“I have been fielding quite a few calls about Apple’s filing of the ‘Mobile Me’ patent. Folks have been speculating about a phone from Apple for more than a year. Being that I am a wireless analyst, I don’t follow Apple as closely as others do. What I do know though, is that we are not likely to know until Apple wants us to know. They are pretty good at big surprises,” Julie Ask writes for JupiterResearch. “Do I think they are developing a phone? Probably. Probably somewhere in their labs, there are prototypes of phones. Whether or not they bring one to market commercially is another story. Whether or not they will do so on their own is another open question. Hard to imagine carrier subsidies on a device unless there are revenues to be earned through downloaded services and content.”
“Will Apple become a MVNO? Another portion of the speculation. I think this is less likely than their releasing a handset. Apple creates amazing hardware and software, but they don’t do a lot of business with services. They don’t have relationships with consumers that translate into monthly subscription fees like the cable operators,” Ask writes. “it would be great if Apple did release a phone. They do a great job in terms of user experience and integration. I imagine a phone that could be side-loaded with music, video and photos just like my iPod. Everything would work. I wouldn’t have to worry about DRM or which media player is on my phone. I imagine it synching with my contacts and calendar in the same way. I imagine it could link into my home computer remotely and stream/download any photos or music I may have forgotten to take with me. I can imagine the hardware, but not the services (e.g., games, dating applications). If they would sell services, I would hope that I can browse and buy online. In the end, we are probably not going to know until they want us to know.”
Full article here.
Jupiterresearch’s Michael Gartenberg responds to Ask’s article: “I agree with Julie, there’s a lot of stuff that’s developed at Apple (and other places) that gets shown around but never actually makes it to market. The first efforts with MOTO and the ROKR was a pretty good experiment for Apple and it helped them learn more about the market and the dynamics.
“So let’s look at the market. It’s not likely Apple will get into a tradtional handset business. As everyone knows, in the US there are exactly four customers that Apple could sell to (and in the past Jobs has called them the four orifices) and that’s not Apple’s core competancy. Is it possible? yes, just not likely. Then there’s the MVNO argument that Apple offers their own service and of course a cool Apple device. OK. But what does that get them? Does it sell more iPods? More Macs? Granted, it could be a good business but is it really a good business for Apple? We do know that there’s a lot of resistance in the US for consumers to pay a premium for phones, even when the price difference is as low as $49,” Gartenberg writes. “Personally, I’d love to see an Apple phone. It’s not hard to imagine them doing a great job and improving the overall experience but I don’t think it’s a high probability. For the moment, file this one under Macintosh DVRs and Google PCs.”
Full article here.
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Related articles:
The San Francisco Chronicle: Apple may link cell phone, iPod – January 17, 2006
Apple Computer getting into the mobile phone market? – January 12, 2006
Apple applies for ‘Mobile Me’ trademark – January 11, 2006
Morgan Stanley predicts Apple shares surge, Apple ‘iPhone’ in 2006 – December 16, 2005
Analyst predicts Apple-branded ‘iPhone’ with iTunes and terabyte iPod within five years – November 11, 2005
How Apple’s Steve Jobs snookered the entire cell phone industry – October 03, 2005
Motorola CEO Zander: Apple to build a smart phone, it’s only a matter of time – September 29, 2005
Apple may eventually introduce its own ‘iPhone’ cell phone-iPod combo and create Apple MVNO – September 12, 2005
If Apple isn’t working on their own iPhone, they’re making a stupid mistake – September 12, 2005
Does Apple need a mobile phone of its own design? – September 09, 2005
Piper Jaffray: Apple should develop ‘iPhone’ by themselves – September 06, 2005
Forbes: Apple Computer planning to become a phone company? – July 08, 2005
Wendland: Bill Gates is right, iPod will be replaced by smartphones – by Apple – May 13, 2005
Apple Registers iPhone Trademark in Australia – December 02, 2002
What would be smart is a cell phone device that could sync with your .Mac account, your camera, iPod, etc. Everything stays in sync. If you happen to take a picture, you could instantly upload it to your .Mac photo album. Or perhaps there was a song that you purchased, and wanted to listen to on you iPhone. No problem, it goes and downloads it.
Plus, it is a PDA with iCal, and some applications. And it could connect to wireless networks instead of cell networks to feed your internet addiction.
I can see it……..but it won’t happen….
Eric,
True dat, double true.
The problem with “the four orifices” is that they want their GSM phones crippled so you can’t change carriers and take your phone with you. This is one situation where international sales could be higher than US sales as international carriers are a little more intelligent than what we have here. Buy a phone in Australia and you can put in a UK chip and use it all through the UK.
MVNO has one potential and that is ongoing revenues – just like the iTunes Store. I think I could go for that if the pricing was competitive. It also allows Apple to provide unique connections with the Mac – something a lot of users would go for.
