| While Apple did not introduce any significant iPhone upgrades at its annual Macworld convention, which ran Jan. 14-18 in San Francisco, the iconic device still made waves.
Apple has sold more than 4 million iPhones since its launch, but what's more interesting is what the people who bought it are doing with it.
In data provided to the New York Times, Google disclosed that it received more traffic from iPhones this Christmas than from any other mobile device, despite owning only two percent of the smart-phone market and less than onepercent of the overall mobile-phone market. That means that while fewer people own iPhones, those who do possess the device use it to access the Internet much more than those with competing handsets.
What's not clear is whether the iPhone's slick design and simple user interface has proved useful for other functions — such as buying music. Although iPhone users can purchase songs from iTunes when in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot, Apple declined to reveal how many have done so.
This month, Apple will release a software development kit that third-party developers can use to write applications for the iPhone. To date, developers were limited to writing Web-based applications — one of the reasons behind the iPhone's high rate of browser use compared with other devices.The music industry will be watching iPhone versions of existing music-focused online services.
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