While everyone else is getting tired of talking about the iPad, I couldn’t get enough–especially when I heard that Skype is possible with the new iPad.

Think about it: a tablet, just 1.5 pounds and 9.7 inches square, with internet/microphone?

Tell me it’s too good to be true!

Skyping on such a piece of machinery is akin to the futuristic phones on Disney’s made for TV movie “Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century” that my 12-year old girlfriends and I all coveted, but knew we couldn’t have (“but maybe our children will,” we said).

Then as I read about it closer, my heart sank. It turns out one key element is missing to get a pure Zenon phone: the video recorder at the top of the screen.

Get on that, Apple, and I’ll buy iPad/Zenon phones for myself and all my friends.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is going to unveil its revolutionary touch tablet later this month at a conference in San Francisco.

Apple’s tablet would retail for around $1000 and be equipped with a 10- to 11-inch touch screen, according to WSJ. The tablets may come with a nationwide WiFi plan. Tablets will be shipped in March.

The product sounds like a large iPhone to us, without the phone. Will it replace laptops? Only time will tell.

What do you think about the iPhone? Is it what it is all cracked up to be? Would you prefer an iPhone or a Blackberry? Those are a few questions I think about when I look at the current trend and the intentions of both Research in Motion and Apple’s iPhone. Apple is trying to bust in on Blackberry lovers, but do you think they will be successful? Maybe.

I currently own an iPhone, and honestly because I love Apple products. They are well made, easy to use, and a joy to have. The iPhone is not the most functional phone when you think about it, but it does what I need it to do, and does it well. Beforehand, I owned a Blackberry. Quite functional if you ask me, but Blackberrys’ just don’t give me that wow-factor that the iPhone has and that is what I like in addition to functionality for my needs/wants.

Make no mistake that the iPhone has shaken up the industry. In just the last three months of 2007, smartphone shipments shot up 60 percent from a year ago, according to industry research firm IDC. And RIM doubled sales of the Blackberry, adding 6.5 million subscribers in its last fiscal year, double the previous year. As the market has grown, the Blackberry’s market share has dropped from 45 percent to 40 percent while the iPhone took 17.5 percent in the second half of 2007.

To compete, RIM is working on a so-called “Apple killer” — a device with a touchscreen and lines suggestive of the iPhone. But AT&T is said to have delayed its introduction of the new phone because of problems with call quality — and delays hurt RIM as a new 3G iPhone is rumored for release this year.

I think it is not so much if it is a better phone, but the fact of the matter remains who offers more. I think RIM will have to offer applications and other things to stay in the game. Apple’s appeal to third-party developers could easily overwhelm RIM. Apple has said it will launch a new version of the iPhone software to enable third-party applications on the iPhone and the iPod touch. Apple also says more than 200,000 developers are working on applications for the iPhone.  

It is still clear that the Blackberry wins the hearts of many, but RIM is shaking in their boots and they know their comfortable position is about to be compromised unless the step up. Regardless, both phones are amazing and I think each one will have their chance to be at the top. Take a look all over the web, and you’ll noticed the issue of which is best is highly prevalent. Don’t get too worked up about the issue because, inevitably, the competition is here to stay – at least for a little while.

As much as the provider can screw out of the customer that’s how much.

We recently reported on T-Mobile’s plan to sell an unlocked iPhone for € 999. (that’s nearly $ 1,500 )following a court ruling banning them from selling locked phones only. The court battle heated up as the court increased the amount involved in the case from € 500,000 to € 2 Million.

T-Mobile argued against criticism about the high unlocked iPhone price that they have to pay several hundred more than the € 399 Euro price to Apple already.

Meanwhile, iPhones went on sale in France last night and about 1,000 fans lined-up on Champs-Elysées to get their hands on one of the first batch.

Le Journal du Geek have some nice photos of some extremely good looking promo girls handling the phones and the mayhem that ensued in Paris. The iPhone plans on Orange start at € 49 per month ($73). The unlocked iPhone sells for € 749($1,110) (€ 649 iPhone price + € 100 Euro unlocking fee). With a contract the iPhone sells for € 399 Euro ($591). How much sense does it make for that big a price difference? So much for the common market.

T-Mobile Germany
Orange France

When is an unlocked iPhone worth nearly $1,500 ? When T-Mobile start selling them in their German outlets for 999 Euros.

T-Mobile announced yesterday that they would be selling unlocked iPhones alongside their locked, contracted version. This follows a European court injunction preventing the sale of only locked iPhones.

Who said customer was king? Not in this case it seems. Apple may be making a fortune from their “One carrier, one country ,” policy, but at the end of the day the customer is the loser.

Fifteen hundred dollars for an iPhone is insane. The European injunction made no mention of pricing, so this announcement by T-Mobile basically says, OK, you want an unlocked iPhone, just pay us the amount of money we would have made from a two year contract and you can have one.”

Most interesting is that T-Mobile feel they deserve the profit regardless of whether they provide the service and that they expect to make considerably more money from the contract than the sale of the phone.

I can already see dozens of Eastern European mobsters rubbing their hand with glee, wondering how much they can undercut this price by and still make a fortune. I’ve already ordered my Slovenian iPhone.

Zdravljica !