Apple is showing its true mobile colors. The company is on the lookout for an engineer who can help get its mobile-phone software onto additional devices.

On Feb. 15, Apple (AAPL) posted an ad on its Web site for an engineering manager “to lead a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS [operating system] on new platforms.” Days later, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook called the company “a mobile device company,” echoing remarks by Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who in January said “Apple is the largest mobile device company in the world.”

The posting and remarks underscore Apple’s growing reliance on devices that provide Web access and computing features for users on the go. In the three months ended Dec. 26, the iPhone and related products accounted for $5.58 billion, or 36% of total sales, up from 25% of revenue a year earlier. Apple also sells other mobile devices, including the iPod Touch.

An adaptation of the operating system used in Macintosh computers, the iPhone OS runs the iPhone, iPod Touch music player, and the forthcoming iPad tablet computer. In the future, analysts say, Apple may put the OS onto Web-connected TV machines and devices that help viewers watch 3D programming. The Cupertino (Calif.)-based company may also consider licensing the iPhone OS to outside cell-phone manufacturers. Apple has shipped more than 75 million devices based on the iPhone OS, which lets users download and run applications such as games and calendars sold at the Apple App Store. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined to comment.

Web-Connected TV
Responsibilities for the sought-after engineer include “working closely with the hardware and custom silicon teams to bring-up new platforms and prototype systems.” The term bring-up “typically refers to the final stages of a technology being brought to market,” says Nick Corcodilos, a tech recruiter who runs the AskTheHeadhunter.com blog. The job posting was previously reported by TheInquirer.net.

Apple may embed the iPhone OS in a Web-connected TV, says Charlie Wolf, a senior analyst at Needham & Co. “Where Apple is noticeably almost absent is in the living room,” Wolf says. “It represents the natural migration of the operating system. And it’s going to be a big market.”

Currently, Apple sells Apple TV, a set-top box that lets users buy and rent high-definition movies through its online iTunes Store. The $229 gadget, introduced in 2007, isn’t yet a big source of revenue for Apple, executives say. Cook and Jobs have both called Apple TV a “hobby.” Still, Apple will invest in Apple TV “because our gut tells us there’s something there,” Cook said at a Goldman Sachs (GS) conference on Feb. 23.

Demand for Web-connected home entertainment is on the rise. Wal-Mart (WMT) on Feb. 22 said it will acquire Vudu, a movie-downloading service that this year will be built into more than 150 products, including televisions. Last year, retailer Best Buy (BBY) said it will sell Netflix (NFLX) movies through certain Blu-ray disc players and offer Sonic Solutions’ (SNIC) CinemaNow service through an array of electronic devices.

Another place Apple could use the iPhone OS is in eyewear that lets users watch 3D movies on the go, says Richard Doherty, a director at consultant Envisioneering Group. Apple may also build a larger version of the iPhone, says Alex Spektor, an analyst at consultant Strategy Analytics. “You’ll see Apple experimenting with sizes,” he says.

Hardware Partners Possible
The job posting may also signal that the company may consider offering its software capabilities to hardware partners, Doherty says. Apple may wish to use other companies’ brands to increase the number of devices running its software to make the OS more appealing to content providers and app developers eager to reach as many consumers as possible. “Some of the content companies have been asking if there will be other hardware products,” Doherty says. Movie studios, for example, may be more willing to provide Apple with new releases sooner if Apple offers them access to more devices and potential consumers.

The iPhone is the most popular mobile operating system among developers. Apple’s App Store boasts 140,000 apps. As of Jan. 5, consumers had downloaded more than 3 billion apps from the App Store.

Getting the iPhone OS onto more gadgets from partner brands would help Apple get iPhone OS-based devices into markets it doesn’t want to enter solo. One example: cheaper phones for the developing world. Due to its high price, the iPhone hasn’t taken off in markets like China. But Apple has historically balked at introducing lower-cost devices for fear of destroying its premium brand.

A partner like Motorola (MOT) could help Apple’s software broaden its reach without jeopardizing Apple’s brand, Doherty says. In 2005, the two companies collaborated on the Motorola Rokr phone, enabling it to access songs on iTunes.

