MetroPCS’s current customers can choose from a variety of feature phones or inexpensive Android-powered smartphones: there’s just one flagship Android device offered, the Samsung Galaxy S III. The vast majority of the devices cost around $99. If MetroPCS subscribers have been waiting for an opportunity to switch to an iPhone, it’s probably less likely they’ll be going for a $200 to $300 iPhone. But the free-on-contract iPhone 4 or $99-with-contract iPhone 4S could be more appealing than their current options.

This also represents a chance for MetroPCS to convince feature-phone owners to upgrade too. And the trend among late-stage smartphone adopters is that they, in general, go for lower-cost devices.

A recent survey of iPhone buyers in the U.S. by CIRP showed while the iPhone 5 represented a little over half of all new iPhones purchased, that is a historically low number: never has an Apple device that’s been available for just over one fiscal quarter seen such slow demand. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, either free on contract or $99 with a contract, are more popular than legacy iPhones have ever been.

T-Mobile says that by joining with MetroPCS, it’s bringing 9 million new customers — and potential new iPhone activations — with it. That might seem small when compared to what T-Mobile already has (a little over 30 million customers) and to what could happen if Apple hooked up with China Mobile. But at this point, Apple needs to expand its footprint anywhere it can. Whether that’s among luxury-brand hungry customers in Tokyo, Shanghai or Moscow who shell out for an iPhone 5, or among smartphone hold-outs who just want a free or very cheap phone, Apple is going to take it.

Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook used the example of first-time iPhone buyers in China to explain why he’s OK with this scenario: ”China has an unusually large number of potential first-time smartphone buyers and that’s not lost on us. We’ve seen a significant interest in iPhone 4 there and have recently made it even more affordable to make it even more attractive to those first-time buyers. We’re hopeful that helps iPhone sales in the future.”

It’s true that trading iPhone 5 sales for the iPhone 4 or 4S could mean lower profits in the end for Apple. But being able to sell smartphones to people who otherwise wouldn’t have purchased an iPhone (either for a feature phone or a cheaper Android device) is not a bad fallback.

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AT&T, the U.S. carrier that’s offered the iPhone the longest, actually had the biggest year over year bump in iOS device sales. Smartphones made up 35.4 percent of all AT&T sales during the 12 weeks ending Nov. 25, inching up from the 30.9 percent during the same period in 2011. And while AT&T is selling more smartphones, it’s also selling more iPhones: its iOS device share was 71.8 percent from mid-October to right after Black Friday this year. That’s up from iOS’s 62.3 percent share during the same period in 2011.

But the story was even better at Verizon, on whom AT&T had an almost three year head start in offering Apple’s phone. While Verizon saw barely any change in the ratio of smartphones to all other device sales during the six-week period in October/November (31.9 percent compared to 31.3 percent in 2011), it sold more iPhones anyway: iOS devices made up 55 percent of smartphone sales for the carrier, up from the 40.7 percent during the same period a year ago.

Kantar’s research is put together from continusous research throughout the year with 250,000 U.S. consumers. Here’s their latest market share data:

Some of Apple’s gain appears to be RIM’s loss as Blackberry sales dropped off at both carriers. Windows devices declined only at Verizon, while they saw an increase at AT&T. The remaining pickup by Apple may have come from new customers joining the carrier, or from upgrades from Android devices, which lost share year over year during that same period at both AT&T and Verizon.

U.S. carriers will likely add much more detail to their overall quarterly sales during their individual earnings call later this month: AT&T on Jan. 24 and Verizon on Jan. 22.

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Rani Molla/GigaOM

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The lawsuit was brought by California man Betsalel Williamson who had to replace the screen of his brand new iPhone after he knocked it off the arm of a chair, resulting “in spider cracks across the back glass panel.”

In his ruling handed down this week, US District Judge Edward Davila wrote that “it is a well known fact of life that glass can break under impact” and said the iPhone owners failed to show that Apple breached a warranty or violated California’s consumer protection laws.

The lawsuit argued that Apple ads touting the glass as “20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic . . . ultradurable and more scratch resistant than ever” were misleading. It cited a study that the glass on the iPhone 4 breaks at a 82% higher rate than earlier iPhones, forcing consumers to to pay $29 to replace a cracked screen and $199 if the glass housing breaks.

Judge Davila didn’t buy the claims, however, and wrote that Steve Jobs’ claims about the glass were “mere puffery” rather than a promise that could be the basis of a lawsuit:

A “reasonable consumer” viewing a commercial showing the iPhone 4 in use as a phone, but without a cover, would not be misled to believe that the iPhone 4 could withstand any particular level of impact if the phone was dropped.

