The great scramble among software developers to write the first iPhone killer app is coming to a head.

The race began in earnest in March when Steve Jobs unfolded Apple’s “iPhone software roadmap,” a two-part package comprised of a tool kit to help developers write programs for the iPhone and a venue in which to sell them — a variation on Apple’s iTunes music store model called the App Store.

Although the iPhone 3G is set to go on sale in nine days — at 8 a.m. Friday  July 11 — Apple has still not announced when the software store will open. But on Wednesday it delivered a pretty broad hint: a July 7 deadline for developers to submit their finished apps for the store’s grand opening.

“Have your application be among the first available when the App Store goes live,” the notice read. “We will continue to accept applications after this time, however your application may not be available until after the launch of the App Store.”

The message was not lost on developers. From Oracle to VisiCalc, the winning application on any software platform tends to be the one that gets there first — although as VisiCalc proved when it was overtaken first by Lotus 1-2-3 and then by Microsoft Excel, any app can be displaced when a new platform comes along.

According to Apple (AAPL), 25,000 people applied to be part of its iPhone developers program, of which 4,000 were admitted. These include some of the biggest names in software publishing — Sega and Electronic Arts (ERTS), for example — and representatives from approximately 175 Fortune 500 companies, as well as hundreds of one-man shops. But even the biggest boys can use the free publicity that will attend prominent positioning on the App Store shelves on opening day.

With so many apps to choose among, picking winners will not be easy. Apple has the best perspective; it showcased 16 apps at the March SDK event and the June Worldwide Developers Conference (see the keynote here), and by next week it will have seen and signed off on hundreds more.

Meanwhile, pitches from publishers inviting software reviews have started to pour in over the transom. Businessweek last Friday posted a slide show featuring a dozen programs under development (see here). Other journalists have used their blogs to troll for promising apps. The coyest was posted by The New York Times’ David Pogue, author of “iPhone - The Missing Manual,” who may or may not already have an iPhone 3G in hand for review (if he did, he couldn’t say). On Tuesday, he bemoaned the fact that even “Big Chief Newspaper Reviewers” didn’t know what apps were coming down the pike and invited developers to give him sneak peaks (see here). He may have regretted opening the floodgates. By 1:35 that afternoon, his post had been updated and the invitation withdrawn.

UPDATE: The latest version of iPhone OS 2.0 includes a nonfunctioning App Store button on the home screen, according to reviews of a confidential pre-release copy. “Rock-solid,” pronounces Gizmodo’s Jesusdiaz; it “rocks!” says Spark Capital’s bajan sabat.

Here’s an unexpected Independence Day gift for Apple.

Axel Springer AG, one of Europe’s largest newspaper publishers, with 10,000 employees and more than 150 papers in 30 countries, including its flagship Die Welt, announced on Friday that it is switching its entire operation from PCs to Macs.

In a YouTube video, posted below the fold, CEO Mathias Döpfner lists four reasons for the change:

• Most of the company’s layout work was already being done on Macs
• Macs are more user friendly than other computers
• Apple creates the most elegant computers
• Macs are cheaper to buy and easier to maintain than they were in the past

The changeover will take five years and when complete, according to Döpfner, will make Axel Springer (SPR.F) Apple’s (AAPL) second largest corporate customer, after Google (GOOG).

Via Heise Online.

Gear Diary created a minor stir Thursday when it posted the map at left (click to enlarge) purporting to show the extent of AT&T’s current 3G coverage. On the map, blue represents 3G, dark orange is AT&T’s old EDGE network and light orange its original GPRS data service.

Not much blue there, which could be a concern for the customers expected to line up outside Apple and AT&T stores next week. The iPhone 3G, which goes on sale Friday July 11 at 8:00 a.m., is Steve Jobs’ answer to complaints about how slow the original iPhone was when downloading data over AT&T’s sluggish EDGE network. Customers who don’t have 3G would pay AT&T’s new  rate for data ($10 more per month) but get it at the same old speed.

“If you live in one of these uncovered areas and already have an iPhone, I wouldn’t jump on the iPhone 3G wagon,” writes Christopher Spera, who posted the map. “I’d stick with my current iPhone (WITH my grandfathered data plan) and save $200-$300 bucks.” (link)

Is he right?

Perhaps, but it would be a mistake to base your decision on Spera’s map. First of all, it shows 3G voice coverage, not data, as Scott McNulty of The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) discovered after he posted virtually the same map on June 10 (see here). Second, both maps were created using AT&T’s coverage viewer tools using data that were last updated March 31, 2008, before AT&T’s big spring build-out (see AT&T: 3G network will be ready in 275 markets by June 30).