Exclusivity Preferred
While Apple prefers to keep its software exclusive to its own hardware, in 2004 the company agreed to manufacture an iPod under Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ) brand; the device was discontinued in 2005 amid tepid demand. “Those folks who were interested in the iPod were going straight to Apple,” says Stephanie Ethier, senior analyst at consultant In-Stat. From 2004 to 2006, HP also preloaded iTunes onto its PCs. And when the One Laptop Per Child project, designed to develop low-cost laptops for use by children in developing nations, had just got under way, Jobs offered free use of Apple’s Mac OS software, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. OLPC opted to develop its own software.

Licensing its software or manufacturing iPhone OS-based devices under a partner’s brand could help Apple increase the number of gadgets running its software, and make it more attractive to developers. The iPhone is competing for developers with Android, an operating system developed by a consortium of companies led by Google (GOOG). Android may overtake the iPhone OS to become the world’s second-most widely used operating system for smartphones in 2012, according to consultant Gartner (IT). Nokia-owned Symbian ranks No. 1.

Some analysts say the iPhone OS is most likely to end up in Apple’s own devices. Licensing to outside manufacturers “is really antithetical to Apple’s DNA,” Wolf says.

Oh the rumours keep flying in about the anticipated Apple iPhone 4G for 2010, we have already mentioned about its release date and features and now we have some more to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Ok so the new iPhone 4G what we know already will most certainly have a much improved GPS, a 5MP camera, image sensors being supplied by OmniVision even though according to iPhone Help it is rumoured that Philips’ Lumileds Lighting is prepping millions of LED flashes for the iPhone 4G camera.

The new rumours, which we did not know about is that Apple has signed a deal with Qualcomm and that this new deal will allow Qualcomm to supply EV-DO chips. Apparently when the AT&T exclusive deal ends Verizon will not be getting the 4G iPhone but instead T-Mobile will be releasing it.

There will be multitasking on the iPhone and that there will be a new feature called “Springboard Exposé”, this means that you will be able to run multiple apps in the background. We will keep you up-to-date on all news surrounding the all new iPhone 4G 2010.

We’ve been more than a little dismissive of Qualcomm’s FLO TV Personal Television, with SlashGear columnist Michael Gartenberg summing up most of our doubts when he asked why you’d want to carry a separate, dedicated device. Now, thanks to a deal with mophie, the FLO TV prospect has just got a whole lot more interesting: iPod touch and iPhone juice pack sleeves that add not only a backup battery but FLO TV live television receiving on the Apple handhelds.

While several cellphones in the US are capable of receiving FLO TV broadcasts – which are transmitted live in their own chunk of spectrum, rather than delivered over the 3G networks – the iPhone is not one of them. This new mophie adapter opens up FLO TV to a huge, dare we say accessory-voracious market of Apple fans.

There’ll be a subscription fee involved, obviously, which right now neither company are coming clean on; we’re guessing it’ll be around $8.99 per month based on a two-year contract, just like the standalone viewer. Expect the FLO TV mophie juice pack to arrive in the US in the first half of 2010, price to be confirmed.

BEIJING — Sales of Apple Inc. iPhones in China appear to have picked up after a sluggish start, with the U.S. company’s Chinese partner saying it has sold more than 100,000 of the iconic smartphone since its official launch Oct. 30.

The sales figure, reported by China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. on Thursday, still puts iPhone sales in China — the world’s largest wireless market by subscriber accounts — well behind other big markets. In the U.S., Apple sold 270,000 iPhones in the first 30 hours after it first went on sale there in 2007.

Thursday’s number suggests a pickup from the device’s first days in China. Unicom said Nov. 3 it had sold only about 5,000 iPhones since the launch four days earlier. Still, analysts said Thursday’s number was underwhelming.

“iPhone sales have been disappointing,” said Paul Wuh, an analyst covering China Unicom for Samsung Securities. “For China Unicom, with 144 million subscribers, 100,000 iPhone users aren’t going to do anything for their revenue.”