The judge noted in several other parts of the ruling that a phone without a case was more vulnerable.

Davila gave permission for the plaintiffs to amend the complaint in order to show how specifically Apple deceived them.

The judge’s ruling, which was first reported by Law360 (sub. req’d), is below with relevant portions underlined:

iPhone Screens

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Image courtesy of Flickr user Nisha A.

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Apple isn’t snubbing T-Mobile or other regional operators here. It’s merely following the path of least resistance. NTelos’s CDMA 1X and EV-DO use the exact same frequency configurations as Verizon Wireless’s and Sprint’s networks, as does the network run by C Spire, the first small operator to land the iPhone.

Several other media outlets have reported that there are no technical reasons Apple can’t offer T-Mobile an iPhone 4S. That’s true, but there is one big practical reason: Apple would have to add support for T-Mobile’s HSPA+ wireless frequencies if the device was to have more than just bare-bones 2G data connectivity. As we have pointed out before, adding new bands to the iPhone is much harder than it sounds, and building a specific variant of the iPhone for a single carrier is something Apple has been so far unwilling to do.

Things will change as Apple adds LTE to its smartphones. There is so much fragmentation in the LTE airwaves that Apple may be forced to design multiple versions of the iPhone to target different markets and even specific carriers. The two versions of the new 4G iPad were essentially custom-designed for AT&T’s and Verizon’s LTE networks. Furthermore, once T-Mobile completes its own LTE network in 2013, its 4G bands will match up with those of Verizon, AT&T and the Canadian operators. That means any iPhone working on AT&T’s network will work on T-Mobile’s.

C Spire and nTelos may not be so lucky when it comes to that same 4G iPhone. The same forces that work in T-Mobile’s favor will conspire against the smaller carriers. Today they benefit from the fact that to Apple devices their networks look just like Verizon’s. When LTE arrives, that advantage goes away.

NTelos will begin selling the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S on April 20, offering the former for as cheaply as $50 and the 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB versions of the 4S for $150, $250 and $350, respectively — all with two-year contracts. NTelos will offer two iPhone plans that cost $80 and $100, which vary voice usage, but both include substantial data buckets, 5 GB, but if customers exceed that cap their speeds will be throttled.

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Credit: M.I.C. Gadget

On the day Apple was set to sell the iPhone 4S for the first time in China, huge crowds gathered outside the Shanghai and Beijing stores and became so unruly Apple had to close the stores and SWAT teams were called in.

We mentioned the long lines on Thursday, and you can see from the pictures that there was likely going to be a supply problem compared to the sheer number of people who showed up to buy phones. It turns out a large percentage of those who showed up were resellers who were paid to stand in line to buy their maximum two iPhones per person in order to “resell the phones right in front of the store at a hefty premium,” according to Chinese gadget blog M.I.C. Gadget.

Writes Fortune:

According to eyewitness reports, fights broke out at Sanlitun among rival gangs of 30 to 50 ‘yellow bulls’ — migrant workers bused in by resellers and promised 120 yuan ($19) and a food allowance to stand in line. After waiting as much as 12 hours in temperatures that fell to -9°C, they were understandably angry when all they got for their trouble was their 10-yuan food allowance.

The Chinese blog M.I.C. Gadget reports that when an unidentified man with a bullhorn announced that the sale had been cancelled, the crowd chanted ‘Open the door!’ and ‘Liars!’ and began pelting the store with eggs.

According to reports, the Beijing store was supposed to open at 7 a.m. After some fights had broken out prior to that, Apple delayed the opening. That made the crowds angrier, and the raw eggs were hurled once the store decided to remain closed and not sell the phones. Pictures from the scene show that SWAT teams were called in to disperse the unruly crowd. Apple then decided to close its four other stores in China for the day.

It is still possible to buy the iPhone 4S in China, just not in a store for the time being. Instead Apple is pointing customers to its online store or carrier partners.

This is not the first time that violence has marred an Apple store event in China. A fight broke out at the same Beijing store when the white iPhone 4 first went on sale in May 2011.

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Photos from Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo clearly show huge crowds at the two Beijing and three Shanghai locations, despite temperatures between 32 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The lineups are likely for people who want to try to get an iPhone off-contract and unlocked, starting at 4,988 yuan, or around $790. Shoppers can also buy directly from China Unicom, which even has some pricing plans that allow users to pick up the hardware free, but monthly contract requirements for those subsidies are quite steep. Plus, buying unlocked makes it easier for scalpers to resell devices through unofficial channels.

