iPhone Tops SmartPhone Sales in June

The iPhone has leaped past its competitors to become the best-selling smartphone on the market in July, its first full month of sale, according to Reuters.

The iPhone accounted for 1.8 percent of all US mobile handsets during the month. Those most likely to buy the iPhone were male, over 35, with a college degree, according to iSupply.

Further, a quarter who bought the iPhone switched to operator AT&T, which has an exclusive contract with the phone.

Apple's two models beat out Research in Motion's Blackberry series, the entire Palm offering, and any individual smartphone model by Nokia, Samsung, or Motorola.

What's more, it also tied the current top-selling "feature phone" — or phones with features like mp3 and camera capabilities — LG's Chocolate. An analyst from iSupply said the iPhone is historic in that it competes with both smart- and feature phones, making it a "crossover phone."

ISuppli estimates that the iPhone will sell 4.5 million iPhones this year, and 30 million by 2011.

Nokia to buy Photo-Sharing Social Networking site Twango

Reuters reports that Nokia, the world's top mobile phone maker, said on Tuesday it would buy U.S.-based photo-sharing social networking site Twango (http://www.twango.com/), but did not disclose the price.

Twango was founded in 2004 but U.S. traffic data from measurement firms Hitwise and Quantcast and global data from Alexa.com show it has found little audience so far compared to sites like YouTube, PhotoBucket or Flickr.

Nokia has increased its acquisitions under Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who took over in June 2006. He has said the firm is looking to acquire more companies to strengthen its multimedia and corporate offering.

"The Twango acquisition is a concrete step towards our Internet services vision of providing seamless access to information, entertainment, and social networks," Anssi Vanjoki, head of Nokia's multimedia unit said in a statement.

"We have the most complete suite of connected multimedia experiences including music, navigation, games, and - with the Twango acquisition - photos, videos, and a variety of document types," he said.

Analysts see Internet social networks as a key element in the future of the media business. News Corp.'s 2005 acquisition of MySpace has boosted the value of Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate as a whole.

(Additional reporting by Eric Auchard in San Francisco and Sakari Suoninen in Helsinki)