This according to a new survey from ChangeWave Research (see chart below; click to enlarge), which found that the iPhone now accounts for 30 percent of the smart-phone market. That’s almost double the share it held a year ago. Remarkable considering that the device is currently available from just a single carrier.

“Apple’s share keeps skyrocketing,” said ChangeWave research director Paul Carton. “Their last earnings report points that out. But these numbers show that their momentum is continuing. They’re firing on all cylinders.”

Indeed. Of consumers who plan to buy a smart phone in the next 90 days, 36 percent plan to purchase an iPhone. Meanwhile, 27 percent are considering a BlackBerry and eight percent a Palm (PALM) device.

Said Carton: “In the horserace among manufacturers, the release of the iPhone 3GS has led to a big jump in smart phone market share for Apple and has placed them within striking distance of Research In Motion–whose slew of models are still number one but have fallen to their lowest level in two years.”

[Image Credit: GadgetPhix]

“We estimate that the iPhone represents more than 100 percent of O2 UK’s growth, 6 percent of subscribers, 14 percent of service revenues and 13 percent of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization,” said Bernstein analyst Robin Bienenstock. “In the UK O2 has consistently taken contract share from competitors (in particular Vodafone) since its sole distribution of this iconic brand began.”

So what will happen now that three carriers will be peddling the device? A price war, most likely. “Research shows that in every country where there is more than one operator selling it, it is cheaper,” Steven Hartley, analyst at technology research house Ovum, told The Telegraph. “It could be very disruptive, but it depends how Orange play it. If they get really aggressive O2 will have to respond and a full-on price war could start.”

A more interesting question to ponder, though, is whether the end of iPhone exclusivity abroad means the end of exclusivity in the states as well. Apple’s (AAPL) contract with AT&T (T) is set to expire as early as next year, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t be renewed–much as customers dissatisfied with the carrier’s network hope it does. By ending exclusivity with AT&T, Apple could offer the iPhone through Verizon (VZ) as well, potentially more than doubling U.S. iPhone sales in the near term. But to do that, the company might have to build another version of the device, which would remove the advantage of manufacturing and supporting a single model per year.

For its fiscal first quarter, Oracle’s net income rose to $1.1 billion, or 22 cents a share, from $1 billion, or 21 cents a share in the same period last year. Revenue for the period ended in August fell five percent to $5.1 billion. Excluding special items, earnings for the quarter would have been 30 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had been expecting earnings, excluding items, of 30 cents a share, and $5.2 billion in revenue.

“By substantially improving operating margins we were able to increase Q1 earnings per share even though revenues decreased slightly,” Safra Catz, Oracle’s president, said in a statement. “We grew non-GAAP operating margins by 570 basis points to 46 percent in our seasonally smallest quarter. Our operating model continues to drive earnings for our stockholders.”

Yeah, but good luck trying to tell them that. Shares of Oracle (ORCL) have fallen more than three percent to $21.42 in after-hours trading following the earnings announcement.

Once $399, Apple’s (AAPL) 32GB iPod touch is now $279. Once $299, the 16GB iPod touch is now $249. And the price of the 8GB model has fallen from $229 to $189. The price of the 16GB nano is now $149, down from $189, and the price of its 8GB sibling is $129, down from $149. Finally, the price of the iPod classic, which is apparently not quite EOL yet, has been cut to $229 from $249.

“The ‘PC Hunter’ ads, the ‘PC Rookie’ ads clearly have been winners in the marketplace,” Turner said. “And you know why I know they’re working? Because two weeks ago we got a call from the Apple legal department saying, ‘Hey’–this is a true story–saying, ‘Hey, you need to stop running those ads–we lowered our prices.’ They took like $100 off or something. I did cartwheels down the hallway. At first I said, ‘Is this a joke? Who are you?’ Not understanding what an opportunity. And so we’re just going to keep running them and running them and running them.”

But only after tweaking the ad in question to reflect Apple’s recently lowered prices, Ad Age reports.

Microsoft’s (MSFT) Laptop Hunters ad, which once depicted the supremely annoying “Lauren” opting for a $972 Dell (DELL) laptop over a $2,000 MacBook Pro now features no reference to that machine at all. Which is appropriate, since it was replaced with a new $1700 model in early June. And now, rather than harping on that $2000 price point, “Lauren” simply suggests that Mac users are “paying a lot for the brand.”

Not nearly as much as Microsoft is paying for these silly commercials. Anyway …

“We slightly adjusted the ads to reflect the updated pricing of the Mac laptop shown in the TV advertisement,” Microsoft told Ad Age. “This does not change the focus of the campaign, which is to showcase the value and choice of the PC.”

The new ad:

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=6c7197c6-e6ac-4070-8aa0-e76ec5634ebe" target="_new" title="Laptop Hunters $1700 - Lauren and Sue get a Dell XPS 13">Video: Laptop Hunters $1700 &#8211; Lauren and Sue get a Dell XPS 13</a>

The old ad:

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&#038;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:0170090f-53b2-40fc-89a4-c759cb088e0a&#038;showPlaylist=true" target="_new" title="Laptop Hunters $1700 – Lauren and Sue get a Dell XPS 13">Video: Laptop Hunters $1700 – Lauren and Sue get a Dell XPS 13</a>

In a message to clients Tuesday, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster noted that Apple’s online store is currently showing 7 to 10 day lead times for its new lower-priced 13-inch MacBook Pros, and a number of the company’s retail stores are reporting dwindling supplies. “Our records show that Apple has never had a 7-10 day delay on its most popular 13-inch model, with the most recent significant delay being 5-7 days over 2 years ago,” Munster wrote. “We see this as a sign that demand is outpacing the company’s build expectations, and it may take several weeks to reach supply-demand equilibrium. In addition to delays at its online store, Apple retail stores are experiencing shortages in some 13-inch MacBook Pro models. Of the 10 Apple stores we contacted, 7 are short of at least one 13-inch MacBook Pro model.”

