"Apple Computer Chief Executive Steve Jobs has a reputation for thinking different. But now he might be planning a move for Apple that will leave even his biggest fans surprised--becoming a phone company." Read more at Forbes.
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This seems to be the logical next step in Apple's domination of the music download business. With cell phones getting smaller and more chic, and iPod phone with a lot of Flash memory or with support for external memory cards would instantly be a must-have item (especially in Europe, where cell phones are much more important culturally and fashion-wise). With the iPod photo and its camera connector, Apple seemed finally to be realizing the ability for the iPod to communicate with other devices, and I fully expect the G5 iPod to be an iPod/phone/camera, available just in time for Christmas. Can you imagine the money to be made from selling ringtones on iTunes? And, as this article said, there is not a much better way to do this than for Apple to give its own cellular service.
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What would be really great is if Apple developed a nation-wide WiFi network and developed a wireless VOIP phone to sell along side their network. This would allow customers to purchase a combined data/phone plan. That said I don't think that WiFi technology is at a place to make it feasable or profitable, but one can still dream.
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I hear T-Mobile is up for sale...Maybe Apple can buy/merge with them. I for one could care less about an iPod/cell phone hybrid. Just doesn't seem pratical, at least until better batteries become available, and cellular hardware reliability improves.
What WOULD be funny though is some teeny-bopper "jammin" on down the street and drops this. Not only would he/she/it be out of the $400 plus the "iTunes phone" would cost, but they just lost their main means of communication, digital entertainment, and will to live all at once. Man that's good comedy.
Just my 2 cents. Peace people.
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I seriously doubt that Apple would buy any phone carrier. The Forbes article stresses that it sees a MVNO partnership with an existing carrier. And it seems like the bigger MVNO relationships are happening with Sprint (Virgin, Disney) so they must be offering good terms. They also have a really good data path with EV-DO being rolled out, and I'm sure tethering with Powerbooks would be a big draw.
Sprint is CDMA (sorry GSM fans and world travelers), but that wouldn't be a problem since their market would be mostly North America, I'd assume.
The carriers are falling all over themselves trying to lock their users into crappy service sandboxes with overpriced ringtones, and interoperability with a computer is not only not stressed, but actively resisted, and it's only getting worse. That's why I think this would be a real opportunity for Apple. I, for one, would consider signing up, if the rates were similar to what I'd get from SprintPCS today.
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Every time I see a commercial for mobile phones with mp3 capability, I have to shrug and shake my head. Why? Because most phones barely have 64 MB of capacity! And otherwise it's 256 or 512 MB, which is still 2 times nothing. I can't live with just a few hours of music, so Apple might have something to offer here.
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"Every time I see a commercial for mobile phones with mp3 capability, I have to shrug and shake my head. Why? Because most phones barely have 64 MB of capacity"
You're right, of course. What use is an mp3 player that will barely hold an album's worth of music? But flash memory is so cheap now that there's no reason that Apple couldn't specify 512 or ever 1 MB and have something roughly equivalent to a shuffle in capacity. Thing is, the carriers control the specs of the handsets 100% today, so there's no incentive for a manufacturer to make a phone with enough memory for a lot of songs. But Apple (or Microsoft) could change that.
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What would be the point of going to 3G, when WiMax is around the corner? WiMax promises higher speeds, and could be used with a mobile IP phone.
I know it's apples to oranges, but Skype already sounds better than my T-Mobile phone does, going from an 802.11 WiFi equipt PocketPC out to my 3Mbps cable connection. A WiMax equipt phone with something like Skype adapted to it, with a 30 mile range between towers sounds nice.
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"What would be the point of going to 3G, when WiMax is around the corner?"
Will WiMax ever cover the expanses of rural and uninhabited areas along major highways? I see WiMax with VoIP as being an interesting contender in urban areas, but a stretch to see it replace the mobile phone networks.
On the other hand, an entirely new phone infrastructure based on WiMax or a derivative and VoIP is certainly an interesting disruptive business model.
