. He thinks everyone should just use Android and no one should bother innovating anymore. By that logic, he shouldn’t have bothered founding and innovating Android either and just waited around for Symbian Foundation to give him a build of their old OS. Sigh.

Unfortunately, it looks like he’s already getting his wish and those of us who were looking forward to a few more innovative takes on a smartphone OS might just be disappointed.

[PCMag via Android Central -- love the new logo!]

iPhone has tiny market share, monumental profit share according to Canaccord Genuity and IDC, and pretty much everyone else who’s ever mentioned it. TiPb’s been pointing this out for a long time of course, but boy does the above graphic make it visually apparent just what the difference is.

Why do we, as users, care if Apple’s making more money than everyone else (most of them combined)? Because it means Apple can keep making the iPhone they want to make, not the iPhone carriers dictate they make. Apple doesn’t have to add big logos on the front of their phones, add carrier bloatware or let carriers make exclusive deals to lock out apps, lock out search engines, or replace Apple’s own app store with a carrier store that won’t let you take your apps with you to other devices and providers.

Sure, Apple will make mistakes and get things wrong, but ultimately Apple is a company that believes we, the end users, are their customers — not the carriers.

So, yes, Nokia has a bigger market share and Android likely will as well soon enough. Apple’s laughing all the way to the bank, though, and providing a phone that may not be as “open” as we like to us, but certainly isn’t as tragically “open” to the manufacturers and carriers as the competition.

We’ll see what, if anything, that means to a potential Verizon iPhone deal…

[Fortune]

Steve Jobs mentioned almost in passing during the iPhone 4 press conference last week that iPhone 4 would be available on July 30 in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, and Switzerland.

That’s all well and good but it’s also now less than a week away and at least in Canada Apple still hasn’t updated its online store to say anything other than “coming soon”, and their carrier partners Rogers, Bell, and Telus have little more than the date.

No pre-orders have been offered. No FAQs or “blogger guy” videos on how carrier upgrades or subsidies will be handled. Apple will also be selling iPhone 4 unlocked for the first time in many of the above countries but for anyone willing to pay full price there’s still the small matter of getting a MicroSIM to go with it and having that MicroSIM activated with a new or existing account. For those not eager or able to cut down their old MiniSIM, no information on that is available either.

Apple has a lot on their plate right now. They’re selling iPhone 4 as fast as they can make them and if they’re having trouble supplying the few countries already launched, 17 more could be tight beyond belief. Negotiations with carriers might also be ongoing. It’s even possible Apple is trying to make sure carriers dig deep to offer early upgrades and keep data open and affordable. All of that could be going on in the back corridors and boardrooms up until the 11th hour.

But it stresses consumers. A phone is a big purchase, a contract a huge commitment. Sooner is better.

We’d like to know, frankly, so we can get on with the crazier aspects of impending Apple launches — will the antenna be tweaked, will white models be available? Will Apple Stores be opening early? Who’s going to have what in stock where?

If you’re in one of the above countries and waiting for iPhone 4 to launch next week, let us know if you’ve been able to get any information yet. If not are you buying no matter what, or holding off until you hear?

Even though Wi-Fi is required to use FaceTime, because it can be initiated from a voice call it was unclear if it would also use minutes from your voice plan. Apple has confirmed with Business Insider that “the voice call ends as soon as the FaceTime call connects,” so it will not cost you voice minutes to use FaceTime.

This is great news and it certainly raises hope that among those 10 million FaceTime-enabled devices Steve Jobs mentioned at WWDC 2010 will be a next generation, camera-equipped iPod touch this fall. However, we are uncertain what this means for the future when FaceTime become available over 3G. It likely won’t be strictly considered a voice call; but will it be a combination of voice and data, or strictly data? This could have a huge impact on the recent tiered, data capped plans that AT&T has implemented. It is also possible that carriers will create a new “voice calling” category with separate limits. Only time will tell.

What do you expect will be the case? More importantly, does the fact that FaceTime over Wi-Fi doesn’t use up your voice minutes encourage you to use FaceTime more than you were originally planning? Sound off in the comments below!

From the Forums is a great way to see all of the hot topics in our iPhone and iPad forums. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now!

• WWDC is finally here, lets hear your last minute predictions!

• It is highly possible today you will be able to pre-order the next iPhone via Apple’s web site, will you be pre-ordering?

• For your chance to win your very own 4th generation iPhone from TiPb be sure to visit this thread – TiPb 4th gen iPhone (iPhone HD/iPhone 4G) give-away!

