“Nana Furman doesn’t own a mobile phone, preferring not to be pestered with calls during her private time. But Furman, a young Chicago professional, is a big fan of the iPod and all things Apple. So, if Apple Computer were to launch a cell phone–one with links to Apple’s Web music store and other Apple applications–she might reconsider, saying she would ‘definitely be intrigued.’ Apple watchers and wireless-industry observers think a lot of people would be intrigued. In fact, they expect the iPod maker to launch its own phone and wireless service, calling it a logical extension for Apple and its famous brand,” Mike Hughlett and Eric Benderoff report for the Chicago Tribune.
“‘Nobody has come up with the definitive music experience on a handset yet,’ said John Jackson, a wireless industry analyst at market researcher the Yankee Group. ‘It’s a very open opportunity. It has powerful potential.’ If it is being built, its arrival time is uncertain. But Jackson and others say sooner is best for Apple: Phonemakers and wireless networks are beefing up their own music offerings. ‘If (Apple) doesn’t do it this year, there’s little sense of doing it,’ Jackson said. ‘Nobody is sitting still,'” Hughlett and Benderoff report. “Apple would probably get into wireless by becoming a “Mobile Virtual Network Operator, or MVNO. An MVNO offers consumers a package deal: phones and phone service. Under that scenario, it would buy wholesale airtime from a wireless network, and farm out much of its work–billing, phone distribution, customer service–to companies that specialize in those services. The MVNO launched earlier this year by sports network ESPN is a case in point. ESPN Mobile buys airtime from Sprint. It then focuses on producing content for the service–video clips, scores, etc.–and for marketing it. Just about everything else is contracted out.”
Full article here.
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they have until my phone contact runs out lol, though im sure if it happens itll be a bit later in the UK if they take the MVNO option
Apple will not launch a iPhone or a cellular service and I’ll tell you why.
Apple (under Steve Jobs) relies heavily upon creating and controling new markets with new products where they can charge a premium and collect maximum profits.
This is why SJ is so intent on getting the moles out of the company. Look at “Asteriod” it was going to be a new hardware product that interfaced with Garageband and music devices.
Steve Jobs is not interested in fighting a long protracted war with other phone device makers or cellular services over limited maket share.
There hopefully was going to be something with Cingular, Motorolla and Apple, but that seems to have died. Same thing with Apple, iPod’s and HP, that cooperation died as well.
Now it’s Apple and Intel, so anything that’s going to happen will include Intels plans in the deal, and since Intel is not a celluar carrier you can kiss any phone device goodbye, because without the carriers help it’s not going to sell.
nothing that would separate the ipod and a cell phone would ever work if apple was to introduce it… this would have to be a full fledged ipod with a cellular service added to it. which would also be bluetooth, high capacity drive (since any removable media is still too expensive), and a new level of wireless downloads which only apple could pull off.
just in
George W. Bush told his audience, “the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod.”
Wow, the US Government developed the iPod, amazing….
Next I’ll guess they will tell us Al Gore invented the internet!
Look…..Quit thinking of a cellular phone service. Apple’s plan is so far beyond phone service. We are talking about actual communication devices. As in I see you and you see me, now I see movie, tv show or whatever. Live sporting events and what-not. Please stop with the ” It’s going to be another cell phone service.
Jarrett has it right. No ordinary offering.
Andrew:
You are locked in the past, bound by narrow thinking, and restrained by what you see in the moment. If Apple were to develop a technology that surpasses what currently exists for mobile phones today, this could be significant.
If I were you, I wouldn’t be so confident in stating the impossible since you absolutely failed to predict the release of the iPod and dual booting.
Someone should tell Nana that cell phones have power buttons if she doesn’t want “to be pestered”.
What a dumb @$$
Cell phones have been restrained by their own perceived purpose. Like mp3 players existed before the ipod, “new” cellular content is available, but it’s generally unwieldy and unforgettable.