‘Analysts’ = Moronic know-nothings
‘Tackle’ = talk out their ass
‘Rumors’ = speculative BS
‘Possibilities’ = drivel
So the headline “Analysts tackle Apple’s ‘Mobile Me’ patent, iPhone rumors, MVNO possibilities”
equals…
“Moronic know-nothings talk out their ass (about) Apple’s ‘Mobile Me’ patent, iPhone speculative BS, MVNO drivel”
“Probably somewhere in their labs, there are prototypes of phones. Whether or not they bring one to market commercially is another story.”
That means even real insider info sometimes turns out not to happen.
“I imagine a phone that could be side-loaded with music, video and photos just like my iPod. Everything would work. I wouldn’t have to worry about DRM or which media player is on my phone. I imagine it synching with my contacts and calendar in the same way.”
I have one! I have one! (raising one hand excitedly)
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It’s called a Treo 650. With a 2GB SD card.
And I get my company Email and calendar on it, too. Wirelessly.
The author writes has chosen to ignore the .Mac subscriber base. Off by 500,000 is she?
Perhaps Apple might be tempted to become an MVNO, but would do something fresh to make it work.
Apple have had enormous success with the iPod by using a business model where customers buy the hardware at sensible prices and then Apple sells them a service ( iTMS ) at a minimal overhead.
If they launched an Apple branded phone which was sold for a fair price and it worked with a network where customers got an always-on network connection, but were charged a fixed amount per gig of usage, with no monthly charges, then it would be a very simple to understand pricing system and people would relate to it. Calls would be VoIP, so would also be counted as part of the data usage. Customers would see the sense in paying for the phone and having usage priced fairly.
As an extra, Apple could also offer an ExpressCard cellphone interface for the new MacBooks, so that users could always have an internet connection wherever they were. Future laptops would doubtless have it built in.
Once again, they would be able to offer the whole widget, from computer to network through to cellphone, by way of dotMac too, with all the usual Apple innovations and attention to detail. They’d be sure to make it all work seamlessly and users would appreciate a communications system that actually worked for them.
Anybody think “Mobile Me” has to do with the Mobile Home idea from awhile back? Remember how you were supposed to load your iPod with your home directory from your computer – that way you could always have your user environment? Maybe it’s coming around again…
I do wish Apple would give me a better solution than my Handspring Treo. I’m sick of running Palm’s outdated software and fighting with buggy iSync implementations that shuffle my data into the wrong fields. A phone/PDA that syncs to Apple’s Address Book, iCal, Mail, iPhoto & iTunes would be a godsend. The Treo was a great start, but at this point it’s stillborn. Palm has completely blown it. What a shame.
I think that a Macintosh phone is inevitable. When you think about it, what is the one device that most people have (well, not counting me), a cell/mobile phone. There’s probably more people that own cell phones than walkman/itunes devices. So, it’s easy to imagine that Apple would want to move into this direction.
The thing that we’re all excited about is what this proposed MobileMe will have in the way of features. It will have iPod capabilities, but will it be a smart phone like the Treo (or name your favorite brand)? We shall see.
Here Comes The New And Improved NEWTON
“The Treo was a great start, but at this point it’s stillborn. Palm has completely blown it. What a shame.”
You should clarify that your problems are being caused by having your Treo syncing to a Mac. To claim that Palm has “blown” it is deliberately misleading. Palm may have done so with Mac users, but not with the rest of the world.
Sorry to hear about your problems – but I’ve had my Treo “multimedia/phone/wireless pda” solution for 11 months now and it works great. I do hope Apple delivers for you – and soon.
Patent? I thought “Mobile Me” was a trademark? I guess this “analyst” doesn’t know the difference.
BTW – is it just me who thinks “Mobile Me” might be just a name for the old, pulled, feature of being able to store one’s login on an iPod?
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Treo owner here since day one.
Color me unimpressed with the lack of any sort of multitasking, multifinder capability. Search really sucks.
Mobile Darwin / Mobile OS X is what is required, but how could Apple possibly find a sector to enter in and dominate??
The only approach for Apple: the digital hub.
This was coined by sjobs and they delivered. This is yet another spoke to the hub.
The killer that I see right now is data entry into a mobile apple device. The keyboard is an important feature, but it’s a no go. So what’s left, handwriting recognition? If they can get it to 99.5% accuracy, then maybe.
Isn’t the Mobile Mac OS a friggin’ no brainer? Send up the pirate flag! Emerging economies are running completely off of smart phones, and Apple won’t miss the boat.
iphone + mvno = nice meshup
Think of it as a PDA for people who don’t need PDA’s, kinda like the Mac vs PC. Macs are great for music, video, graphics and movies vs. PCs which are great for MS Office and Quickbooks. It would be simple and media centered with phone, email, and calendar functions. Think of it as an iPod with iLife and a phone built in.
Now if only .Mac came with VoIP!