“Apple Computer Incorporated is no more. On Jan. 9, CEO Steve Jobs announced that the name he and Steve Wozniak gave to their new business 30 years has changed. It will now be called simply Apple Inc. Jobs had deleted the word ‘computer’ with the same ruthlessness that he once used to deny cursor keys to the original Macintosh, and an on/off switch to the iPod,” Steven Levy reports for Newsweek.
Related article: Apple’s Schiller: We’re not getting out of the computer business – January 10, 2007
Levy reports, “It was no coincidence that Jobs revealed this on the day that he unveiled the iPhone, Apple’s long-awaited entry into the mobile marketplace. The device further broadens the scope of the company once known primarily for making things with keyboards. It also enhances Apple’s legacy for swooping into a creatively moribund category and upending the established players with a level of style and innovation that has seemed beyond their grasp.”
“‘It’s the best iPod we’ve ever made,’ Jobs told me in a postkeynote interview and hands-on product demo. (Apple isn’t confirming, but I’d expect the rest of the iPod family to follow suit sometime later this year,)” Levy reports.
Levy reports that Jobs “once referred to the Cingulars, Sprints and Verizon Wirelesses of the world as ‘orifices.’ But a couple of years ago, he realized that he would have to deal with them. ‘We talked to several of them and educated ourselves,’ he says. He finally decided to deal with AT&T’s Cingular network. ‘[They] were willing to take a really big gamble on us. We decided what the phone is. We decided what software would be on the phone. And so we could make the product we wanted.'”
Levy reports, But it’s not like the walled garden has gone away. ‘You don’t want your phone to be an open platform,’ meaning that anyone can write applications for it and potentially gum up the provider’s network, says Jobs. ‘You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesn’t want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up.'”
“Still, since the iPhone runs a full version of OS X, the operating system of the Macintosh computer, it’s reasonable to expect the device to take advantage of that power by running lots of applications, even if Apple has to vet them to make sure they won’t compromise the integrity of the networ,” Levy reports. “Jobs says we can expect more apps on the phone by the time it ships in June. (For instance, one might expect the iPhone to allow users to view Word documents, something that the prototype doesn’t do today) … Jobs hints that Cingular may offer different billing plans for iPhone, though for now he isn’t saying for sure. In any case, Jobs say, ‘There’s no reason we couldn’t have iChat on here.’ So bring it on… Another intriguing possibility not yet exploited in the iPhone is the ability to take a song from one’s iTunes music library and instantly make a ring tone from it. ‘Wouldn’t that be cool?’ says Jobs, after I brought it up. ‘It could be done.'”
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Why Apple’s iPhone doesn’t do high-speed mobile phone networks (yet) – January 11, 2007
RealMoney: Apple just blew up the whole damn mobile-phone supply chain with its new iPhone – January 11, 2007
ZDNet: Hands on with Apple’s iPhone: ‘elegant, ravishing, simple, sleek; impeccable & intuitive UI’ – January 11, 2007
Apple iPhone FUD campaign begins – January 10, 2007
Nine ways Apple changed the face of consumer electronics yesterday – January 10, 2007
Analysts and investors applaud arrival of Apple iPhone – January 10, 2007
Top 10 things to love and top 10 things to hate about the Apple iPhone – January 10, 2007
How Apple kept the iPhone top secret for 30 months – January 10, 2007
Hands-on with Apple’s iPhone – January 10, 2007
The only thing really wrong with Apple’s iPhone is its name – January 09, 2007
Is Apple building ‘The Device?’ [revisited] – January 09, 2007
Analyst Bajarin: Apple’s iPhone and Apple TV are industry game changers – January 09, 2007
Time: ‘iPhone could crush cell phone market pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority’ – January 09, 2007
Analyst: Apple iPhone should be given its own category – ‘brilliantphone’ – January 09, 2007
Cingular to use Synchronoss Technologies’ platform for Apple iPhone – January 09, 2007
iPhone photos from Apple’s Macworld Expo booth – January 09, 2007
Enderle: Apple’s iPhone is going to do very well – January 09, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
FUD Alert: Analyst – I am pretty skeptical Apple’s iPhone can succeed – January 11, 2007
The Register’s Ray: Apple ‘iPhone’ will fail – December 26, 2006
Analyst: Apple iPhone economics aren’t that compelling – December 08, 2006
CNET editor Kanellos: ‘Apple iPhone will largely fail’ – December 07, 2006
Palm CEO laughs off Apple ‘iPhone’ threat – November 20, 2006
> Now this is the biggest load of crap I’ve seen. [Peter] <– Well said!
Apple just wants control of the thing, particularly in the early stages, and Cingular didn’t want to reduce the potential for SMS revenue to iChat/IM. As far as 3G, camera in front, video iChat, etc., it’s only a matter of time. The benefit of tying up with a large carrier is that they can risk that part of their business in favor of a nice chunk of internet telephony market share. And if they prove recalcitrant, a smaller carrier can be convinced to explode the restrictions.
Yeah, there’s a lot of things we don’t know about the agreement with Cingular but we can assume that these things were discussed. What the keynote delivered was the opening salvo. What you’ll see in June is another thing, and what’ll be available in ’08/’09 will be yet another thing. The industry will feel the pain at the turn of the decade. Jobsy is trying to reduce the rate of panic. Whoot!
MW: “Open” … in time, heheh.