• Want to talk next generation iPhone carriers and plans? This would be the forum to do to it in – iPhone and iPad Carriers and Plans.

See you in the forums!

So you say you have some time to kill before the big Apple Keynote today? Why not spend it chatting in our forums! All you need to do is register and you are on your way. Once registered be sure to check out some of the following threads!

• Everyone is expecting iPhone OS 4.0 to be shown off today, feel free to discuss that in this thread right here: Discuss the iPhone OS 4.0 software.
• With the rumors flying regarding the iPhone on Verizon be sure to check out our forum dedicated to carrier talk: iPhone Plans and Carriers.
• Currently on Windows 7 and having difficulties with your iPhone? This is the thread for you: Official Windows 7 iPhone Help.
• Time after time folks complain about their iPhone battery life, check out the following thread to get some tips that just might help your device survive the day: iPhone Battery Tips.

See you on the forums!

One of the more interesting conversations the Smartphone Experts team had at CES 2010 was with Root Wireless, who monitors the performance of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile in the US. Their overall message is that there’s no single best carrier, because it varies so much from place to place, but they did try to determine which carrier survived CES the best.

Here’s the bottom line:

• AT&T started out providing the fastest service, but quickly fell to 4th place.

• Verizon better maintained its consistency of service, performing particularly well on the event’s busiest days.

Loading its proprietary Root Mobile™ crowdsourcing application on smartphones purchased off-the-shelf from each of the ‘Big Four’ carriers, Root Wireless conducted stationary tests at a fixed location immediately adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center, constantly running Root Mobile from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., January 5-8. The linear tests determine data transmissions speeds, cell tower hand-off rates and network connection failures, as monitored and reported by Root Mobile. It is noteworthy that the findings differ from others data transmission speed tests conducted using PCs, precisely because Root Mobile is engineered to determine wireless consumers’ real-world experience using smartphones, not PCs. Also worth keeping in mind: Results reported here are local to the Las Vegas Convention Center. Root Wireless network mapping software has confirmed that all network performance is local; it varies from neighborhood-to-neighborhood, from service provider to service provider.

CrackBerry Kevin shot some video at Root Wireless’ booth, so if you’re curious for more (and the techies among you should be!) go check that out on CrackBerry.com.

My experience after the break!

Now make no mistake, there were a lot of iPhones at CES. Tons of BlackBerrys too spread over all the carriers, and a few DROIDs here and there, but the iPhone and AT&T definitely had one of the most visible presences at this convention. For my part, I brought my Rogers iPhone 3GS with me (and yes, it was very expensive). That meant I roamed between AT&T 3G and T-Mobile EDGE (something several Americans told me they wished they could do!).

Anecdotally, not just at CES but at the airports in between, I would walk down a hall and lose all signal on one network and have to wait for my iPhone to roam back to the other. Same in Vegas, the hotel had zero T-Mobile EDGE, but fine AT&T 3G, while the Convention Center was AT&T fail and solid T-Mobile EDGE. Sympathetically, I don’t know how you Americans suffer through any of your GSM/HSPA carriers (and Dieter might add Sprint to the list, given his MiFi failures during the show).

Fake Steve was right, you live in one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, and quite often you can’t connect a call or pull any data. And worse, even when a cell tower gives you 5 full bars of signal, there’s no telling wether the backhaul has any actual bandwidth left behind it. (Imagine having a powerful WiFi router lit up at home, but your cable or DSL modem was dead behind it).

O2 is apparently suffering now as well, so you’re not alone, but it’s going to take massive investment and brilliant innovation (including solid 4G coverage) to ride the upcoming tsunami-like data demands.

From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. Today we would like to go over some of the popular sub-forums for those of you who may not be familiar with our forum setup. Becoming a member is fast and free, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now.

• iPhone OS 4.0 is coming soon so why not discuss it in our forums? Rumor is we will see a sneak peak on the 27th…
• The Smartphone Experts Round Robin continues and this week it is Matt Miller’s turn from Nokia Experts and he needs your help! Participate in this thread for your chance to win a free device! Yes, I said free!
• Speaking of iPhone OS 4.0 why not discuss what the 4th generation of iPhone will bring us in Rene’s thread: 4th Gen iPhone Concept Designs!
• Lastly, be sure to check out iPhone Plans and Carriers, a forum which is home to all of the latest discussions regarding Verizon, AT&T, etc…

See you on the forums!

