In AT&T’s 4th quarter results, they have announced that 1.9 million iPhone 3Gs were activated.  About 40% of these activations were new customers, indicating that about 760,000 people switched to AT&T just because of the iPhone.  In the last half of 2008, AT&T activated about 4.3 million iPhones.  iPhone customers also deliver the highest revenue per user for the telecommunications company.

AT&T’s 4th quarter net income was $2.4 billion, down from $3.1 billion one year ago.  AT&T also added that their earnings were hit by the iPhone 3G initiative which involved ramping up their 3G networks.  This year, AT&T made about $12.9 billion in net income on revenue of $124 billion.

Revenue for AT&T competitor Verizon Wireless was about $24.6 billion in the 4th quarter.

Apple reported today that they finished 2008 strong with a profit of $1.61 billion.  This was mainly due to iPods reporting an all-time high despite economic conditions being their worst in the last 4 decades.  Revenue was $10.17 billion in the three months ending on December 27, 2008.

“Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history — surpassing 10 billion dollars in quarterly revenue for the first time ever,” stated Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a release.   Apple sold 2.52 million Macintosh computers during Q1 2009 and 22.73 million iPods.

Apple sold over 4.36 million iPhones this quarter.  This is almost double what they sold in the fiscal first quarter of last year.  However the Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones last quarter.  Even though there was a slowdown iPhones sold, this has not caused a slowdown in applications sold in the App Store.  Over 500 million applications have been sold within the last few months, also contributing to Apple’s profits.

During the earnings call, Apple COO Tim Cook made an interesting statement.  When asked about upcoming competition like the Pre, BlackBerry, and Android, Cook stated “We approach this business as a software platform business. We are watching the landscape. We like competition as long as they don’t rip off our IP. And if they do, we will go after anyone who does.”  The Palm Pre has a multi-touch user interface and Apple holds a patent on this.

Cook was also asked about whether he was talking about Palm in regards to that statement, he replied “I don’t want to talk about any specific company. We are ready to suit up and go against anyone. However, we will not stand for having our IP ripped off.”

Interestingly, Palm’s chairman is former Apple product chief Jon Rubinstein.  Rubinstein was put in charge of Palm by Elevation Partners.  Elevation Partners is Palm’s biggest investor, who made a recent $100 million investment for the Pre.  Elevation invested $325 million into Palm last year too.

[via TechCrunch and Apple PR]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are exploring the 10-K reports for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to ensure that investors weren’t misled according to a source for Bloomberg.  The SEC review does not mean that there is evidence of any wrongdoing.

Steve Jobs is considering a liver transplant during his five month medical leave.  The Apple stock took a hit after the news that Jobs reported that he had hormonal imbalance and took medical leave shortly after.

“The good news flipped by the bad news makes one wonder what Apple knew,” stated Duke University law professor James Cox. “It’s not surprising for the SEC to come in and look afterward, given the pressure and publicity regarding their handling of a lot of cases.” Most recently, the U.S. SEC was criticized for the handling of the Madoff scam.

Apple will be reporting their first quarter earnings at the end of the market close today.  A conference call will following the earnings report at 5PM Eastern Time.

[via Bloomberg]

How instrumental is Steve Jobs’ to Apple’s success. Listen to what Wozniak was thinking during his shower.

I’ll give you a minute to reflect upon the title of this article.  If you were reluctant about getting an iPhone before, maybe this figure should convince you.  About 15 million people own iPhones.  And now Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has hit 500 million downloads across 15,000 applications.

Two hundred million of those downloads were made in the last 42 days.  That gives us 4,761,904 downloads per day.  The App Store just started about 6 months ago with about 500 applications to start with.

Now that Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs has stepped out of the limelight for six months, it is time to get know some of the iPhone company’s other executives.  Most notably is Tim Cook, the current Chief Operating Officer of Apple.  While Steve is known to be a bit of an aggressive leader as demonstrated by the way he pounds on tables and throws fits.

Tim Cook will be watching over Apple while Steve is out on medical leave, yet he has a much different style of handling the company.  Cook is known for the way the marathons of meetings he runs and the late nights he spends at the office.  Cook’s job will have a bit more pressure while Steve is out.  Apple shareholders will be breathing down his neck to make sure he fills in the Apple leader’s shoes properly.

This isn’t the first time that Tim Cook has filled in for Steve Jobs.  In 2004, Tim filled in for Jobs while he underwent treatment for pancreatic cancer.  Jobs was away for more than a month.

Tim Cook went to Auburn University for undergraduation studies and followed it up with an MBA from Duke University.  Cook is also on the board of Nike Inc.  Apple hired Cook in 1998 to make Apple’s oversee logistics.  Apple’s manufacturing was so inefficient that they were losing customers to Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Company.  Before Apple, Cook was VP at Compaq and spent 12 years at IBM before that.

Even though Cook doesn’t pound on the table and isn’t nearly as charasmatic as Steve, he has mastered the art of constant questioning.  “He is the master of the Socratic method — he will continue to ask why and why and why,” stated Mike Janes, who worked with Tim Cook for about 5 years.  “If you’re not prepared, it can be a very uncomfortable place.”

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs stated that he will be taking six months off for medical reasons.   In the meantime, Tim Cook will be filling in for Steve Jobs.  Due to the announcement, Apple shares went down about 2.71% today and is down between 6 and 7% after-hours trading.   Jobs did not give any additional details regarding the leave.

However the reason behind why Jobs did not attend the MacWorld conference this year was due to hormonal imbalance.  Since Jobs is stepping out of the limelight for a while, I do not expect Apple to make any major announcements about upcoming products until the summer.  It seems like the iPhone and iPod sales will be on auto-pilot for the rest of the year anyway.  Piper Jaffray predicts that 45 million iPhones will be sold by the end of 2009.

Below is the full letter that Jobs sent out to the company:

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

[via Apple Media Advisory]

Chipotle the burrito restaurant has launched a free iPhone application to make online ordering possible through the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Chipotle has their whole menu available and there is a find the closest Chipotle feature built in.  There is a favorites feature that allows users to order their usual orders.

Phil Lu had a keen interest in designing a Starbucks iPhone ordering application, but Chipotle’s Mobile Ordering application seems to tbe the first release of an application made for the purpose of getting an order through.

The application has been temporarily removed due to programming glitches, but is expected to return again soon.