One factor holding the iPhone back in China is its relatively high price. Apple and Unicom charge $730 to $1,020 for the iPhone, not including discounts on service, making it more expensive than “gray market” iPhones brought into the country through such places as Hong Kong. There are up to 2 million such gray market iPhones in China, Mr. Wuh estimates. In addition, the Wi-Fi Internet function is disabled on Unicom’s iPhones to comply with Chinese government rules.

From Unicom’s perspective, however, the official sales numbers may not tell the whole story. Mr. Wuh said users of gray market iPhones are likely switching to China Unicom and running them on the carrier’s network, the only one in China that is compatible with the iPhone’s 3G functions.

China Unicom said last month it aimed to increase the number of its third-generation mobile users by more than 1 million a month. At the end of October, it had just over 1 million 3G users.

Unicom is the country’s second-largest mobile carrier behind China Mobile, which had 513.5 million users at the end of October. China Mobile has repeatedly said it remains in talks with Apple on offering the iPhone, suggesting Unicom may eventually face competition selling it in China.

Though Apple striking a deal with the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., Verizon, would be ideal, competitors T-Mobile and Sprint are more likely to carry the iPhone in 2010, one analyst believes.

With 89 million total customers, Verizon is the top prize in terms of the four major U.S. carriers. Apple is currently in an exclusive deal with the No. 2 carrier, AT&T, which has 82 million customers. But that agreement is believed by many to expire in 2010.

In a new note to investors Wednesday morning, analyst Shaw Wu with Kaufman Bros. said although many believe the iPhone will come to Verizon in 2010, it’s likely wishful thinking. The problem, he said, is both Verizon and Apple have found success by focusing on “customer control.” Their similarities are what he believes will keep them apart.

“Apple runs its own App Store and VZ has aspirations to do so,” Wu said. “Apple controls the media experience with iTunes and VZ with its V CAST service. Moreover, Apple gets very favorable economics with an overall iPhone (average selling price) of $611 and at AT&T, we estimate it is higher at roughly $700. RIM, who is by far VZ’s largest smart phone supplier, only has an ASP of $340. Palm’s ASP is $436 and we estimate Motorola’s Droid ASP is roughly $450.”

Because Apple and Verizon have conflicting interests, Wu said he believes that a deal between the two companies would take longer than many currently expect. That would make a potential 2010 deal unlikely.

Instead, Wu said that Apple could strike deals with both Sprint, which has 48 million wireless subscribers, and T-Mobile, which has 33 million customers. Both companies are more likely to be agreeable with Apple’s practices in order to offer the iPhone.

“While we believe VZ is likely inevitable at some point when 4G technology rolls out in 2012 or so, we believe Sprint and/or T-Mobile are more willing partners for Apple in helping maintain margins and customer controls,” he said. “From a technology perspective, we believe T-Mobile may have an advantage with a similar 3G UMTS/WCDMA network as AT&T.”

It’s the second time this week an analyst has predicted Apple will jump to T-Mobile in 2010. In terms of technology, T-Mobile would be the simplest choice: Though carrier’s high-speed 3G connectivity operates on a unique 1700MHz spectrum that is incompatible with the current iPhone, the addition of that frequency to a future hardware model would be much simpler than adding compatibility with Verizon or Sprint’s CDMA networks.

Recent rumors have suggested Apple is working on an agreement with chip maker Qualcomm to add CDMA connectivity to a new iPhone in 2010. But both Verizon and Sprint use a technology that, unlike the GSM network of AT&T and T-Mobile, is not widely used abroad.

Another possibility noted by Wu: Apple could extend its contract with AT&T through 2011. The analyst said he believes AT&T’s agreement ends in the summer of 2010, but a last-minute extension remains a possibility. Earlier this year, there were reports that AT&T was working to extend the contract with Apple for one more year.

Kaufman Bros. has reiterated its recommendation to buy AAPL stock. It has also maintained its price target of $235.

A month after Apple started selling its iPhone in China, the device expanded its Asian reach Saturday with a much-heralded launch in South Korea.