That being the case, Munster said he’s increasingly confident Apple (AAPL) will report sales of 2.2 million Macs for the June quarter. Not quite as high as the nearly 2.5 million Macs the company sold during the same period a year ago, but impressive nonetheless. We are still, after all, in a deep recession. Who said Macs are too pricey?

“In 2008, Apple introduced the iPhone 3G at $199, a 50 percent reduction from the previous model, which drove demand up significantly,” Munster said in a research note today. “Most customers will be able to purchase the new iPhone 3G S for $199 (the same price as the previous model). As such, the change in value proposition for the iPhone 3G S is not as meaningful as it was for the iPhone 3G, leading to less of a surge in units at launch. Moreover, the iPhone 3G was available in 21 countries at launch vs. the iPhone 3G S which will sell into 8 countries at launch (then over 70 more throughout the summer). These factors lead us to expect about half as many iPhone 3G S units at launch (500k) as Apple sold in the first weekend of iPhone 3G availability in 2008 (1m).”

So expect a big launch weekend for Apple, just not as big as as the one for the iPhone 3G. That said, 500,000 is a lot of iPhones–roughly five times the 100,000 Pres that Palm (PALM) was reportedly able to move in that device’s first week at market. Interestingly, Apple (AAPL) stopped taking U.S. preorders for the new iPhone 3G S for pickup at its stores tomorrow. The company told Bloomberg that it stopped accepting reservations “to make sure we have the new iPhone in stock at every Apple retail store.”

“Android has fast been winning healthy support among operators, vendors and developers,” said Strategy Analytics director Neil Mawston. “A relatively low-cost licensing model, its semi-open-source structure and Google’s support for cloud services have encouraged companies such as HTC, Motorola, Samsung, T Mobile, Vodafone and others to support the Android operating system. Android is now in a good position to become a top-tier player in smartphones over the next two to three years.”

If that comes it pass, it’s bad news for Palm (PALM) whose Pre handset and WebOS will be facing off against a powerful mobile triumvirate: Apple (AAPL), Research in Motion (RIMM) and Google (GOOG).

As ChangeWave research director Paul Carton notes, “as we approach the 1st quarter, the ball has shifted back into BlackBerry’s court.” And that would seem to be the case. Sadly for RIM, middling customer satisfaction ratings for the Storm may undermine its broader adoption.

“The overall satisfaction rating given by new owners of the Blackberry Storm can, at best, be characterized as lukewarm,” says Carton. “One in three Storm owners (33 percent) said they were Very Satisfied with their new model, well below the 52 percent Very Satisfied rating given by all current owners of BlackBerry smart phones.” And that’s worth noting, because the first-generation iPhone’s Very Satisfied rating–77 percent–was more than double the Storm’s. Furthermore, the Storm’s Unsatisfied rating (14 percent) is three times that of the iPhone (five percent). So while the Storm would seem to have quite a bit of near-term potential, it’s long-term success could be hamstrung by poor reviews and unsatisfied customers.

After being plugged in for somewhere between 5 to 10 minutes I heard a sizzling sound. I looked down on the iPod just in time to see it explode open and start shooting sparks and spewing smoke. I managed to unhook the iPod from my computer’s USB port immediately. I noticed that a small fire had started on the table I had the laptop and the iPod sitting on, and I managed to extinguish those flames quickly before any apparent damage could be done to my laptop. Unlike in other cases, I’ve read about, my iPod continued to spew smoke and spit sparks while throwing out some kind of sooty substance from the inside of the iPod for several minutes after removing the cable from the computer.”

– A Consumerist reader recounts his experiences with Apple’s iPod Flamo

What an ugly week for Apple. Voice and data reception issues plaguing iPhone 3G, MobileMe still not up to company standards and now reports of sparking iPod Nanos. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is investigating a possible battery defect in Apple’s older iPod Nano music players after receiving reports of minor fires caused by overheating devices. “There have been multiple cases of overheating and fire damage, in particular during recharging, so please use caution,” METI said in a statement on its Web site.

METI is working with Apple Japan to diagnose the problem, which is said to affect only Nanos sold in Japan between Sept. 2005 and Sept. 2006, although there have been reports of similar incidents in the states.

Another tough break for Apple (AAPL), which just can’t seem to shake this negative news cycle.

UPDATE: Apple just issued the following statement:

Apple today responded to statements reported by Japan’s METI regarding batteries in the first-generation iPod nanos. Apple has determined that in very rare cases, batteries in first-generation iPod nanos sold between Sept. 2005 and Dec. 2006 can overheat, causing failure and deformation of the iPod nano. Apple has received very few reports of such incidents (less than 0.001 percent of first-generation iPod nano units), which have been traced back to a single battery supplier. There have been no reports of serious injuries or property damage, and no reports of incidents for any other iPod nano model.

Any first-generation iPod nano customers who have experienced their battery overheating should contact AppleCare for a replacement. Any other customers who have concerns about their first-generation iPod nano battery should also contact AppleCare.