Mobile Web News: Week of June 25, 2007

June 27, 2007 on 5:00 pm | In Mobile Web News |

The IPhone Descends to Earth

It’s here. It’s now. It’s happening. It’s the end of the world as we know it. It’s the beginning of a new one. It’s … it’s….THE IPHONE!!!!! Scheduled to launch on June 29th, it represents what is arguably the biggest wireless news of the year.

It has no physical keyboard, only a touch screen, and can be operated with one finger. You can use it to surf the net, you can use it as an Ipod and you can use it as a phone. You can connect it to Wi-fi hotspots or to carrier networks.

Get it only from AT&T at this time. A 2-year service plan is mandatory. The Iphone itself costs $499 for the 4 GB model or $599 for the 8 GB model.

19 million Americans are planning to buy it blind. How about you?

M:Metrics Releases Important Figures regarding Popular Mobile Sites
To access the web you need a smartphone or a PDA. According to M:Metrics, a leading mobile market intelligence company, smartphone users in the US accessed Google’s web site more than any other Internet company’s web site.

62.4% of the user base accessed Google, 33.54% accessed Yahoo, 33.36% accessed Microsoft, 21.22% accessed AT&T and smaller fractions accessed other properties.

Google came out on top in the UK also with 30.94%, followed by Orange at 21.68% and BBC at 20.9%.

Google must feel great, being loved by so many people…

Switch Seamlessly From WiFi to Mobile Carrier and Back
Here’s some good news from GigaOM: the mobile network and the wi-fi network are married!

Mobile carrier networks and WiFi networks have hitherto been two separate methods used for communication. There has been no link between them… until now.

Enter T-Mobile’s HotSpot@Home service. This is the deal: if you are on a mobile call using the regular T-Mobile network, and you walk into a WiFi network, your call is automatically transferred from the regular T-Mobile network to the WiFi network.

The advantage? Unlimited nationwide calling over WiFi is a measly $10 a month with T-Mobile.