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The day has arrived and lines have formed at Apple stores around the US.  If you’re in the US and have cable TV, CNBC is carrying live feeds from various cities awaiting the first sales of the iPhone.

There are Internet streaming sites also covering the launch and include live chat.  The NYC Soho Apple Store is covered live at iphonelaunch.tv.  The chat room is full, but they’ve added a second web site for chat.

Many of you already know that Scoble is broadcasting from the Palo Alto, CA Apple Store on ustream.tv.   There is also a live chat available.  Scoble’s feed has been experiencing audio difficulties, but the video is not bad.  Zoomr TV is providing the equipment and using Sprint’s EVDO network for transmission of the live stream.

The first sale of the iPhone occurs at 6pm local time, so NY’ers will be able to purchase 3 hours ahead of California line dwellers.

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Activity surrounding the much anticipated iPhone launch is coming from all quarters. According to Gizmodo, a line in front of the Apple Store in New York City has already begun. So, what’s the word on iPhone from around the web?

Pictures of the first two guys in line at the NYC Apple Store from Gizmodo.

Gizmodo appears on The Daily Show tomorrow night to explain the iPhone.

The Apple Insider reports that the faithful will be joined on their iPhone sleepover by Apple employees.

The Insider also describes details on how the launch will occur at Apple Stores.

Come Friday morning, all Apple retail stores will open around 10:00 a.m. local time for a 4-hour stint. They’ll then shutter for the same amount of time while prepping for the iPhone premiere, reopening at 6:00 p.m. local time with the gadgets for sale.

“We’ll open the doors again at 6:00 p.m., when you can be one of the first to see, try, and buy the iPhone,” Apple said in a message posted on its retail website. “Be sure to arrive early — iPhone is available on a first-come, first-served basis.”

Engadget reveals the security plan for iPhone deliveries.

FedEx drivers to deliver the goods in teams (one must carry the boxes, the other wields a big stick) for the 6pm store opening.

From BarCamp the first iPhone Dev Camp on July 6 and 7.

What other announcements of note have you heard?

x-posted at mm2

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The BREW Conference is traditionally focused on developers. Past events brought together operators, handset makers and developers working with Qualcomm’s BREW platform for the delivery of content, namely games and other applications. There were several new aspects to the conference in 2007 that distinquish it from previous years. A clear signal of the change in the conference and for BREW, itself, was the choice of Keynote speakers, notably H3 and Time Warner Music.

BREW and GSM Operators

The addition of GSM operators this year was a first for the conference. You might wonder what the attraction for a GSM operator would be in a platform designed to deliver applications to CDMA subscribers. The answer is found in Qualcomm’s move 18 months ago to break BREW into three components: UiOne, DeliveryOne, and QPoint.

UiOne has been deployed by O2, Telecom Italia and apparently there is a deal in the works between Qualcomm and Three for use of the platform (no official announcement, yet). In Europe, the UI is determined and controlled by the handset manufacturers, but UiOne places that critical aspect of the user experience back into the operator’s domain. UiOne allows for customization through theme development as illustrated by Alltel Wireless’ Celltop application. The availability of the scripting language TrigML from UiOne’s SDK makes the UI extensible. Third party theme development, enhanced discovery and web services delivery are simplified which is very attractive to operators regardless of their underlying network technologies.

Welcome Media/Content Providers

Also, a new addition to the conference this year was the participation of media companies like keynote presenter Time Warner Music (TWM). This is foreshadowing to the future of BREW plus MediaFLO. A number of other media companies were present as attendees changing the BREW audience and definitely the conference session lineup with broader coverage than in past years. The BREW Conference has been technology centric, but with the expansion of participants new topics arose focused on solutions over technology and seamless user experience as the path to monetization.

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The BREW conference is underway in San Diego, CA. The attendance is strong and there are lots of applications which deliver “media”. My first observation at the conference was the following. The phrase mobile content is last year’s color, and now, all is media. Ringtones, wallpapers, logos, text messages, pictures, and of course, video are all media.

Brian Finnerty, director of devices at Sprint Nextel, reached the top of the escalator just as I walked up to it. I took the opportunity to ask him a question or two.

me: “Sprint has always been known as the carrier with the coolest phones. Why didn’t Sprint land the iPhone?”

Brian: “They didn’t ask us. Apple wanted a GSM carrier so they could launch worldwide, or internationally.”

me: “What about SIM cards for CDMA carriers? Will Sprint have SIM cards in the near future?”

Brian: “We are deploying SIM technology without the card.”

me: “When?”

Brian: “It’s working on the phone I have in my pocket, right now.”

me: “Can I see that?”

Brian: “No.”

me: “When will Sprint release it?”

Brian: “In August.”

Nextel phones use SIM cards, and the new cardless SIM solution may be one benefit that can be credited to the merger. From a consumer perspective the benefit of having a card module is the ability to move it from one phone to another or change network operators by popping in a new SIM card to an existing device. It’s unclear what the consumer benefit will be for Sprint’s cardless SIM.

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The BREW Conference 2007 will take place next week in sunny San Diego, CA. I’m attending portions of the conference and would be happy to meet with anyone interested in chatting about mobile applications, companies that would like to brief me for publication at Mobile Messaging 2.0, or would participate in a podcast interview. Email me at mojo @ thisdomain or text to +1 619 804 1268. P.S. I do not answer calls unidentified by or blocking caller id.

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The Economic Times reports that Indian talk-time on mobile phones has reached a high of 461 minutes per month per subscriber. Indians are the most talkative nationality in the Asia-Pacific region out chatting the largest mobile market, China with 450 million subscribers, by 150 to 240 minutes.

The world’s four largest mobile markets are China, US, India and Russia. When it comes to usage, India with 166 million subscribers is second only to the US where the average American spends 838 minutes per month talking on their mobile phones. Russia with the fourth largest subscriber base logged a mere 88 minutes per month. China falls in the middle with China Mobile reporting usage of 303 mintues per month and China Unicom at 220 mintues.

Some of the variance in talk-time is easily explained by the assoicated tariffs. For example, voice charges in India average $.02 per minute with about $.01 per SMS making it one of the world’s cheapest mobile markets. India, also, adheres to the calling party pays and free inbound SMS schemes familiar to Europeans. Callers and receivers both pay in the US, but subscribers purchase flat rate buckets of minutes on both postpaid and prepaid plans many of which, now, include unlimited SMS. Contrast these subscriber friendlier plans with Russia where voice calls average $.20 per minute within a city and $.27 per minute from, say, Moscow to St. Petersburg. Also, both inbound and outbound calls are charged. Clearly, price matters.

India’s low tariff market is also a low penetration market. Although, growth rates are soring with 68% subscriber increase from March of 2006 to March 2007 according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in Delhi. And with the India mobile market forecasted to triple in the next four years, heavy weights like Vodafone are betting big on talkative Indians.

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Please excuse the dust. mobilejones.com is in the process of relaunching. Will take a while to get everything put together properly. Meanwhile, check out some excellent writing on mobile messaging and related topics at www.mobilemessaging2.com

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