Mike Ash (via Marco.org) makes this point following the FCC responses today:

Ignoring the question of why it’s Apple’s job to prevent their customers from breaking AT&T’s terms of service, it’s interesting to note just how much this policy is centered on the United States. The iPhone is sold in dozens of different countries and works with dozens of different cellular carriers all over the world. You can be certain that each one of those carriers has different terms of service. Why is AT&T so privileged that their terms of service, and theirs alone, are the ones that Apple looks at when deciding whether to reject or accept any given app? It’s quite likely that people all over the world are missing out on great iPhone apps that their cellular carriers would permit them to use just because AT&T does not permit Americans to use them.

This by way of saying, for example, because AT&T prohibits SlingPlayer from running over 3G, users in Canada (on Rogers), the UK (on 02), Japan (on SoftBank), etc. are also prevented from using SlingPlayer of 3G.

Apple certainly makes only specific mention of AT&T in their consideration process. However, AT&T was the first iPhone carrier signed, so perhaps there’s something in that original deal that makes it so — or is it just that Apple is headquartered in the US?

Now, presuming those other, international carriers aren’t just sighing in relief that AT&T takes the hit on this so they don’t have to (anyone think Rogers, O2, SoftBank, et al. are dying to take the network hit that comes with an uber-popular, functionality surfacing device like the iPhone doing high-bandwidth tasks like streaming TV shows and movies?

There are certainly examples enough of region-specific apps (AT&T’s own apps are just in the US), and apps that are missing from just one regional app store (Skype is not in the Canadian App Store, reportedly due to a patent dispute).

As mentioned previously, Sling has submitted a 3G-enabled version of SlingPlayer for non-US App Stores (Canada, UK, Japan, etc.), so we’ll soon see.

Macworld has a great article up today about the arrival of Skype on the iPhone (and soon the BlackBerry) and what the widespread availability of VoIP (voice over IP) clients — which eschew the traditional phone lines to send talk via data instead — means for cell providers like AT&T, Verizon, O2, Rogers, etc. who’ve made tons of traditional money billing us all by the minute.

One common future seen for cell companies is that of “dumb pipes” — like DSL or cable companies that provide bandwidth but few if any premium services. Verizon shows how far (and foolish) they’ll go to avoid that fate:

“We have moved away from unlimited data plans,” Verizon Wireless President and CEO Lowell McAdam said at a question-and-answer session at CTIA. “The excitement of an over-the-top application like (Skype) in an unlimited environment means one thing to a customer. In an environment where you’re paying for every byte, that means something totally different.”

I wonder, tongue only partially in cheek, if McAdam used to work for the music or movie industry? Our own editor-in-chief, Dieter Bohn, freshly returned from CTIA shared his thoughts:

Dear Verizon: You always become what you most fear. To wit: dumb pipes. Love, the inevitable.

Sounds good to me. Let’s make a deal, carriers. You supply the bandwidth, keep the bits open and neutral, and I’ll pay for the service same way I pay for my electricity and plug in whatever gadget I want. Deal?

Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility, the iPhone’s US carrier, seems almost on a page with that already:

“The way the world is going, it’ll just be, ‘How much data do you want to buy?’ and you do whatever you want over that data.”

Check out the complete article at Macworld for more, and let us know what future you want for your data below…

This past Saturday Apple posted a new support page, a simple list of all the carriers currently selling iPhone 3G’s and which ones are locked and which ones are unlocked. As all AT&T customers know, our iPhone’s are locked down tight until the Dev-Team can do something about it. I suppose if you were that desperate and crafty you could use this list of unlocked carriers to get yourself one, for a hefty fee of course… and be sure to know how to speak fluent Chinese if you want support for one purchased in Hong Kong or Taiwan.

[Via Engadget Mobile]

So you might have heard that the iPhone 3G was going to retail for $199 from AT&T. I’ve already covered how it isn’t technically $199 for current iPhone users. And you heard Rene tell you that $199 is less than the notorious price DROP of the iPhone. Well TiPb has been wondering how Apple settled on dropping the price so dramatically.

And we settled on a story, kind of—more like a collection of reasons. We’ve analyzed the outcome back and forth, from reverse and from the beginning. And we think we have come to a conclusion (or at the very least, a conspiracy theory). In a purely speculative story, I’ll give you my opinion on how we reached $199.

Read on for Apple’s Path to $199

Apple Wanted to Revolutionize the Phone Industry

They were hoping that the iPhone was going to be ridiculously popular (it was) and that foreign carriers would see such popularity and ask for it on their network as well. Therefore in that case, Apple could then leverage the iPhone’s popularity into folding the carriers into having the same relationship with Apple as AT&T ‘enjoys’. Essentially making the carrier powerless to Apple’s demands and eventually change the way carriers work.

