“Boeing already has a plan to develop, launch and operate a constellation of 3,000 satellites in low Earth orbit. Apple is reportedly in talks with Boeing to be an investor-partner in the project,” Gillian Rich reports for Investors’ Business Daily. “With Apple on board, hundred-year-old Boeing could beat out the likes of Facebook, Alphabet’s Google and Tesla co-founder Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the race to create a new internet in space and capture hundreds of billions of dollars. In the process, Boeing also could upend the telecom market and enable emerging technologies, ranging from smart devices to self-driving cars, that are expected to send the appetite for spectrum soaring.”
MacDailyNews Take: Real competition in broadband providers is desperately needed in many parts of the U.S. and the world.
“At first glance, the satellite business may seem like a stretch for Apple. But consider that the company has sold more than a billion iPhones globally, sometimes with troublesome connections, and is looking at opportunities further afield such as mobile payments and autonomous driving, which will rely on access to robust, widespread wireless capabilities,” Rich reports. “Boeing won’t comment on a possible Apple collaboration, but Bloomberg reported in April that Apple hired two Google satellite executives for a new hardware team.”
“While existing satellite-based connections are often slower than land-based ones, Boeing, SpaceX and others plan to offer improved speeds by putting satellites at altitudes of less than 1,000 miles vs. more than 20,000, and create overlapping coverage with their massive fleets,” Rich reports. “[The plan] could be key to Boeing’s long-term future as the era of the space-based internet approaches and looks to eclipse the land-based internet.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote in April, “For only about the second or third time since Steve Jobs departed this earthly plane, we’re getting the sense that something wicked this way comes! It may be years out, but, when all is said and done, many Apple naysayers are going to be saying, ‘They’re baaack!‘”
Apple is interested in space satellites for the same reason they design their own chips and build their own operating systems:
I’ve always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do. — Steve Jobs, October 12, 2004
SEE ALSO:
Apple + satellites = ? – April 22, 2017
Why Apple may be interested in space satellites – April 21, 2017
Apple hires top Google executives for new hardware team – April 21, 2017
Apple in talks to buy Boeing communications satellites – March 18, 2015
Apple adds former Boeing CFO James Bell to Board of Directors – October 1, 2015
