Of those old phones being put back onto the secondary market, the survey found that 49% were older iPhones, while 21% were BlackBerry smartphones and 15% were Android devices. Approximately two-thirds of those devices returned to the market were given away, with the remaining third having been sold.
According to the survey, 87% of those who sold or gave away their old iPhones expected the recipients to activate them for use, which CIRP estimates as representing 11% of carrier activations since last October. That number represents a boon for carriers, who do not have to pay subsidies to Apple on the used devices.

The research firm believes that, for every used iPhone that carriers activate, they save around $400. In the fourth quarter of 2011 alone, CIRP figures that secondary-market activations saved AT&T and Verizon between $400 million and $800 million in subsidy costs.

And while the strong market for used iPhones may seem like a detriment to Apple given that those users may be purchasing a used device offering no revenue for Apple rather than a new one, CIRP suggests that those low-priced used handsets are a common way to introduce new users to the iPhone ecosystem. That introduction then sets the users up for future purchases of new iPhones and other Apple products.

“It hurts Apple because it creates competition for new iPhones, which we see in the relatively modest sales of reduced-price iPhone 4 and free iPhone 3G units. But it also benefits the company because used iPhone customers aspire to own the newest and best iPhone, so they are likely future new phone customers. In fact, they are likely new entrants to the Apple ecosystem, who otherwise would not have found a way in.”

Beyond future hardware sales, the used iPhone market also increases the user base and market for apps and other iTunes Store content, with the device’s able to serve more good than if they had been discarded or forgotten in a drawer.

“In Great Britain, the U.S. and Australia, Apple’s new iPhone continues to fly off the shelf in the run-up to Christmas. However, this trend is far from universal,” said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director.

Apple’s market share in the 12 weeks to end-November rose to 36 percent in the United States from 25 percent a year earlier and in Britain to 31 percent from 21 percent, Kantar said.

However, in France its share slipped to 20 percent from 29 percent and in Germany to 22 percent from 27 percent. Similar drops were seen in Italy and Spain.

The iPhone 4S debuted midway through the reporting period in most of the countries mentioned, although it did launch two weeks later in Italy and Spain. Consumer demand for the iPhone eased in the months leading up to the debut of the iPhone 4S amid high anticipation, but sales obviously surged with the release of the new hardware.

Kantar Worldpanel also reports its data as market share, and with the global smartphone market growing extremely quickly, iPhone sales are likely still rising in countries where Apple’s market share has dropped due to the influx of Android-based devices from a variety of manufacturers.

For the holiday quarter, Apple is projecting blockbuster revenue and earnings, with analysts pushing their iPhone estimates for the quarter into the range of 30 million units. That performance would shatter Apple’s current record for iPhone sales of just over 20 million units sold during the second calendar quarter of this year.

The “License” application by DriversEd.com for Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad allows users to electronically insert any digital photo and the biographic information of their choosing into a template for a driver’s license of a state of their choosing. The “License” application contains templates for driver’s licenses for all 50 states, many of which are of designs that will be valid for the next several years. The user is then able to send the high quality digital image of the completed template to an email account. From the email attachment, the image can then be printed and laminated, creating a high quality counterfeit driver’s license difficult to discern from one that’s genuine.

Casey reportedly noted in his letter that the ease with which the app allows counterfeit licenses to be produced poses significant risks related to identity theft, underage alcohol and tobacco purchases, and national security.

In his letter, Senator Casey stated that, “I believe this application poses a threat to public safety and national security…it can be used in a way that allows criminals to create a new identity, steal someone else’s identity, or permit underage youth to purchase alcohol or tobacco illegally. National security systems depend on the trustworthiness of driver’s licenses, yet with a counterfeit license created by the app, a terrorist could bypass identity verification by the Transportation Security Administration, or even apply for a passport.”

While the app had been available in the App Store for over two years, it appears that Apple has now quickly responded to Casey’s letter by removing the app from the App Store. The Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License had sent a letter to Apple’s Scott Forstall back in April, requesting removal of the application. Apple apparently did not, however, respond to that initial request.

This is not the first time that elected government officials have gotten involved in disputes over App Store applications. Earlier this year, a group of four U.S. senators sent letters to Apple, Google, and Research in Motion requesting removal of several apps that alert users to the locations of sobriety testing checkpoints. Apple took its time responding to the issue, which is considered controversial as some law enforcement agencies support public notification of the locations of such checkpoints. Ultimately, Apple updated its review guidelines to prohibit the use of DUI checkpoint location information except in cases where the information has been made publicly available by law enforcement.