In keeping with the tradition of waiting in line for hours in advance of an iPhone launch, hundreds queued up overnight outside the Olympic stadium in Seoul to snag the smartphone as soon as it officially landed amid blaring music and strobe lights. The hoopla appeared to far trump the phone’s more subdued arrival in China, where it launched in the October cold and rain to smaller-than-expected crowds.

KT Corp, South Korea’s second largest mobile carrier (after SK Telecom) and the local distributor of the iPhone, says about 65,000 people have preordered the device, which hit the South Korean market two months after the government approved its sale.

Mobile penetration in South Korea is high–an estimated 93 percent of the country’s population subscribes to a mobile service–but smartphones have yet to take off there due to cost, lack of apps, and high data rates by mobile carriers.

“We’re hoping that this iPhone will be a trigger point for the smartphone market in Korea,” said Yang Hyun-mi, chief strategy officer at KT Corp, according to the Canadian Press. Smartphones make up just 1 percent of all cell phones in South Korea, she said.

KT is pricing the 32GB iPhone 3GS at 396,000 won ($338) for customers who subscribe with a monthly service fee of 45,000 won (about $38). Customers who subscribe with a monthly fee of 65,000 won ($55) can get the phone for 264,000 won ($225). And premium users who sign up for monthly plans based on a 132,000 won ($113) basic rate can get the phone for free.

An 8GB iPhone, meanwhile, can be had for 132,000 won for subscribers signed on the 45,000 won monthly plans.

KT projects that iPhone sales will fall anywhere 200,000 to 500,000 units, a showing that’s widely expected to shake up the country’s mobile market. For years, the Korea Communications Commission used technical rules to stifle competition, allowing homegrown giants like Samsung and LG Electronics to take over the market, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Indeed, in good news for cost-conscious consumers, Samsung has already slashed the price of its 8GB Omnia 2 smartphone by 44,000 won ($37.50) to 924,000 won ($788).

IDG News Service – South Korean carrier KT will start selling the iPhone this month, the company said Monday, bringing the hit device to another Asian country.

KT will start offering the 32GB and 16GB versions of iPhone 3GS on Nov. 28, the company said in a statement on its Web site. It will also offer the 8GB iPhone 3G.

The announcement comes after South Korean regulators last week granted Apple a license to operate location-based services in the country, which required clearance over user privacy concerns. The iPhone will compete in a handset market dominated by local vendors like Samsung and LG Electronics.

The hugely popular iPhone is now available in over 80 countries, according to Apple’s Web site. China Unicom launched the handset last month in China, a huge potential market, though versions of the phone sold there are stripped of Wi-Fi to comply with local regulations.

The lowest price at which KT will offer the 32GB iPhone 3GS is 132,000 won (US$114) with a mobile service contract, it said in the statement. SK Telecom, another local carrier, is also reportedly in talks with Apple about offering the iPhone.

KT could not immediately be reached for comment. Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi this morning weighed in with a fascinating look at the under-appreciated boost Apple (APPL) gets from a highly attractive licensing arrangement for 3G radio patents held by Qualcomm (QCOM).

With the iPhone, he notes in a research report, Apple will take an estimated 9% of the global handset market in 2009 as measured by value, and about a third of industry profits. In smart phones, he says, Apple will have 24% of available revenues this year, and 29% next year. Meanwhile, Qualcomm is the largest holder of 3G radio patents, collecting royalties from the handset companies, and so gets a small slice every time someone buys an iPhone or any other smartphone.

What you may not know – I didn’t – is that while Apple pays an estimated 1.6% of iPhone revenues to QCOM, most OEMs pay about 4%, giving Apple “a unique profitability edge” versus rival handset companies. According to Sacconaghi, this reflects the fact that the company itself is not a Qualcomm licensee – its buys baseband chips from Infineon – while using a licensed contract manufacturer – Foxconn – to make 100% of its handsets. Sacconaghi explains that Foxconn pays QCOM its standard royalty based on the transfer price to Apple. By contast, he says, essentially all other handset vendors are Qualcomm licensees and pay royalties based on the wholesale price of their phones.

“Given that iPhone gross margins are ~60%, Apple is effectively paying royalties on just 40% of the iPhone’s average wholesale ASP, vs. 100% for its handset OEM peers,” he writes.