In fact, AT&T’s tools can be used to show data (as opposed to voice) coverage. Here, for example, is a map that shows 3G (dark blue) and EDGE (light blue) data coverage from Jackson, Miss., to Albany, N.Y. But this map, too, is out of date.

If you really want to know if you can take full advantage of the iPhone 3G’s capabilities where you live, your best bet is to see if your hometown appears on AT&T current list of “cities supporting AT&T 3G/mobile broadband” here. The list, current as of Friday, July 4, appears below the fold.

Note that neither Apple (AAPL) nor AT&T (T) can guarantee 3G reception in any particular area. There is too much radio interference and too many tall buildings to consider.

Cities Supporting AT&T 3G/Mobile Broadband

Alabama

Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery

Arizona

Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Mesa, Peoria, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, Tucson

Arkansas

Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Little Rock

California

Anaheim, Arden-Arcade, Bakersfield, Berkeley, Burbank, Chula Vista, Concord, Daly City, East Los Angeles, Escondido, Fairfield, Fremont, Fresno, Glendale, Hayward, Irvine, Lake Tahoe, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Modesto, Monterey, Norwalk, Oakland, Oceanside, Ontario, Oxnard, Pasadena, Pomona, Richmond, Roseville, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana, Santa Clara, Santa Rosa, Stockton, Sunnyvale, Vallejo

Colorado

Colorado Springs, Denver

Connecticut

Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, New London

Delaware

Wilmington

District of Columbia

Washington, DC

Florida

Cape Canaveral, Clearwater, Coral Springs, Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Pierce, Gainesville, Hialeah, Hollywood, Indian River, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Miami, Miramar, Orlando, Pembroke Pines, St. Petersburg, Southwest Florida, Tallahassee, Tampa, The Keys, West Palm Beach

Georgia

Athens, Atlanta, Columbus, Savannah

Hawaii

Hawaii, Honolulu, Kauai, Maui

Idaho

Boise, Coeur d’Alene

Illinois

Bloomington, Chicago, Elgin, Joliet, Springfield

Indiana

Evansville, Gary, Indianapolis

Kansas

Kansas City, Olathe, Overland Park, Topeka

Kentucky

Lexington, Louisville

Louisiana

Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Metairie, New Orleans, Shreveport

Maryland

Baltimore

Massachusetts

Boston, Cambridge, Hyannis, Lowell, Springfield, Worcester

Michigan

Clinton, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Livonia, Sterling Heights, Warren

Minnesota

Minneapolis, Rochester, St. Cloud

Mississippi

Jackson

Missouri

Columbia, Independence, Jefferson City, Kansas City, Springfield, St. Louis

Nevada

Carson City, Henderson, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Paradise, Reno, Spring Valley, Sunrise Manor

New Jersey

Atlantic City, Elizabeth, Jersey City, Long Branch, Newark, New Brunswick, Ocean County, Trenton

New Mexico

Albuquerque

New York

Albany, Buffalo, Ithaca, Hamptons, New York, Rochester, Syracuse, Watertown

North Carolina

Cary, Charlotte, Durham, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Jacksonville, Raleigh, Winston-Salem

Ohio

Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City, Tulsa

Oregon

Eugene, Medford, Oregon Coast, Portland, Salem

Pennsylvania

Allentown, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Northeast-Scranton, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Reading, State College

Puerto Rico

Bayamon, Carolina, Ponce, San Juan

Rhode Island

Providence

South Carolina

Charleston, Columbia, Greenville

Tennessee

Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville

Texas

Arlington, Austin, Beaumont, Bryan, College Station, Carrollton, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, Garland, Grand Prairie, Houston, Irving, Longview, Marshall, McAllen, Mesquite, Pasadena, Plano, Richardson, San Antonio, Tyler, Victoria, Waco

Utah

Logan/Cache Valley, Provo, Salt Lake City, St. George, West Valley

Virginia

Alexandria, Arlington, Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond

Washington

Bellevue, Bellingham, Mount Vernon, Olympia, Pullman, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver

West Virginia

Charleston, Huntington

Wisconsin

Madison, Milwaukee

©2008 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved.

Here’s an unexpected Independence Day gift for Apple. Axel Springer AG, one of Europe’s largest newspaper publishers, with 10,000 employees and more than 150 papers in 30 countries, including its flagship Die Welt, announced on Friday that it is switching its entire operation from Microsoft (MSFT) Windows to Mac OS X. In a YouTube video, posted below [...]