Do you guys remember the uniqueness of the original iPhone? This was a phone that toyed with AT&T, basically ignoring everything that the Death Star Company wanted. When AT&T asked for prototypes pre-iPhone launch, Apple reportedly created fake models to placate them. Apple created a new iPhone-specific data plan that AT&T had to abide by—$20 for unlimited data and 200 SMS. Apple created a new activation process that essentially cut AT&T out of the loop. You activate via iTunes, not with AT&T. Apple created a new business model for the iPhone that included revenue sharing—AT&T is paying Apple for users using AT&T’s service, just simply brilliant business. Phone Carriers don’t typically get thrown around like this.

It almost worked

With the gray market in full affect, Apple lost their leverage. Foreign Carriers had no desire to bend to Apple’s unprecedented demands because anyone who really wanted an iPhone could easily get an iPhone through the gray market. And those using unlocked iPhone on a foreign carrier’s network would HAVE to work with the current data plans in play. Therefore we have iPhone users across the world using the iPhone on network’s aimed to rip every dollar from the consumer.

What could Apple offer the carriers now? From the carrier’s standpoint, the money gained by having unlocked iPhones on their pricey data network was worth more than agreeing to revenue sharing models and affordable data plans. Not to mention the fact that when a foreign carrier introduced the iPhone to their country’s market per ‘exclusivity contract’ it would only give unlockers a chance to use OTHER networks in the same country. So much for exclusivity, right. The money spent paying Apple for ‘exclusive’ rights was better not spent at all.

Apple still needed to increase marketshare

Back then, the idea was that foreign carriers would see the benefits of having an exclusive relationship with Apple and that would offset the costs that they would have to pay in a revenue sharing model. But with the gray market, all the foreign carriers had to do was stand pat and wait for Apple to come around because everyone knew they NEEDED to sell 10 million units in 2008. And that meant expanding to more countries.

So when the clock started ticking and Apple realized they had little to no leverage, they folded to the carriers demands. The carriers were too entrenched in their markets, they had too much power and Apple’s only leverage was lost. Nothing about the carriers was going to change.

AT&T demanded change

So the revenue sharing disappeared. So did the activation process. So did the iPhone-specific plan. AT&T isn’t going to do it Apple’s way anymore because Apple folded to the demands of foreign carriers, thus giving AT&T a loophole to subsidize, raise data prices, and basically conform the iPhone to any phone in AT&T’s lineup.

So Apple needed to re-strategize

So how else could Apple revolutionize the cell phone industry? By aiming their attack at the other party. Cell phone makers. A $199 price point for the iPhone 3G will force people to notice and overhaul the system from the device end. In fact, the Samsung Instinct dropped to $199 after the Apple announcement. I’m sure RIM and other companies will have to follow suit. How could a company justify charging so much for such feature-strapped phones?

So Why $199?

But to be bold enough to declare it at $199. That’s a direct challenge to RIM, to Palm, to HTC, to Sony. $199 is the price point you have to hit and if you don’t, consumers are going to wonder why is a phone that’s not as full featured as the iPhone cost more than the iPhone? They are forcing cell phone makers to change their strategies and not simply rely on the carriers doing all the work for them.

A $199 price point can realistically put the iPhone in the hands of a lot of potential customers. They’re attacking the situation in reverse of what they originally intended. Putting it in the hands of the most customers possible and gaining market share to create change. With a larger install base, the App Store and iTunes Wi-Fi store become instant money makers. With users falling in love with the iPhone’s usability, Apple gets their leverage back. Apple believes that when people finally get to own the iPhone, they’ll always own an iPhone. Cell phone makers, you’re going to have to catch up fast. Cell phone carriers, Apple is still going to come after you.

This plan actually makes more sense than Apple’s original business model, when people fall in love with the iPhone, Apple would have a dedicated user base ready to follow Apple and the iPhone wherever they go, to whomever carrier it happens to be.

What does the future hold then?

And what about expanding the iPhone platform, which is a natural progression in creating cell phones. What will an iPhone nano retail at? $99? Can Apple deal with the PR-nightmare it would have if they were to raise prices in the next editions?

Or could Apple simply put the iPhone in the most hands possible and then prep themselves to go completely unlocked? Could they manage to offer a $199 price point without carrier subsidies?

