All Things Digital

AT&T (T) does intend to offer a no-contract-required option for Apple’s (AAPL) new iPhone 3G. It just doesn’t know when–yet.

In an announcement reaffirming the device’s pricing (from $199 for 8GB to $299 for 16GB to eligible customers), AT&T said it will sell the iPhone 3G without a contract for $599 (8GB) or $699 (16GB). When? “In the future.”

AT&T will begin peddling the iPhone 3G at its retail stores beginning July 11 at 8 a.m. local time, along with bundled voice and unlimited data plans ranging from $69.99 to $129.99 a month. The company’s posted a handy 3G coverage viewer here. If you’re not quite sure how to find an AT&T store, wait in line, and make a consumer electronics purchase, AT&T has a helpful list of “How to Get iReady” tips for you and some instructional videos as well …

China’s state-run newspaper, the Shanghai Securities News, has got it all wrong. Beijing isn’t investigating whether Microsoft engaged in discriminatory pricing. Nor does it plan to file an antitrust lawsuit against it once the country’s anti-monopoly laws are enacted in August.

At least that’s what China’s State Intellectual Property Office is claiming, anyway. This morning SIPO denied reports that it’s investigating Microsoft’s (MSFT) market position in the country. “The [State Intellectual Property] Office believes these reports are not real,” SIPO said in a statement. “The Office is authorized by the relevant government agencies to investigate and research domestic piracy issues. … The Office has never undertaken any market monopoly investigation, and has no plan to do so.”

A vehement denial. But one perhaps worth questioning, considering that a SIPO official confirmed the investigation to Agence France-Presse this morning: “Our departments are carrying out the investigation,” the official said. “We will release the findings later.”

What a lousy week for Intel, yeah? First Korea’s Fair Trade Commission fines the company $25 million for abusing its dominant market position there and offering discounts to PC-makers in an effort to drive rival AMD out of the market. And now the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has opened a formal investigation into its pricing practices.

In recent days the commission has subpoenaed Intel, AMD and a number of their PC-maker customers as part of a probe into Intel’s pricing policies, which some claim are engineered to maintain a near-monopoly on the chip market. Intel, which has long claimed that its business practices are well within U.S. law, did so again today in a statement announcing its cooperation with the FTC investigation. “The evidence that this industry is fiercely competitive and working is compelling,” it said. “For example, prices for microprocessors declined by 42.4% from 2000 to the end of 2007. When competitors perform and execute, the market rewards them. When they falter and under-perform, the market responds accordingly.”

But what if a competitor, say AMD, falters and underperforms because a rival is threatening its customers? What if it falters because a rival is using illegal inducements to dissuade PC-makers from buying AMD processors and “knee-capping” those who do? Which is what AMD accused Intel of in its 2005 antitrust lawsuit. In 2000, for example, Michael Capellas, then chief executive of Compaq Computer, allegedly told AMD that Intel had withheld the delivery of some microprocessors he needed for servers because of Compaq’s relationship with AMD. He told AMD he would stop buying from it, saying he “had a gun to his head.” And in 2004, Gateway officials are alleged to have told AMD that Intel “beat them into guacamole” in retaliation for their limited dealings with its rival. And these are but two incidents in a list that includes similar alleged acts of coercion by Intel involving 38 other computer makers, distributors and retailers.

Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs is so intent on extending his company’s lead in online music sales to the mobile market that he may finally be willing to give up the one-price-fits-all model that’s long been a cornerstone of Apple’s iTunes Music Store’s business model.

Cupertino is reportedly in talks with some of the major music labels about adding over-the-air downloads and a greater variety of ringtones and ringbacks to iTunes in advance of the debut of the 3G iPhone. But getting the labels to agree to such a thing may come at a price, or rather a variable-pricing model.

The labels have long wanted iTunes to abandon its policy of selling songs at a flat rate of 99 cents in favor of a variable-pricing system that allows them to charge more for popular tracks. In the past, they haven’t had the leverage they needed to force Apple to do this. But with the mobile music market at stake and the company gunning for a big 3G iPhone launch come June, Apple may have no choice but to agree to the labels’ terms.

“[Mobile is] clearly an opportunity Apple is missing,” IDC analyst Lewis Ward told Wired News. “And Apple is going to want to do it all themselves, but these OTA music storefronts have not sold very well. Maybe there’s secret sauce Apple’s thinking about, but the track record [of mobile music and ringtone stores that require a credit card rather than charging users via their cellphone bills] has not been impressive to date. The real issue is billing. People are much more comfortable with paying through a carrier [because] you don’t have to enter a credit card number or be worried about security. … That puts the carrier in the supply, and the carrier is going to want their cut, which means the margin for Apple goes lower.”

Steve Jobs has apparently accepted the unacceptable: Things don’t always go Steve’s way. The mercurial Apple (AAPL) CEO has been notoriously intransigent when it comes to matters of variable pricing on iTunes, arguing that charging higher prices for more popular content might backfire, sending customers off to the file-sharing networks. Now, as predicted yesterday, he appears to have reconsidered that stance, at least when it comes to HBO’s Emmy Award-winning programming.

This morning, Apple’s U.S. iTunes Store began offering six HBO series: “The Wire,” “Flight of the Conchords,” “Sex and the City,” “The Sopranos,” “Rome” and “Deadwood.” The first three are priced at iTunes’ standard rate of $1.99 per episode. The second three are $2.99 each, marking the first time Apple has allowed variable pricing for TV shows in the U.S.

Quite a coup for HBO (TWX), especially given some of the other concessions it was able to win from Apple: HBO programs won’t be offered for purchase on iTunes until they hit the DVD window, and new episodes of series won’t be available until months after their TV premiere.

HBO (TWX) has reportedly managed to do what NBC Universal (GE) failed so miserably at last year: convince Apple (AAPL) to adopt variable pricing at its iTunes digital media storefront.

Sources close to the network tell Portfolio.com that Apple will soon bring its programming to iTunes along with a separate and distinct pricing structure. No word yet on what that pricing structure is, but presumably it’s a lot more favorable than the one NBC Universal had.

An interesting move for Apple, and one that marks a shift in the company’s hard-line views of pricing. Perhaps the HBO arrangement is unique, perhaps not. But even if it is, it won’t be long before the entire content industry begins demanding similar deals.