Here’s an unexpected Independence Day gift for Apple. Axel Springer AG, one of Europe’s largest newspaper publishers, with 10,000 employees and more than 150 papers in 30 countries, including its flagship Die Welt, announced on Friday that it is switching its entire operation from Microsoft (MSFT) Windows to Mac OS X. In a YouTube video, posted below [...]

Gear Diary created a minor stir Thursday when it posted the map at left (click to enlarge) purporting to show the extent of AT&T’s current 3G coverage. On the map, blue represents 3G, dark orange is AT&T’s old EDGE network and light orange its original GPRS data service. Not much blue there, which could be a [...]

Gear Diary created a minor stir Thursday when it posted the map at left (click to enlarge) purporting to show the extent of AT&T’s current 3G coverage. On the map, blue represents 3G, dark orange is AT&T’s old EDGE network and light orange its original GPRS data service. Not much blue there, which could be a [...]

The prohibitively expensive solid-state version of Apple’s MacBook Air is suddenly 16% less so.

While Apple watchers were focused on the upcoming launch of the iPhone 3G, the company quietly lopped $500 off the 64-GB SSD MacBook Air, reducing it overnight from $3,098 to $2,598.

The price cut, just six months after the product was introduced, is at least partly the result of Apple’s transition from expensive single-level cell flash to multi-level cell technology (see here) and steadily falling NAND flash memory prices across the board. But it may also reflect increased competition in the thin notebook market and sluggish sales for the driveless version, which hasn’t quite delivered either the speed or power savings customers had expected.

Kudos to AppleInsider’s Slash Lane, who seems to have been first to note the price cut with a post published at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Special mention to MacRumors‘ Arnold Kim, who caught Apple (AAPL) doing the right thing for customers who ordered the Air at one price and will receive it at another:

To Our Valued Apple Customer:

Apple has announced a price drop for a component(s) of the MacBook Air that you recently ordered. We have automatically adjusted your order to reflect the new lower price.

For up-to-date information on your order, please visit our Order Status website at . After your order is shipped, you can also obtain tracking information on this site.

Thank you for your shopping at the Apple Store.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Support (link)

The prohibitively expensive solid-state version of Apple’s MacBook Air is suddenly 16% less so. While Apple watchers were focused on the upcoming launch of the iPhone 3G, the company quietly lopped $500 off the 64-GB SSD MacBook Air, reducing it overnight from $3,098 to $2,598. The price cut, just six months after the product was introduced, is [...]

It’s taken more than a year for the iPhone to make its way across the world’s longest undefended border, which may help explain why so many Canadians are upset this weekend.

On Friday, Rogers Communications (RCI) — Canada’s largest mobile carrier and the only one with a contract to sell Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone north of that border — announced the details of its voice and data plans. They struck some would-be customers as unreasonably high and unnecessarily restrictive, especially when compared with those in the U.S. and the U.K., and thousands of angry Canadians have made their feelings known in various homegrown websites, including eh Mac, GeekCulture, and blog.r4nt,.

But the largest and most pungent protest is a petition whose original name was unprintable, but which can now be found at ruinediphone.com. Its stated goal is to gather 10,000 names — accompanied by a letter to Steve Jobs — by July 11, the date when the iPhone 3G goes on sale in Canada. By Sunday morning it had already gathered more than 10,000; by Monday it had topped 15,000.

The letter to Jobs begins:

Dear Steve,

My name is James and I would like to thank you for creating the wonderful iPhone device. We really think that you will change the world with it, just as you changed the world with the iPod. We were so happy to learn that on July 11th, we would finally be able to buy the iPhone and legally use it in Canada.

To our great disappointment, Rogers Communications Inc. has announced VERY unfair rates in comparison to AT&T in the United States and to other authorized wireless service providers around the world…. (link)

What’s wrong with Rogers’ rate plan?

For one thing, it comes with a mandatory 3-year contract. In the U.K., O2 offers an-18 month contract and throws in the iPhone for free. And although both AT&T (T) and Rogers offer calling, data and text messaging for $75 a month, Rogers at that price gives Canadians a third less calling time, half as many text messages, and puts a 750 MB cap on 3G data usage — with steep fees for users who go over their monthly limit.

It’s this last element that has struck Canadian Apple fans as most unreasonable. One of the features that makes the iPhone so popular is how effortless it makes websurfing and multimedia downloads — activities that can quickly rack up the megabytes. That’s why heavy users usually pay extra for unlimited data usage.