When it launched in the U.S., the iPhone 4S was also greeted with long lines, and in Hong Kong, attendance at Apple’s retail flagship store numbered in the thousands. The Chinese launch of the 4S should be the biggest since it debuted in October, since China is now Apple’s second-most-important market, and according to at least one estimate, it’s conceivable that Apple sold more iPhones in China during its fiscal fourth quarter of 2011 than it did in the U.S.

The staggered launch means that sales resulting from the Chinese launch of the iPhone 4S will appear as part of Apple’s second fiscal quarter results and not those that will be reported on Jan. 24. That could help Apple post higher iPhone shipments next quarter even without the holiday bump, especially if its regulatory progress with getting a China Telecom-compatible version of the 4S to market bears fruit within the next couple of months.

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The survey from ChangeWave, which gathered results from Dec. 2011, found that 54 percent of those polled said they intended to get a smartphone from Apple, compared with just 13 percent for Samsung, Apple’s next closest competitor. The iPhone lost ground compared to the same survey taken in Sept. 2011, however, and Samsung gained a number of potential customers. In the earlier survey, which came prior to the iPhone 4S’ official unveiling, 65 percent said they wanted an Apple device while only 5 percent were after a Samsung phone.

Motorola also gained some potential customers, increasing from 5 percent in September to 7 percent in December. HTC and BlackBerry rounded out the top five, but each suffered a drop in demand. Apple’s demand suffered the biggest percentage point loss, but ChangeWave says its numbers are actually higher than usual following a major product release.

Typically, demand for an Apple device peaks just prior to a new device’s unveiling and tails off considerably once the shipping product hits the market. According to ChangeWave, the 11-point dip is actually much less striking than usual; in fact, the company notes that “Apple has never dominated smart phone planned buying to this extent more than two months after a major new release.”

Also, Apple’s customer satisfaction remains high in this survey, with 75 percent’s saying they are “very satisfied” with their devices. Samsung and HTC phones are in a distant second-place tie for satisfaction, each with 47 percent’s reporting being “very satisfied.” ChangeWave says customer satisfaction is a key factor in deciding which phone customers end up planning to buy during their next purchase.

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An iPhone Smart Cover that does more

The TidyTilt carefully avoids using the actual words “Smart Cover,” which is a smart move given Apple’s propensity to quickly and strongly defend its trademarks. But as a segmented, magnetic cover that also doubles as a stand, it has striking similarities. But the TidyTilt isn’t designed first and foremost as a protective device; it doesn’t cover your screen, after all. Instead, it lives on the back of your iPhone 4 or 4S, thanks to an adhesive magnetic frame, and provides on-the-spot cord and cable management.

The magnetic strip attaches to your iPhone’s back surface with a removable adhesive, and it can then be used to stick the device to metal surfaces. It also connects with magnets in the TidyTilt itself to keep it in place on the back of your device, adding very little extra depth. The TidyTilt panel can be folded to act as a spool for earphones or a dock charging cable, and it can also be used to prop up your iPhone for viewing or typing. It’s a remarkably versatile but somewhat hard to describe system. Check out the video below to see it in action.

Just a $19 pledge nets you a preorder for the TidyTilt, which is pretty cheap for what looks like a completely unique yet highly functional iPhone accessory.

Swanky iPad storage

The diFeltro Fold enters a crowded market: iPad bags. But this handcrafted beauty, designed in the U.S. and made in Italy using German wool felt and Italian leather, oozes style and practical usability. It should add very little weight to the iPad itself, and it has a magnetic pocket for cables, chargers and accessories and should prove a long-lasting iPad companion.

If you want to impress at the board meeting as well as among your friends, the diFeltro fold is an awesome balance between fashion and function. A $150 pledge nets you a preorder, which is sure to be a heavy discount off the retail price for a handcrafted product that uses these kinds of materials.

Cables where you need them

The Cord-On-Board iPhone 4 and 4S case packs a hidden secret: a dock charging cable that is always on hand when you need one. For those who have left the things in hotels across the world, this will definitely come as a welcome innovation.

The case comes with a short dock-to-USB cable to use for charging and syncing purposes with your iPhone, which can be stowed out of site within the shell of the case itself. It adds a little bulk to the iPhone but also an ergonomic curve to the iPhone’s back that might actually make it more comfortable to hold. Plus, every case ships with a removable screen protector.

Preorders for the Cord-On-Board start at the $25 pledge level. It’s an interesting concept that could definitely strike a chord with travelers, but it still has a lot of funding to gather before it meets its $20,000 goal.

Got an exciting Kickstarter project? Send it to us for consideration in our regular roundup of promising accessories.

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