“One of the reasons the iPod has stayed on top is because it’s a moving target. Competitors can’t catch up because Apple changes the game every six to nine months,” Leander Kahney reports for Wired News. “Take the Zune. It’s an iPod knockoff that’s several years too late. Except for wireless Wi-Fi song sharing, it brings little new to the table.”
“A lot of observers feel that Apple has to change up the iPod if it’s to maintain its lead,” Kahney reports. “Many are convinced that Apple is about to release an iPhone — a blend of iPod and mobile phone. There’s a lot of debate about how Apple will do it. Will Apple continue to license iTunes to Motorola, being the software partner to Moto’s hardware? Or will Apple develop its own hardware and partner with Cingular or T-Mobile to sell the iPhone as a subsidized handset? Perhaps Apple will set up a virtual phone company, a so-called MVNO, that leases airtime from a cell company but slaps the Apple brand on it, like Disney has done?”
“The most likely scenario, as Jupiter analyst Ian Fogg has pointed out, is that the iPhone will be a stand-alone device that will accept a standard SIM card. You’ll pop the SIM card out of your current cell phone and plug it into the iPhone. It’ll be just like buying an unlocked handset from Asia, except you’ll buy it at an Apple store instead of on Craigslist,” Kahney reports. “An iPhone with no provider strings attached would be better for the online iTunes store than selling tunes over the airwaves, as some cell companies are trying to do.”
“The thing is, will Apple really sell an iPhone? I sometimes have my doubts,” Kahney reports. “But perhaps Apple will do what it does best — remove the clutter so there’s not a bunch of confusing functions to get in the way. Maybe the iPhone will be a music player that makes phone calls, rather than a phone that plays music. I have no doubt that Apple has developed such a device internally. I can see Steve Jobs playing with a prototype, issuing orders that the screen has to be brighter, or his songs aren’t coming up fast enough.”
Kahney asks, “When will the iPhone be launched? Likely when other devices start to eat into the iPod’s market share, which won’t be this holiday. Next year maybe?”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “moiety5” for the heads up.]
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and Bigfoot spotted at Macy’s
Wow! That was original–ugh Aboriginal.
There’s been so much bleedin’ talk about the iphone, it’s gotsta happen. Probly next year. Question is when and how…
MacToday
By your logic, Martians too shold be here next year… which they might
“When will the iPhone be launched? Likely when other devices start to eat into the iPod’s market share, which won’t be this holiday.”
Man… we’re going to have to wait an awfully long time.
If apple wait until other makers starts to “eat” market from the iPod, we will have to wait several year (or centuries if the other maker will be microsoft). I believe apple does not move for competition, they move to satisfy consumers, no competition.
This is a crucial time for Apple and requires real sound judgement. If they introduce a phone to incorporate and replace the iPod but it doesn’t work out, then bang goes your established iPod market and you won’t be able to go back and re-introduce the iPod because consumer confidence will be shattered.
On the other hand, do they just sit back and watch a newly developing mp3-playing-phone market establish itself without the world’s best software/hardware company being in from the ground up?
Or do they develop two products that we all know will one day merge into a single unit?
Not a decision I would like to have to make (although give me a few hunded thousand in salary and I’ll have a shot).
The iPhone is already yesterday’s news. It was just leaked that the Zune-phone, or teleZune, is coming out of the final development phase and should hit the store shelves within a matter of days, stealing the iPhone’s thunder. It uses design elements from the Zune music player, and other visual clues even more distinctive than the Apple logo to differentiate it from the competition and to show unambiguously that it is a Microsoft product. The young boy in the picture is demonstrating how to make a call:
Too late!
I laughed so hard I spewed my breakfast everywhere! Thanks for the morning laughter!
Apple won’t wait for a decrease in market share (since that will never happen anyway).
Like killing the mini for the nano, Apple will “kill” the nano for the iPhone. Apple innovates on its own- without the need for other wanna-bes to force its hand. (My guess is that they do this because THEY want these cool toys to play with!)
Anyway, I just hope the iPhone is a Treo killer- I want my contacts (Address Book), calendar (iCal), phone and music (iTunes) all in one device (and it would be great if it ran a Mac Mobile OS so that it would play games and other apps like e-mail and surfing). Just a thought…
Launch date:
February 30th, 2007…. confirmed.
Good point. Why launch an iPhone when it would canablise iPod sales for no good reason.
The iPhone is especially important in Asia. In Japan, the phone is used for practically everything and you can even pay for small bills like transit; they’ll just charge your phone bill.
Cameras on phones didn’t destroy digicam sales and mp3 phones won’t destroy ipod sales (i hope). I don’t need an mp3 player but an iPhone would be great.
I don’t need a Treo either and i don’t think Apple needs a Treo killer. They just need something that syncs songs, photos and contacts better than anything else on the market. Looking at the competition, it won’t be that hard.
Elephant pic: Worst enema … ever!
iPhone: I’m so tired of reading speculation about it!! I just want a damn phone.
Just give me a phone that syncs perfectly with iSync through Bluetooth and I’ll be happy. I would also be receptive to a PDA also that leverages the iPod platform. I could care less about integrating the iPod with either.
-b
Phone won’t be like nano vs. mini. They’ll sell both and consumers will decide.
And if it turns out consumers don’t really want music on their phones so much… that is the best possible news for Apple. They just have to make sure that their phone doesn’t lose to another mp3 phone.
“A lot of observers feel that Apple has to […insert anything here…]if it’s to maintain its lead.”
Analysts…
last week, a friend of mine left a button under his pillow. his little ruse paid off: the tooth fairy left him an iphone.
and a unicorn.
MacMan, I agree, I have a Treo 700P and though I think it is the best out there at what it does, it still stinks. Bad interface, clunky design and worst of all it crashes and stalls constantly (already sent one back and the new one does the same thing).
APPLE PLEASE SELL ME AN iPHONE THAT WILL REPLACE MY TREO!
Relax, hipster, we’ll tell you when it’s ready.
Some of us are already here…and we live near Seattle.
Personally I hope the theoretical iPhone will be futuristic, slick, sci-fi, stylish and not a simplistic, limited, girly-girly phone.
Daily tool kit… Nokia 6220 (Symbian OS) don’t like it.
Palm T5 Really good, has gps, contacts, calendar, bluetooth.
What I need is one device to replace both of these and the treo anin’t cut’n it. The screen is to small for gps use. So come on Apple bring it.
if an iphone device is ever released, you can be sure that it won’t do everything everyone wants it to. Many will pan it as being too expensive, not revolutionary enough, and without something.
And it will sell like crazy.