Rogers claims that its top data plan — 2 GB per month for $115 — is enough to download 16,000 webpages. But users point out that a single Facebook page can account for 1.2 MB, which reduces browsing from 16,000 pages per month to 1,600.

“It’s like they’re deliberately driving customers away,” wrote wolfscribe on CBCnews. “I’ll keep my money, ride out the contract and look for a new provider.”

Rogers does offer unlimited data through Wi-Fi sites, and it defends its pricing on 3G data as consumer friendly. “Unlimited plans could end up costing customers more for what they don’t use,” argues a spokeswoman. “Our iPhone plans more than accommodate the vast majority of customers.” (link)

Petitioners are asking Steve Jobs to pressure Rogers to offer a better plan — or cut a deal with another provider who will.

[UPDATE: As of Monday 9PM, ruinediphone.com is no longer responding, a development likely to spawn all sorts of Rogers Communications conspiracy theories. The site had reported collected more than 20,000 signatures before it went down.]

[UPDATE 2: The site is back up (DNR problems, we hear, not corporate censorship) and had gathered more than 30,000 signatures as of Thursday noon. Meanwhile, Ernst & Young has seen fit to name Ted Rogers, CEO of Rogers Communications, its 2008 "Entrepreneur of the Year." The award will be presented at a banquet in October. You can write your own punchline in the comment stream.]

Below the fold: Rogers’ iPhone rates.

The great scramble among software developers to write the first iPhone killer app is coming to a head. The race began in earnest??in March when Steve Jobs unfolded Apple’s “iPhone software roadmap,” a two-part package comprised of a tool kit to help developers write programs for the iPhone and a venue in which to sell them [...]

With the July 11 launch of the iPhone 3G less than two weeks away, Apple and AT&T each posted videos Tuesday designed to soften the ground for what’s shaping up as another frenzied triumph of Apple event marketing.

The Apple (AAPL) video, shot against a minimalist backdrop and hosted by the same black T shirt-wearing spokesperson who led the original iPhone tour guide, comes across as an earnest summary of what’s new in the 3G version.

But by the time it is over — and you’ve seen the GPS tracking, the App store, the games, the enterprise functions — the contrast between the iPhone and your run-of-the-mill smartphone (never mind your dumb, featureless cell phone) couldn’t be clearer. It’s hard to watch it to the end and not harbor iPhone 3G lust. You can view or download it here.

The AT&T (T) video — shot against a somewhat chaotic AT&T store backdrop and hosted by a red polo shirt-wearing spokesman named Larry Meyer — has a tougher job to do. It’s trying to minimize what’s likely to be human gridlock when the doors open at 8 a.m. Friday July 11 at Apple and AT&T stores across the U.S. (and in 21 other countries around the world). iDay 2007 went surprising smoothly, at least at Apple’s retail outlets, despite lines that formed days ahead of time and snaked around whole city blocks. Because the phones could be activated at home, transactions were short and sweet; at the flagship San Francisco store we monitored, iPhones were leaving the premises at the rate of one every 20 seconds. (See here.)

July 11 could look very different. To choke off the overseas black market for unlocked iPhones, AT&T and Apple insist that the new 3Gs be activated before they leave the store — a retailing wrinkle that pretty much guarantees that any lines that have formed outside will move more glacially this year. To speed things up, AT&T’s video (available here) urges that buyers be “iReady,” as they put it, and have all the necessary documents in hand — or better still, visit the store ahead of time to get the credit check out of the way. But it’s hard to watch these videos to the end — or run through the printable Get iReady checklist available here — and not suspect that for a lot of customers, July 11 is going to be a nightmare.

YouTube versions of both videos are pasted below the fold.

Here’s something to ponder as you watch them: What would AT&T’s video — or for that matter, the July 11 launch — look like if they had been produced by the folks who designed the Apple Store?

With the July 11 launch of the iPhone 3G less than two weeks away, Apple and AT&T each posted videos Tuesday designed to soften the ground for what’s shaping up as another frenzied triumph of Apple event marketing. The Apple (AAPL) video, shot against a minimalist backdrop and hosted by the same black T shirt-wearing spokesperson [...]

With the July 11 launch of the iPhone 3G less than two weeks away, Apple and AT&T each posted videos Tuesday designed to soften the ground for what’s shaping up as another frenzied triumph of Apple event marketing. The Apple (AAPL) video, shot against a minimalist backdrop and hosted by the same black T shirt-wearing spokesperson [...]