Because of this… room for a takeover.
um… forgettable.
This MVNO stuff is BS. Phone services are a commodity market, this is like suggesting Apple sells electricity or internet connections together with iBooks. BS!
Here is what is going to happen to carriers: Mobile phones will get IP-Adresses. All that counts then is how much I pay for my data transaction. That’s a service like broadband internet connections. It’s a commodity like electricity. Carriers will fight over price and realiablity and these two things alone. All services will come from the net, as they do now.
My advice to you my friend: Don’t be a carrier in 2008!
Look to Europe (http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/April2004/6898.htm) for your future. This is the more mature mobile phone market and this is where you are heading.
Al gore did invente the internet. Gosh. Why do you think it is called the internet? That is just two letters longer than Al Gore’s name… And two is the number of syllables in Al Gore’s name. So you see, the name internet (unless you ask GW… then it is internets), came from the name Al Gore. Gosh.
Not all change is linear. The US market is due for a shake-up…
No guarantees either way.
You are locked in the past, bound by narrow thinking, and restrained by what you see in the moment. If Apple were to develop a technology that surpasses what currently exists for mobile phones today, this could be significant.
History is a excellent teacher.
Sure Apple could create something fantasitic, but you fail to realize that there are companies already in this market, it would only be a few months before they would offer their own devices, sold in their own stores/affliates before Apple even has a chance.
If you rememeber your computer history, Apple created the personal computer market and was the market leader for quite some time until IBM, with it’s considerable resources entered the market and basically pushed Apple out.
Now how is tiny Apple going to push out the major phone makers and carriers which are considerably bigger than they are (even more combined)?
Don’t you think once Apple designed this great product and managed to patent it wouldn’t see duplicates and a ton of patent lawsuits within a year from all the competition?
Look at what happened to Poloroid and Kodak, Kodak immeditaly copied the “instant picture” and sat down in a long, expensive protracted patent war with Poloroid. Finally Poloroid won and Kodak paid from the profits of their copy.
Turns out the market changed to digital and instant photos went the way of the dinosaur.
Apple is better off creating entirely new products in markets where nobody really is positioned well in, they can steam full ahead and lock it up tight.
Fighting the entrenched competition is a waste of time and money.
Andrew:
I stand by my previous statement. You have not presented a logical or convincing argument that you can predict the future or that you have an original idea in your head. However, you are in good company with other well known prophets:
“640K ought to be enough for anybody.” Bill Gates, 1981
“The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible.” Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
“Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.” Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
Andrew, if you plan on “quoting’ history don’t lie or misrepresent the past. It is too easy for knowledgeable people to see that you really are a complete idiot, a biased hypocrite, or a lazy researcher.
Excellent points, Andrew.
If Apple only knew the fate that would befall them with IBM and other tech companies they would have certainly given up entirely. Who could blame them? Better to give up on designing the iPod before it is conceived than build one personal computer for nothing.
Imagine, if Polaroid and Kodak both developed the digital photography business together back in 1966 instead of competing over that lame self-developing film technology. Both companies still would be viable now and the world of image capture and processing would be so much different in the 21st century. If only they had read the history books. Especially those descriptive books about dinosaurs and their failed attempts of fighting extinction and the incessant patent battles over anti-extinction technologies that diverted financing from R&D.
I agree, nothing or no one on planet earth could ever compete with the combined force of mobile phone companies. Absolutely, totally impossible. In fact, the dictionary defines impossible as, “what mobile phone companies are against other businesses”.
Professor of history has a good point Andrew….. After Microsoft wrote the original Mac OS, and then renamed it Windows the sold it exclusively to IBM who inturn licensed the entire code base to the company Compaq ( who IBM willingly allowed to reverse engineer their hardware ) and eventually 50 PC companies that allowed IBM to become a monoply for the 2nd time in history and also the largest software company on the planet and the first company in history to hold 56 billion in cash reserves.
