“It’s perhaps the most hyped consumer electronics product today, and it might not even exist: Apple’s music phone. Nobody seems to have seen it, at least nobody who’s talking. Nobody quite knows what it will look like or how it will work. No one even knows what it will be called,” Troy Wolverton and Sarah Jane Tribble report for The San Jose Mercury News.
Wolverton and Tribble report, “But just about everyone — consumers, analysts and investors — is convinced that Apple’s working on a music phone. And many are betting that the Cupertino company is going to unveil it at the Macworld conference in San Francisco next month.”
“The tremendous amount of buzz about a product that Apple has yet to announce speaks volumes about the company’s marketing prowess, of course, not to mention its penchant for secrecy. But it also could be a strong indicator of what the product could mean for the company and for the mobile phone industry. ‘People view Apple as having the potential to create a market disruption,’ said Chris Crotty, an analyst with research firm iSuppli,” Wolverton and Tribble report.
“Even if Apple captured only 1 percent of that market, that would translate into 10 million “iPhones” — and potentially billions of dollars in new revenue,” Wolverton and Tribble report. “And some in and around the industry worry that Apple could take a larger share of the market.”
“‘I know if I buy a phone that says ‘iPhone’ that it’s going to work well with iTunes and it’s going to play music,’ said Phil Leigh, president of consulting firm Inside Digital Media. ‘Right now there are probably a dozen phones that hold music, and I don’t know which online sites they work with,'” Wolverton and Tribble report.
Wolverton and Tribble report, “The buzz around Apple’s possible phone indicates that people are not satisfied with the options on the market, said Michael Gartenberg, wireless analyst with Jupiter Research. ‘The other handset vendors should all take note that no one is talking about their products with the same level of enthusiasm,’ Gartenberg said.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Analyst describes Apple ‘iPhone’ featuring metal case in multiple colors with virtual click-wheel – December 14, 2006
UBS analyst: Apple may launch MVNO, serve as own carrier for ‘iPhone’ – December 13, 2006
Apple using ‘iPhone’ as diversion? – December 11, 2006
Apple’s ‘iPhone’ silence drives rumor mill crazy – December 08, 2006
BusinessWeek: Wish List for Apple ‘iPhone’ – December 08, 2006
Apple ‘iPhone’ could cause Nokia, Palm, Motorola, and RIM to really start to sweat – December 07, 2006
Apple shares fall as CIBC sees ‘iPhone’ release delayed – December 07, 2006
Analyst expects 16GB flash-based Apple iPod video player, 4-8GB flash-based ‘iPhone’ models – December 07, 2006
Prudential: Apple ‘iPhone’ to sport iPod click wheel; video iPod by Q2 – December 06, 2006
RUMOR: Apple’s smart phone project to feature ‘extensive integration with Mac OS X’ – December 05, 2006
Apple begins ‘iPhone’ production – December 05, 2006
Apple needs to think different about data security for ‘iPhone’ – December 05, 2006
Kevin Rose: Dual-battery Apple ‘iPhone’ coming in January; $249 for 4GB, $449 for 8GB – December 03, 2006
I hope this is true. But iPhones are like reports of Castro dying..too much hype for too long.
I really really want to know if we get a dual quad Xeon Mac pro introduced at MW2007.
“‘The other handset vendors should all take note that no one is talking about their products with the same level of enthusiasm”
Is anyone even talking about the other options out there?
At all?
I think Daniel Eran, at Roughy Drafted Magazine said it best:
“The reigning leader in smartphones is Symbian, which dominates the market with a share similar to the iPod’s majority share of music players. Symbian is successful because it provides a highly reliable basic framework that can be used by various mobile phone makers to create highly customized interfaces. Linux takes second place in smartphones using a similar strategy.
The success of Symbian and Linux in the market has not resulted in phones with brilliant interfaces, but rather simply phones that work. The flexibility they offer manufacturers does nothing for users, who still end up with phones which provide a randomly designed user interface that bears no similarity with any other devices.”
People betting against Apple don’t get it. It’s the USER INTERFACE that matters, not the hardware’s capabilities, not the spec sheet on the box, but the way in which the user interacts with the device. It’s in this area that other cell phones fall flat on their face.
In large part because cell phone manufacturers demand it. For reasons of control and profits mainly, they stomp all over the capabilities of their phones (particularly in the US where cell phones are heavily subsidised by carriers).
Most Americans don’t talk about phones at all. The only reason we talk about them is to complain about them. I have a Moto Razr. So? Yep it’s a phone. It’s thin. That’s where the interest stops.
Apple’s phone will be intimately linked to the Mac. That’s what makes it exciting.
“Phil Leigh”
Didn’t he invent the cheesesteak sandwich?
Ray, I can tell you that much:
The answer is no.
“Apple’s phone will be intimately linked to the Mac.”
Then it will have to have some sort of lubrication to work properly.
Also.. did anyone else recently download the “iTunes Phone Plugin” or something close to that name.. ?
‘The other handset vendors should all take note that no one is talking about their products with the same level of enthusiasm,’ Gartenberg said.”
This, to me, is the most compelling reason for Apple to introduce a cell phone. Experience in the business, or not, the market believes Apple can do things better, and obviously they want something better than is being offered.
The iPhone (if there is one) will be sleek, smart and sexy.
A year later later, Microsoft will unleash their copy:
All of this media produced hype (based on precious few hard facts) could sadly turn into a real no win situation for Apple. If they don’t end up releasing an iPhone at MWSF in January, the stock will drop like a rock. And then even if they do, the press will likely pick it apart and exaggerate any faults it may have.
The “iTunes phone plugin” you’re referring to is for the Motorola iTunes phones and is certainly nothing new at all.
It’s been about 4 years since the first iPhone rumor began.
I figure that’s long enough for Apple to put together a fine piece of work ready to debut next year.
How many times has this gone back and fourth. Debut, not debut until later. I think we should just leave this be and wait and see what MacWorld has in store for us. This guessing isn’t going to do any good. And you know Apple isn’t going to tell you anything for sure.
I know when and if it it comes out most likely it will be better than any phone on the market. Especially if it works with the Mac and iTunes.
Short apple. Reason: Jobs won’t announce the phone at mac world and the stock will drop 10 dollars, minimum. You heard it here first.
Yawn. A cell phone that plays music.
Humans are devolving when this is considered buzzworthy.
“Yawn. A cell phone that plays music.
Humans are devolving when this is considered buzzworthy.”
Which explains why most apple users are neaderthals. lol
Can I have a waterproof laptop that weighs under a pound, has a day-long battery life, and that can access broadband from anywhere on the planet via a plug-in iPhone?!?
koolaid putz:
I don’t see how your pseudo-intellect is able to conflate ‘computer use’ with ‘song-playing-cellphone use.’
But then, you must be a Windoze user, so logic isn’t your strong suit.
You’re just more proof for my argument.
I wonder what happened to Troy. He used to write for theStreet.com.
He used to pan the iPod. Maybe it bit him.