Microsoft (MSFT) Windows continued its downward drift and Apple’s (AAPL) Mac OS X inched up to a record 7.95% in the market share survey issued Tuesday by Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Net Applications.

The biggest gain, however, was recorded by the open-source operating system Linux, which jumped more than 16% in June — albeit from a small base — to hit 0.79%.

The iPhone held steady at 0.16%, reflecting a leveling off of what had been double-digit growth as buyers waited for the new iPhone 3G, which goes on sale next week. In a separate survey issued Monday, RBC Capital reported “unprecedented pent-up demand” for the new model. Data taken from 3,600 members in RBC’s Technology Adoption Panel in early June showed that 56% of those planning to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days planned to buy an iPhone — up from 35% in March and more than double the interest in any of the other brands surveyed. See here for more detail.

The monthly Net Applications survey is conducted by sampling browser data from some 160 million visits to websites operated by the firm’s clients. Although it describes the results as “market share,” Net Applications does not actually measure share of market in the traditional sense by revenue or unit sales. It does, however, provide a consistent methodology by which to measure operating system trends.

To see their July 1 report, click here. The results are summarized in the table below.

Drilling deeper into the numbers, ArsTechnica’s Charles Jade notes that the numbers for Intel Macs grew by a quarter of a percent to 5.26 percent, while PPC Mac’s declined to 2.7 percent. In other words, Intel Macs increased at twice the pace of decline for PPCs. “The rapid decline of PPC Macs coupled with sharp gains for Intel Macs no doubt factored into the decision to make Snow Leopard Intel only,” Jade speculates. His chart below:

UPDATE: Net Applications’ model must be more dynamic than we knew. At sunrise in New York on Monday, Mac’s June share was 7.95%. By 8:30 a.m. CT, when Jade posted his report, it had risen to 7.96%. By 3:00 a.m. ET Tuesday it had dropped to 7.94%. And these are last month’s numbers!

One of the perils of writing about technology for a monthly print magazine is that by the time your story hits the newsstands, it’s often been overtaken by events.

Such is the fate of Daniel Roth’s long piece on Google’s Android project in the July issue of Wired.

Entitled “Google’s Open Source Android Phone Will Free the Wireless Web” and available here, it’s a well-reported behind-the-scenes look at Google’s (GOOG) effort to do for the mobile Web what Microsoft (MSFT) did for the desktop: provide the platform on which everybody else must dance.

Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone plays the same bit part in Roth’s story that the original Macintosh played in Microsoft Windows’: a inspiring example to show what’s possible — and perhaps be mined for stealable ideas — while the standard-setting steamroller grabs that 90% market share. Here’s the key paragraph:

“Those hoping for a new gadget to rival the iPhone finally understood that Google had something radically different in mind. Apple’s device was an end in itself — a self-contained, jewel-like masterpiece locked in a sleek protective shell. Android was a means, a seed intended to grow an entire new wireless family tree.” (link)

Google’s plan may yet work. But for Wired, the timing of Roth’s piece could hardly be worse. Not only did it arrive in the middle Apple’s carefully orchestrated drumroll for the July 11 iPhone 3G launch, but it landed just as the Wall Street Journal was reporting that Google’s plans have hit two serious roadblocks.

The first roadblock is the carriers. As Roth reports, Google was already having trouble getting the mobile phone operators to play along. The country’s two biggest — Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T), with a combined market share of 54% — passed. “There wasn’t anything viable we were willing to entertain,” Verizon Wireless spokesperson Jeffrey Nelson told Roth. So Google went with the third and fourth best, T-Mobile (DT) and Sprint Nextel (S). Now the Journal reports that T-Mobile won’t have any Android phones ready before the fourth quarter and has been sucking up so much of Google’s time with its demands that Sprint won’t have anything this year at all. Ominously, China Mobile, the sleeping giant Google was counting on in the Far East, but which has also been in talks with Apple, has also pushed back its Android launch.

Even more critical, if Google hopes to build a vibrant software platform, are the snarls developers are running into. As the Journal reports:

“The Android software has yet to win broad support from large mobile-software developers. Some say it is difficult to develop programs while Google is making changes as it finishes its own software…..

“Some developers say it is easier to work with Apple’s programming tools than Google’s because of the familiarity with the company’s Macintosh operating system. …

“Andy Rubin, director of mobile platforms at Google, says managing the software-development effort while giving its partners the opportunity to lobby for new features takes time. ‘This is where the pain happens,’ he says.” (link)

Apple, by contrast, has a waiting list of carriers around the world willing to sell the iPhone and thousands of programmers eager to write for the device; at its developers conference two weeks ago, Apple had to turn them away once the first 5,200 spots were filled.