Andrew your idea of history might be just as believable as the forementioned. Congrats, you are not smart.
When Apple started their personal computers the market was pretty wide open, it wasn’t completely saturated. There were other computers like the Commadore 64 etc.. In fact Apple tried different things before copying from the Xerox Parc project for the Macintosh.
So it’s a completely different story than the celluar/phone market is today.
Now just for shit and giggles lets run some numbers, say there is 25 million Mac users like Steve Jobs says, with 15 million on Mac OS X.
How many of those would actually buy a Apple branded phone/service? A few thousand perhaps right away, a few more hundred thousand over time when existing plans and phones die?
How many stores does Cingular have all over the US? Thousands?
How man does Apple have? Hundreds?
Where else in the world do Apple products sell well? Not much outside of the USA really.
So people talk, writers write, trolls troll, but you sir are a brainless idiot not worthy of calling yourself a zeolot. Learn before you open that hole in your face you call a mouth.
a young Chicago professional without a cell phone?
huh?
“George W. Bush told his audience, “the government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod.”
Uhh, Andrew, you do realize that this was a joke? That is, making fun of the fact that the iPod is both a ubiquitous and cultural phenomenon?
I mean, you can like Bush or hate him, but seriously, a lot of people are humor impaired these days. Try reading the same line the following way:
“They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod.” (Laughter)
This is no different than someone joking, “Apple invented the iPod for one reason: to make the CEOs of certain technology companies look like blathering idiots.”
Please people – let’s get some reality here.
Well it seems it has drawn a lot of attraction
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http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/06/04/22/0531251.shtml
Andrew, I’m amazed you’re arguing about the future, which doesn’t exist, and misrepresenting the past at the same time! Quite a feat.
FYI, Kodak didn’t “immediately” copy Polaroid. They were manufacturing instant picture products for Polaroid for several years, until Polaroid got their own plant up and running. When they lost Polaroid’s business, they must have thought, what the hell, we can make it for ourselves, why not? Cost them a billion dollars in the final settlement.
Who knows what’s going to happen? Apple always surprises us.
Am I the only one around here with a three day old stinking dead chicken in my garbage?
Dead chickens are the worst smelling things in the whole world.
Let me tell you a story, see I went on vacation for a few weeks and while I was gone one of the AC units in my building went dead.
Well nobody had a key in town except me and I was gone. So I called the electric company to come pull the power, I forgot all about the chicken I put in the empty freezer a few weeks back.
Well I come back and open the unit and there’s this slight order, so I open the refrigerator, nana, open the freezer and just about puked my brains out. So I run out of theere and get me two plastic bags, one I used for air and the other for the rotting chicken.
Well I could grab the chicken out of the door slot, seems that it swelled itself from rotting and got stuck, so I had to break the holder on the door.
Next I couldn’t seem to grab it with the bag with one hand, the other was holding the bag full of fresh air next to my mouth.
Any way I actually had to sink my fingers deep into this rotting chicken, it was really hot inside too. Got it into the plastic bag and out the door into the trash.
Next Itried to clean up the rotten sloppy goo that was dripping and managed to get itself deep into the freezer parts.
I tried all sorts of chemicals, even stuff they use to clean up after dead bodies. It was totally gross.
Anyway still after all these years the refrigerator still stinks, but it’s near new so I just put up with it.
So anyway, I had this chicken m old lady was going to cook for dinner, but she didn’t. So we threw it out, just after the garbage trucks came. So the thing has been sitting cooking in the hot sun for three days now and it’s getting pretty rankish.
You ever want to torture somebody, get a bunch of raw chicken parts and throw them around where it would be hard to get at them but still stink up the area.
“Andrew” = MacDude, aka Morty, aka Murder junkie, aka… ad nauseum, folks. Don’t let him get you down. He’ll stick around only as long as you humor him – or at least until he realises there’s more fulfilling things in life than trolling a Mac news site (honestly, how sad does your life have to be to do that!).