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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) doesn't talk much publicly, but when it does, it's usually bragging about its awesome products or some special milestone it's achieved. Monday was no different: Apple announced that it had sold more than 1 million iPhone 3G S models over its launch weekend.
To put this in summer blockbuster movie opening perspective, the 3G S grossed at least US$199 million at the box office in three days -- and that's if no one bought the more expensive 32 GB model, and if you don't count the actual price the cellular service carriers pay Apple for the device. So the opening weekend take for Apple is likely much larger.
In other news of the week, iSuppli tore into an iPhone 3G S to learn it likely isn't that much more expensive to manufacture than its predecessor. Also, The New York Times published an interesting feature about Apple's legendary secrecy.
Another Million, With Millions More to Come?
In three days, Apple sold 1 million iPhone 3G S units. The company didn't break down figures into 16 GB and 32 GB sales 
, but it did note that 6 million customers downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software in the first five days since its release.
Notably, for the first time in months, the Apple press release quotes CEO Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave since last winter. That sparked a bit of speculation that Jobs might be back on the job in Apple's Cupertino headquarters.
"Customers are voting, and the iPhone is winning," Jobs noted. "With over 50,000 applications available from Apple's revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever."
In any event, iPhone lovers were quite happy to comment on the 1 million news tidbit.
"I believe a lot of the sales were via pre-orders from Apple and AT&T (NYSE: T) which was a brilliant way to cut down on lines at local stores for the two companies. I remember reading something about the CEO of AT&T being quoted this week as saying they had sold a few hundred thousand via pre-order alone and I'm sure Apple's pre-orders probably double or tripled that," commented jrotunda85 on the MacRumors.com post on the subject.
"Great news, and from only 8 countries compared to last years 22," noted thadogg.
Obviously Apple's iPhone sales are brisk, and while the new iPhone 3G S has video recording, a better camera, and a lot more speed, there may be other factors that customers find equally or even more important. How about that App Store packed with 50,000 apps -- can anybody match that?
"Apple's App Store is one of their key competitive differentiators," Hugues DeLaVergne, a principal analyst of mobile devices for Gartner (NYSE: IT), told MacNewsWorld.
"They do have a significant lead in the app market, and I don't think you'll see other manufactures catch them," he added.
Still, the smartphone market is seeing lot of new touchscreen smartphones, with more slated to come in 2009 and early 2010.
"I think smartphone competition in the second half 2009 will be the most competitive in history, but I think due to Apple's brand, their App Store, their usability, and their more aggressive [$99] price point on the older 3G, I think Apple's product is probably well-insulated enough to continue to be successful, given the higher competition," DeLaVergne explained.
iSupply Guys Do What They Do: Rip Stuff Apart
While most iPhone 3G S owners would shudder at the thought of even accidentally dropping their new smartphone, there are some companies dedicated to cracking cases, tearing new devices down to bits, and cataloging their contents. iSuppli's teardown analysis has revealed that the bill of materials and manufacturing cost for the new 16GB iPhone 3GS comes in at an estimated $178.96, which is slightly higher than its July 2008 8 GB iPhone 3G estimate.
The flash memory in the 3G S comes in at $24, the display module costs $19.25, and the touchscreen assembly adds another $16, while the application processor costs $14.46. The much-needed 3 megapixel camera module: $9.55.
iSuppli doesn't attempt to factor in research, development, marketing or shipping costs, so the actual cost to deliver an iPhone to a customer is undoubtably higher. Even so, iSuppli's raw materials numbers may even be a bit high.
"Of course, in reality Apple could be spending a lot less to build each iPhone 3G S, because no matter what we see from iSuppli, they are most likely not privy to any special deals that Apple may receive for buying these materials in the bulk quantity the would require," noted iPhoneFreak.com blogger Robert Nelson in his post on the subject.
Skepticism was also evident in the comment from reader marco cazoria, who responded to the EngadgetMobile post on the subject. "i dont believe this. It has to be much much less in order for the companies to hit there profit margins. Regardless of how many iphone they sell," cazoria noted.