“I’m rooting for Android, big-time,” writes one high-profile developer, John Gruber, in his widely-read Daring Fireball blog. “It’s easy to imagine how Android, as an overall platform, could wind up being better than the iPhone.”

But that’s a big if, he adds, before the paragraphs that cut to the crux of the issue:

“The big advantage Apple has with the iPhone is that they control the entire product, top to bottom. The case, the chipsets, the OS, the user interface. Apple knows exactly what the screen will look like when a brand new iPhone is turned on for the first time. Google’s dependence on hardware and carrier partners puts the final product out of their control — and into the control of companies whose histories have shown them to be incompetent at design and hostile to users.

“I’d be happy to be proven wrong, but my hunch is that the only way we’ll see an iPhone-caliber Android phone is if Google does what they’ve said they’re not going to do, which is to design and ship their own reference model “gPhone”. That doesn’t mean Android won’t still be successful in some sense if it remains on its current course, but that I don’t expect it to be successful in the “holy shit is this awesome!” sense that the iPhone is.” (link)

- - -

Nobody expects anything quite so awesome out of it, but the other big news in mobile phone operating systems Tuesday was Nokia’s decision to purchase the 52% of Symbian it didn’t already own, combine the different OS versions into one platform, and make it open and free. Symbian dominates the global cellphone market with 60% of installed base, according to the Nokia press release. Here’s Silicon Alley Insider’s Dan Frommer take on the acquisition:

“Buying Symbian won’t help Nokia build sexier-looking, high-end gadgets. But in theory, Nokia’s ownership will speed up Symbian’s platform development and could allow Nokia — its biggest customer — to come out with more phones, faster. That’s important as new competitors enter the market with sexier, more exciting products…” (link)

Microsoft (MSFT) Windows continued its downward drift and Apple’s (AAPL) Mac OS X inched up to a record 7.95% in the market share survey issued Tuesday by Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Net Applications. The biggest gain, however, was recorded by the open-source operating system Linux, which jumped more than 16% in June — albeit from a small [...]

Even as Canada’s Rogers Communications and Germany’s T-Mobile compete to offer the worst voice and data plans for the iPhone 3G, Hutchison Global Communications on Monday unveiled what may be the best.

Hutchison (HTX), which stuck a deal with Apple (AAPL) in May to bring the iPhone to Hong Kong and Macau, will be offering customers a choice of two pricing plans:

• 8GB iPhone for HK$2,938 ($377) plus HK$188 per month ($24/month) for 500MB voice and data
• 8GB iPhone for free plus HK$498 per month ($64/month) for 2,200 minutes airtime and unlimited data.

“We believe the (minimum price) plan is comfortable enough for average data users,” a Hutchison spokesperson told the Dow Jones Newswire, adding that 500 megabytes will allow users to send 250,000 emails or browse Apple’s Web site 2,000 times. (link)

Bottom line in U.S. dollars: Including the cost of the phone, Hong Kong residents will pay between $955 and $1,532 over the life of a 24 month contract.

Some comparisons (all expressed in U.S. dollars for the equivalent of a 2-year contract):

• Hutchison in Hong Kong: $955 (500MB voice and data) to $1,532 (2,200 min., unlimited data)
• O2 (TEF) in the U.K.: $1,698 (75 minutes, unlimited data) to $3,588 (3000 min., unlimited data)
• AT&T (T) in the U.S.: $1,879 (450 min., unlimited data) to $3,318 (unlimited voice and data)
• T-Mobile (DT) in Germany: $1,366 (500MB data) to $3,374 (5GB data)
• Rogers (RCI) in Canada: $1,624 (150 min., 400 MB data) to $2,932 (800 min., 2GB data)

Even as Canada’s Rogers Communications and Germany’s T-Mobile compete to offer the worst voice and data plans for the iPhone 3G, Hutchison Global Communications on Monday unveiled what may be the best. Hutchison (HTX), which stuck a deal with Apple (AAPL) in May to bring the iPhone to Hong Kong and Macau, will be offering customers [...]

It’s taken more than a year for the iPhone to make its way across the world’s longest undefended border, which may help explain why so many Canadians are upset this weekend. On Friday, Rogers Communications (RCI) — Canada’s largest mobile carrier and the only one with a contract to sell Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone north of that [...]