Final Thoughts

Or maybe I’m just a conspiracy theorist. Remember this is all speculation and opinion. Apple simply just could have realized they couldn’t keep pace with the hype of the iPhone 3G and determined the best way to have conversation was to significantly drop the price. Shock and awe. Or maybe not.

What do you think? Why do you think Apple priced it at $199 and do you think the iPhone will ever go completely unlocked? Comment on this Wait-a-Thon post for a chance to win a $100 iTunes Gift Card!

[Updated following Phone Different Podcast #19, see below!]

Way back in February, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook said:

“We’re not married to any business model.”

At the time — and it’s scary how long ago it seems already — the iPhone was only available in the US, UK, Germany, and France, with rumors of Ireland and Austria waiting in the wings. What’s more, these were all exclusive deals, with Apple doing their best to lock the iPhone down to single carriers in each territory in exchange for lucrative — and unprecedented — revenue-sharing deals that some have estimated could be netting Apple up to $15 per month, per subscriber.

So, with a potential billion dollars on the table, while they weren’t married to it, they no doubt felt more than a little lusty.

But in true Apple fashion, invoking perhaps the pirate mantra of old, and embracing the same mindset that has them run iTunes as a near-loss leader, price-cut the iPhone a scant few months in, and offer cheap family upgrade options on their OS and iApps, it looks like Tim Cook was serious.

Read on to find out just how serious he was…

Late April brought rumblings of carrier “discounts” in Europe. Apple claimed carriers could charge what they wanted. Pundits on various sides pointed to clearing stock in the face impending 3G, or desperation to nudge thus-far-disappointing sales.

Then the floodgates opened. Literally. What had been a scant 5 countries with official first generation iPhone deals, became a torrent of announcements, week after week, of dozens upon dozens more. Canada. Australasia. Africa. Latin America. The Middle East. Scandinavia and the Baltics. And more. Double, triple, quadruple, the numbers became near-exponential.

The strange part? Multiple carriers began announcing iPhone deals in the same countries or territories. Vodafone and Telecom Italia both claimed Italy in early May.

Carrier exclusivity was gone.

No doubt at Apple’s behest, press releases were short to the point of single sentences at times, all with the promise of more details to follow, but Orange did let slip that there would now be non-exclusive deals (where no carrier had the sole rights to the iPhone and any GSM provider could theoretically support it), and co-exclusivity (where two or more carriers had sole rights and only they could officially support it).

Orange didn’t stop there either. Rumor has it they are now calling up existing iPhone customers and offering them €50 upgrade paths to the next generation iPhone 3G. Talk about a subsidy!

So why, with so much money at stake — and let’s face it, cachet — are Tim Cook’s words suddenly ringing so loudly?

Steve Jobs has said that one of Apple’s greatest failings during his absence was that other leadership chose to grab for money rather than grow market share. And Steve Jobs is known to think about products and positioning years into the future.

Our own Dieter Bohn has teased some of his thoughts on this, and promises to follow up on the next Phone Different Podcast. Don’t miss it.

UPDATE: Dieter, having brainstormed with another one of our writers, Chad Garrett, is offering the following: Given the massive amount of carriers now announced for the iPhone 3G, managing activation via iTunes may get a lot tricker… unless Apple offers the iPhone unlocked, and iTunes simply provides a way to connect to one of the established carriers in exchange for a subsidy, or — dream of all dreams — lets you keep running unlocked if you’re willing to forgo said subsidy. How’s that for a new business model?

For my part, I’ll mention this again:

Apple is alone among modern technology companies in enjoying near spherical integration. They make the iPhone hardware. They develop its software. They provide .Mac services. They market pro-level content creation tools. They own the high-end computer market that runs those — and the developer — tools. They sell content via the #1 music retailer in the US, iTunes. They have a toe in the accessory business with a headset, docks, cables, etc. They license 3rd party accessories. They get revenue sharing on subscriptions from current carriers. They are about to launch an App Store, getting a cut of commercial sales in exchange for putting product in front of every single iPhone user on the planet. They have an international online store, and their growing chain of retail Apple Stores make more per square foot than Tiffany’s.

So, unlike many others who have to survive on platform licenses, hardware margins, service contracts, or any other single or small number of profit streams, Apple can choose to take hits in multiple streams (like revenue sharing) and still earn money hand over fist in many, many others.

In short, Apple isn’t married to any specific business model because they can afford not to be. And come WWDC in June, and the long expected iPhone 3G announcement with it, Apple’s plans may just result in a windfall for consumers as well…