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Smartphone tracking apple

Smartphone tracking apple

Many bloggers and smartphone customers fretted about the privacy issues raised by Carrier IQ, an information-mining app secretly installed on many phones. But at the same time, other tech observers were beginning to say that some of those concerns may have been over the top.”Santa’s Sleigh Needs More Room for iPhones.” That was the headline on a note to clients Thursday by Mark Moskowitz, who follows Apple (AAPL) for J.P. Morgan.

Moskowitz was upping his iPhone sales estimate for the current quarter from 25.3 million to (a still relatively conservative) 28 million.First, a recap: On Monday, researcher and developer Trevor Eckhart posted a 17-minute YouTube video apparently showing how the software — designed as a diagnostic tool to find and help fix mobile network problems — runs on his smartphone and logs every keystroke, every text and the full URL of every website he visits.

As a companion piece to the comScore report Monday that Americans have spent a record $18.7 billion online so far this holiday season — up 15% from last year — consider this chart from Compuware APM showing the relative contributions of the two leading platforms for what it calls “couch commerce”: Apple’s (AAPL) iPad and iPhone.News of the app’s existence on millions of phones had bounced around on tech blogs for a while.

But attention skyrocketed this week when Eckhart posted his video.Cusick predicts that thanks largely to the iPhone, new postpaid (i.e. subsidized) cellphone accounts among the four major U.S. carries will be up 54% from last quarter. And of that 54%, he expects Verizon to get the lion’s share. He estimates:Verizon (VZ), which got the iPhone in February, will add 1.2 million new accounts.By Thursday, it had turned into a rapidly developing story in which new information seemed to surface hourly.

Mobile carriers and smartphone makers rushed to dispute claims made by Eckhart and others who said they confirmed his findings, explain their use of the app or announce that they once used it but plan to get rid of it.”Verizon is benefiting against all carriers compared to the third quarter,” Cusick writes. “iPhone sales seem to be tracking well above carrier and vendor expectations and could negatively impact margins in 4Q.”Many mobile customers seemed to focus their concerns on the fact that the software runs without their knowledge and appears difficult, if not impossible, to uninstall.

Tags: Apple, iPhone, smartphone, track, verizon