Below The Beltway

cNet reports on signs that the iPhone may not be tied exclusively to AT&T for much longer:
While everyone else was calling the iPhone the greatest device of all time and putting Steve Jobs on that pedestal he enjoys so much yesterday, AT&T quietly told its investors that the revenue sharing deal it had with Apple [...]

That’s about 13,500 phones per day, 563 per hour, 9 per minute:
Seventy four days out from launch, Apple has sold 1 million iPhones—smack dab on target with recent analyst predictions that the iPhone would surpass the mil mark by Sept. 30. In a press release, Steve Jobs said that it took nearly two years to [...]

Apple has a major announced scheduled this week and, as usual, the media is already doing a lot of free advertising:
When Apple said it was going to make an announcement at the Moscone Center in San Francisco next week, it triggered an elaborate and familiar guessing game.
Could it be the iPhone Nano, the subject of [...]

Today’s New York Times has an interesting article about the quiet role that Taiwanese companies are playing in development and manufacture of the iPhone:
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Etched into the back of every iPhone are the words “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China.” Apple might as well have added “Made in Taiwan.”
With little fanfare, [...]

According to one survey, there are at least 100,000,000 potential iPhone owners out there:
Apple’s iPhone could emerge as the most successful product introduction of the 21st century, new research suggests.
Lightspeed Research surveyed 39,000 people on its U.S. online panel in the days following the launch of the device on June 29– and the research findings [...]

Last week, there were many people standing in line for iPhones hoping they’d be able to turn a quick profit.
Turns out, they were wrong:
SAN FRANCISCO, July 5 — David Flashner thought he had it wired: buy two iPhones last Friday when they first went on sale, keep one and sell the other at a profit [...]

It’s easy to understand why iPhone sales have boosted Apple’s stock so much this week when you consider their amazing profit margin:
NEW YORK — Apple Inc.’s shares jumped in high-volume trading Tuesday after researchers said the company will reap a gross profit margin in excess of 55 percent on its 8 gigabyte iPhones.
Apple shares [...]

It looks like Ron Paul is the first Presidential candidate to capitalize on the iPhone hype:
WASHINGTON — Long-shot presidential candidate Ron Paul is capitalizing on the latest in technology — Apple’s iPhones.
Paul’s campaign said Monday that iPhone users would be able to call up his Web site and check out online videos and other material.
Now [...]

Once again, it looks like Steve Jobs has pulled it off.
According to preliminary numbers, about 500,000 iPhones have been sold since they became available at 6pm on Friday:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Opening weekend sales of iPhones may have reached 500,000, according to an analyst’s estimate, as Apple’s much anticipated product saw sales that lived up [...]

It’s a minor story admittedly, but there is a report out there that D.C. Mayor Fenty send an aide to buy him an iPhone on Friday, and cut in line in the process:
I have a brief iPhone/government story. I work in downtown DC and went to the AT&T store on 17th and Pennsylvania around 4:45 [...]