"Depends on the economy of scale, but i would bet that the iphone 3gs costs much less than that ... ," Vincent added.
Price aside, did the dissection of the iPhone 3G S reveal anything particularly surprising?
"I think the 3G S design evolution was not shocking at all," Andrew Rassweiler, director and principal analyst of iSuppli's teardown services, told MacNewsWorld.
"It demonstrates the one constant of Apple: nothing is constant -- everything is changing, all the time, though it was, as we had expected it to be, a more evolutionary than revolutionary design upgrade. And even though from a user perspective the changes are even more subtle, inside there are all kinds of little changes that change the board layout, the supplier lineup, and the costs," he noted.
"Behind the scenes, a lot of little things are happening here, a lot of design optimization efforts have clearly gone into this. Apple never just rolls over an old design. And once they make one change to a printed circuit board, you may as well go ahead and make other beneficial changes, because you have to respin the whole PCB. Some of the changes made are functional, and some are probably more cost-driven, and most are both," he explained.
While iSuppli did not tear down the $99 3G, Rassweiler believes Apple has likely made some similar hardware changes inside, too.
Steve Jobs Gets a Liver Transplant
After a report hit that Jobs had received a liver transplant -- the operation actually happened a couple of months ago -- even more talk started broiling around the secretive nature Apple and its CEO, somehow prompting Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute to put out a short press release acknowledging that the surgery took place.
Jobs underwent a complete transplant evaluation and was listed for transplantation for an approved indication in accordance with the Transplant Institute policies and United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) policies, the release stated.
"He received a liver transplant because he was the patient with the highest MELD score (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) of his blood type and, therefore, the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available. Mr. Jobs is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis," the release added.
The news kicked bloggers into a frenzy, of course, and lots of Apple fans were ready to wish him (and Apple) well.
"As a resident of Tennessee and as a fan of the tremendous creativity that Jobs's work has unleashed around the world, I wish him health, happiness, and a long life. Be well, Steve," commented Sybaritic on the AppleInsider.com post on the subject.
Still, a liver transplant is by no means an easy or simple a fix.
"Transplanted livers can last in the best case scenario for up to 10 years. At that time, he will either require a new transplant or we'll have figured a way to reliably grow organs from a patients own DNA, meaning that he'll get a new liver that is his own," commented Virgil-TB2. "In the meantime, I'm sure Steve will begin preparing for his exit (which could still take years)."
Is the Cupertino Headquarters Really a Bat Cave?
Following up on the intense Apple and Jobs scrutiny, The New York Times published a descriptive peek into the heart of Apple's headquarters and secretive operating style. Here's a snip:
"Secrecy at Apple is not just the prevailing communications strategy ; it is baked into the corporate culture. Employees working on top-secret projects must pass through a maze of security doors, swiping their badges again and again and finally entering a numeric code to reach their offices, according to one former employee who worked in such areas.
"Work spaces are typically monitored by security cameras, this employee said. Some Apple workers in the most critical product-testing rooms must cover up devices with black cloaks when they are working on them, and turn on a red warning light when devices are unmasked so that everyone knows to be extra-careful ..."
Wow, so is Apple the most secretive tech company on the planet?
"Every company keeps its cards pretty close to its vest so far as commercial product development goes. You will find companies that are doing a lot of high-end research and development like IBM (NYSE: IBM), HP (NYSE: HPQ) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), where they love to talk about the advances they are making on the R and D side, but they become very cagey when they talk about actual commercial product development because they don't want their competitors to know about the latest and greatest things they have in the pipeline," Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-IT, told MacNewsWorld.
"Google is a company that keeps its cards very close to its vest so far as the company operations go. Whatever they are doing in their data centers is their secret sauce of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) performance, and that's not something they talk about publicly. Corporate secrecy is not unusual; there are certainly companies that protect their product and development details very closely," he explained.
"I think where Apple is a bit unusual is in the case of Steve Jobs, where they have extended that veil of secrecy to the point that it includes their chief executive," he added.
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