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Apple's got the building blocks. It does have some good ideas about Music (iTunes) PDAs (Newton) and then wimax/wifi (Airport) and video (Quicktime). Now combine all of these features into a standard GSM or CDMA phone with some serious style (iPod/iBook) and you've got a killer product.
The last bit is to own the network - put up a itunes like store to get all kinds of software services and you're going to basically be able to buy Sun for Java.
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errr.. that would be lame i think.
I disagree. Whenever I use cell phones, I've thought, "hmm... I wonder what kind of a cell phone Apple would make"?
I think it could be quite interesting to see what kind of cell phone they made, it would probably be a lot different from other cell phones... think clean, small, and white... and wouldn't it be the first phone running an Apple OS (if that's what they put on it)?
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2005-07-06
"Will WiMax ever cover the expanses of rural and uninhabited areas along major highways? I see WiMax with VoIP as being an interesting contender in urban areas, but a stretch to see it replace the mobile phone networks."
Yes, WiMax will cover expanses of rural and uninhabited areas, if it is widely accepted as a standard. That's one of the benefits of it, wide range.
I don't think it's unreasonable, and neither do the mobile phone companies, who are now nervously looking at what WiMax brings.
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Yes, WiMax will cover expanses of rural and uninhabited areas, if it is widely accepted as a standard. That's one of the benefits of it, wide range.
A regular GSM cell tower has a voice-call range of 20 miles or so in flat areas.
WiMax range is up to 30 miles, but it's said that under realistic loads you're really talking about 4 to 6 miles even with ideal terrain.
So if you're talking about a transition from cell to wireless VoIP via WiMax, don't hold your breath when it comes to rural and lightly populated areas. Yes, range is what makes WiMax attractive, but all things are relative.
Now, WiMax VoIP in highly populated areas is another story. And WiMax for data is also another story - it's a lot better than the current 3G networks in capacity and range.
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2005-06-29
This brandname is so good that people would buy anything to be hip, tredny or just to play with new gadgets. Also, they was on the spot with iPod, maybe it's another shot from the dark that hit in the middle of target? If Adidas / Nike would introduce a energy drink (maybe they have it allread, I don't knoe) people would buy it. That's good connection, because sport-reletaed company gives up sport-related drink. Apple is known from thier mobile devices. Phone's mobile device, too.
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http://www.iphone.org/
Check out when this was applied for and check out when they acquired trademarks on "iPhone" in all countries.
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Not to mention how easily Apple can be eaten alive by some very big telecom companies. The only thing that Apple could do successfully would be to cooperate with an existing mobile manufacturer and add in things like design and user interface design (though Motorola's iTunes app looked like utter crap, and a total embaressment for Apple. I have never seen anything that ugly associated with Apple before, ever.) and possibly a few applications. It is childs play to make an iTunes like app and a lot of carriers are surely thinking about the possiblities of having huge amounts of mp3s for people to buy.
Heck, 3 here in Europe is offering _free_ music downloads all summer for new users. Beat that price Apple!
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2005-07-06
Maybe they could partner with somebody and release an Apple branded phone, or set up a system where phone manufacturers can buy 'iTunes connectivity'. I don't see them actually getting into the handset market though.
If you take into account that handsets are heavily subsidized (loss leader) and that Apple would have to buy the necessary technical expertise to actually design/manufacture them, I think it makes little economic sense.
Besides nobody I know really wants those integrated devices they've been trying to push for years now. Now suddenly everyone is going to want one because it's an Apple ?
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they have been successful with small devices.
iPODs that are more like PDA's would be neat (or PDAs that are more like iPODs)
and adding a phone + mp3 player to their line up would rock. I'd deffinately buy one. Have the ability to take calls while music is playing... ah...
Apple does not tend to buy people out and I think they are very capable of doing it on their own. They aren't a crackpot company like Mandriva that buys out linux companies not for the brand, the employees or even IP--but for a distributing network.
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Apple has always been a phony company, with over-rated products and over-blown ads and preaching sessions to attract Apple-zombies. By adding tele- to -phony, he will be able to continue to suck more of the bejesus money from all the apple-zombies, not to mention convert new ones.
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