Narrowing down to smartphones, Apple’s iOS took 27.4% of the market, up 0.8 percentage points since the previous three-month period but trailing Android’s 44.8% share and 4.6 percentage point growth. Apple stood at 9.8% of the overall mobile phone market and 27.3% of the smartphone market in last month’s release of the firm’s rolling three-month data sets.

comScore’s data tracks installed user base rather than new handset sales, making it more reflective of real-world usage but slower to respond to shifting market trends than some other studies. With today’s released data covering the period of July through September, it is also important to note that it does not include any surge from the iPhone 4S launch, which took place in mid-October.

Partwise is a leading supplier of used/recycled parts in the UK stocking thousands of vehicle parts

THE CHALLENGE
Partwise needed the ability to request parts through a mobile device, often their clients are on the move and do not have access to a computer so it was important to get exposure on the app market

THE RESULTS
3Squared worked with Partwise to produce a part request application allowing the user to input their car registration and request a specific part for their vehicle. Also features on the app include special offers and contact information. Partwise are very pleased with the app results.

Gaydio is a Manchester based community radio station launching full-time in 2010 on FM radio throughout the North West of England.

THE CHALLENGE
It was important for Gaydio to reach audiences further afield than just the Manchester area so 3Squared developed an iPhone application to stream their station to the mobile device in every country.

THE RESULTS
With now over 20,000 downloads the iPhone application has proved a hit worldwide, audience figures have been boosted dramatically since the launch and Gaydio is now working with 3Squared to produce an Android version of the app.

Ruckingball is an ambitious website established to overcome the problems that many parents and young players have in getting the right advice and development plan to become the best that they can be. The site includes many Rugby stars including Ex-England Rugby Captain Martin Corry who post daily blogs and tips on becoming a better Rugby player.

THE CHALLENGE
It was important for the RuckingBall team to get mobile to show their daily blogs and training videos through a mobile device as well as encouraging users to signup to join the community.

THE RESULTS
3Squared produced an easy to use rugby application for the iPhone which includes latest videos from the team and news/blogs which is fed from their website as well as the opportunity to signup. The team are really pleased with the overall look of the app and are adding new features over the next few months.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced two new brand extensions to its globally recognized logo today in an effort to create consumer awareness around compatibility for new devices implementing Bluetooth v4.0 – the Bluetooth Smart Ready trademark and the Bluetooth Smart trademark. Bluetooth Smart Ready devices are phones, tablets, PCs and TVs that sit at the center of a consumer’s connected world and implement a Bluetooth v4.0 dual mode radio. Bluetooth Smart devices are sensor-type devices like heart-rate monitors or pedometers that run on button-cell batteries and were built to collect a specific piece of information. Bluetooth Smart devices include only a single-mode low energy Bluetooth v4.0 radio.

Bluetooth Smart has been promised as a way to allow devices to interact wirelessly using low-power standards, enabling countless new potential uses.

Bluetooth Smart devices are designed to gather a specific type of information—are all the windows on my house locked, what is my insulin level, how much do I weigh today?—and send it to a Bluetooth Smart Ready device.

Examples include heart-rate monitors, blood-glucose meters, smart watches, window and door security sensors, key fobs for your car, and blood-pressure cuffs—the opportunities are endless.

While the iPhone 4S is not yet able to make extensive use of the features specific to Bluetooth Smart due to a lack of peripheral single-mode Smart devices capable of transmitting data to the iPhone, it is clear the Bluetooth standards bearers and manufacturers will be quickly pushing forward to promote the adoption of Smart technology in a host of new product categories.

Beyond the iPhone 4S, Apple has also been building Bluetooth 4.0 support into several of its latest Mac lines, including the Mac mini and MacBook Air introduced back in July. Notably, today’s MacBook Pro update did not bring Bluetooth 4.0 support to that line, although the update was an extremely minor one that Apple is not even acknowledging as a refresh on its promotional product pages. Consequently, the update appears to have been limited to core “plug-and-play” features such as CPU, GPU, and hard drives that could be easily upgraded rather than features like new Bluetooth 4.0 capabilities that could require more significant engineering work.

Now it seems that an internal email has been sent to Sprint representatives, informing them that Apple and Sprint are working together on a “confirmed nationwide issue” dealing with the slow data rates many users are experiencing. There was no information about what the cause of the issues are or what the expected resolution date might be.

The email did contain a reference to a ‘Service Settings’ update, which sounds like it could be referring to the carrier settings file that contains access point info for the carriers.

The iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S broke Sprint’s “device family” one-day sales record on October 14, the first day the phones were available on the network.