Iphone, Apple | featured news

A new report predicts that revenues from downloadable applications will reach $38 billion by 2015. It may be hard to remember, but when the Apple iPhone had its debut in early 2007 there were only a few apps available for the device — no Angry Birds, Doodle Jump or Netflix.

The iPhone 5 is about 3, 3 1/2 months away if the annual refresh cycle runs true to form, and rumors are beginning to ramp up, just as production will in a few months. The latest appears to have shown up on a Chinese site that resells iPhone parts, as of Feb. 24. The purported part shows what looks to be the iPhone 5's digitizer panel.

Verizon Wireless CEO said the carrier sold more iPhone 4s during its initial launch than any other product, adding that short store lines were result of online purchases.

One of our Apple sources has shared some very sensitive information on first-week Verizon iPhone launch sales with us. It's quite interesting -- we're being told sales are performing a little under what Apple and Verizon anticipated, and we have the data to show it.

Component suppliers who work with Apple shared details which imply that the company is intending to build an iPhone with a 4-inch display.

Apple is working on a line of smaller, less-expensive iPhones and a software overhaul that would make it easier for customers to access entertainment and personal photos and videos.

While publishers are grumbling about Apple’s new enforcement of in-app purchases for content, parents and one lawmaker are also raising questions about the way Apple handles in-app payments in apps aimed at children. According to the Washington Post, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D – MA) on Tuesday urged the Federal Trade Commission to review the way Apple markets its apps because of questions about the ease with which children are buying items in games.

Over the winter break from school, 8-year-old Madison worked to dress up her simple mushroom home on the iPhone game Smurfs' Village. In doing so, she also amassed a $1,400 bill from Apple.

A Nielsen advertising effectiveness study commissioned by Apple and Campbell's Soups to evaluate the soup brand's iAd campaign said viewers were twice as likely to recall seeing it, three times as likely to remember the ad message and five times as likely to remember the brand as viewers who saw it on TV.

Verizon Wireless on Friday said its first day of taking online orders for the iPhone produced record sales, and it's stopped taking orders until Wednesday.