The Bernstein analyst notes that the implications of this are material, adding by his estimates more than $280 million in operating profit for Apple in FY 2009, and over $400 million in FY 2010, “ostensibly at Qualcomm’s expense.” Or to look at it another way, he contends that switching Apple to a royalty consistent with rivals would boost QCOM’s pro forma estimated 2010 profits by 9%, or 18 cents a share.

Sacconaghi writes that he doesn’t know if Qualcomm will try to address the situation; he theorizes that the company may be waiting to see if Apple uses QCOM chipsets or the Snapdragon processor in any future products. He doubts Apple will use Snapdragon, which competes with the Intel (INTC) Atom processor, but says it is possible QCOM could replace Infineon as the iPhone baseband chip provider. The bottom line, he says, is that there is “potential for enhanced value to QCOM from its relationship with Apple.”

Sacconaghi has Outperform ratings on both AAPL and QCOM.

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) — Qualcomm Inc., the world’s biggest maker of handset chips, is in talks to supply products for use in Apple Inc.’s iPhone, Chief Executive Officer Paul Jacobs said.

“We continue to discuss it, but haven’t made it yet,” Jacobs said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong today. “Hopefully, in the future, we will have the opportunity.”

Qualcomm seeks to join suppliers including Toshiba Corp. and Infineon Technologies AG to win chip orders for the iPhone, one of the two top-selling smart phones in the U.S. in the second-quarter, according to researcher NPD Group Inc. The San Diego-based company already sells semiconductors for handsets that use Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile technology, and Google Inc.’s Android software, Jacobs said.

“We talk to everybody in the industry,” Jacobs said. “We are very strong in the smart-phone market.”

The iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry Curve were the best-selling smart phones in the U.S. in the second- quarter, NPD Group said in August.

Qualcomm will next year start selling chips for mobile phones that support China’s domestically developed TD-SCDMA, or time division synchronous code-division multiple access, technology, according to Adrian Fu, a Hong Kong-based public relations manager at the chip company, who attributed the information to Jacobs.

China Mobile Ltd., the world’s biggest phone company by users, had 1.66 million users for TD-SCDMA service on Sept. 30, according to its Web site. The Beijing-based carrier has more than 500 million subscribers to its slower second-generation, or 2G, network.

Qualcomm rose 32 cents to $45.83 at 9:48 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock had advanced 27 percent this year before today.

Apple may be feeling the Android heat. The company has changed the way it deals with iPhone app developers letting them now keep closer tabs on how their software is proceeding through Apple’s strict App Store review process. Many see the move as yet another step by Apple to keep app store developers from defecting to competing mobile platforms – namely Android.

As first reported in Wired this week, a software developer can now see precisely when an app is “Ready for Review,” “In Review,” and “Ready for Sale.” Before that, developers only got vague status bulletins from Apple giving the “average wait time” around finding out whether or not Apple has okayed an app.

Software developers began complaining loudly about Apple’s review policies late last year, after Apple offered a hodgepodge of reasons for banning apps ranging from the Murderdrome comic book to the “Pull My Finger” fart joke app and Alex Sokirynsky’s “Podcaster” app.

Meanwhile, many mobile developers have started to expand their mobile platform horizons by creating apps not just for iPhones but myriad other phone environments, including Android, RIM, Palm’s Pre, and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile.

To help pacify developers, Apple recently added a new in-app feature that lets users of free iPhone apps upgrade to expanded capabilities from directly inside the apps, so that a visit to the App Store is no longer needed.

At the same time, fewer complaints have been emerging lately about applications getting arbitrarily rejected from the App Store.

But Apple’s tops-down App Store policies again spurred confusion in late October, when Apple suddenly restored a 3G TV app formerly banned from its online store.

The iPhone still has a lot more applications for its users than any other mobile platform, with more than 100,000 applications available in Apple’s App Store in comparison to “10,000-plus” on Google’s Android Market, for instance.

Apple’s move to improve communications should go a long way toward keeping developers in the iPhone fold, even though developers really still have no way of knowing in advance whether or not their software will make it into the App Store.