“Like a lot of other pundits, I keep facing the fact that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is on the Apple board and expecting that association to manifest itself eventually in some form of product or service alliance, but that has yet to happen,” Robert X. Cringely writes for PBS. “Could this finally be the time?”
Cringely seriously doubts that Apple will be involved in 700-MHz auction action. “Apple’s current rumblings about the 700-MHz band are more likely Jobs helping Schmidt. If the mobile carriers interested in the 700-MHz band think that it might cost them $16 billion rather than $6 billion to win the auction, they might not bid at all, allowing Google to get the property for less than it might have had to pay in a contested auction. At some price the deal becomes uneconomic for the mobile carriers and, given their small minds and squinty eyes, they’ll see it as uneconomic for Google, too. ‘Let Google take the fall,’ they’ll think,” Cringely writes.
Cringely writes, “But Google won’t be falling.”
“The huge expense of buying the 700-MHz band and building out the infrastructure could be made a lot less huge if Google didn’t have to build out the infrastructure. No traditional mobile company could get away with this, but I think Google could,” Cringely writes.
Cringely explains how in his full article and also writes that Apple’s iPod classic has issues that will soon create some PR problems (supposedly, Apple will have its corporate hands full with this which is another reason why Apple won’t be involved in 700-MHz auction. A typically wild Cringley-esque overstatement, but back to the matter at hand).
Cringely writes, “Google would overnight become the largest U.S. ISP with direct and very high-performance access to its customers, including those using the new Google Phone or any other phone that supports WiFi connections, like the iPhone and many others. Google becomes the biggest and lowest-cost ISP and potentially the biggest and lowest-cost mobile phone company in the bargain.”
Full article here.
Um, what if the rumored Google Phone (gPhone) is really the Apple iPhone?
More rambling. Has anyone kept score on how often Cringely is actually right??
Google create the network, the iPhone is what you use to connect to it.
Or the iPod touch
Or your Mac
The possibilities!
” I keep facing the fact that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is on the Apple board and expecting that association to manifest itself eventually in some form of product or service alliance, but that has yet to happen,”
Unless you count the fact that apple got YouTube to convert their entire library to a format compatible with the iPhone and aTV.
Steve Jobs left a HUGE hint at the D Conference that many people seem to overlook. The combination of cloud services (Google) and great local client applications (Apple) is a powerful thing. He believed that its full benefits havent been realized yet. I dont’t believe google will ever be a hardware company, they will be a cloud service company.
I have predicted long ago that Google will get in bed with Apple and use the iPhone to dominated the web. This could be right time to have this all come together.
Will someone please answer this question. Knowing Apple’s iPhone platform, why would Schmidt go with anything else? What are the benefits to go with another operating system other that OSX?
“If the mobile carriers interested in the 700-MHz band think that it might cost them $16 billion rather than $6 billion to win the auction, they might not bid at all, allowing Google to get the property for less than it might have had to pay in a contested auction. At some price the deal becomes uneconomic for the mobile carriers and, given their small minds and squinty eyes, they’ll see it as uneconomic for Google, too. ‘Let Google take the fall,’ they’ll think,” Cringely writes.”
How could it possibly make more sense for them not to bid than simply bid what they think it’s worth to themselves?
As a piece of analysis this is really stupid.
“What are the benefits to go with another operating system other that OSX?”
If you’re Google, Linux makes much more sense.
More “Google can do ANYTHING because they’re *Google*!” rubbish.
When has Google been a consumer electronics company? What about a search engine/web apps company says “we can design an advanced electronic device?”
This is yet another symptom of the financial analyst la-la-land we’ve been living in for the last decade.
What is wrong with the iPod classic?
Blah blah blah – sometimes Cringley is interesting, but this gibberish is mental masurbation at its worst,
a national Google network with be killa…but I doubt Msoft will let them win the auction
But, iPhone and iPodTouch will be involved.
It’s a not just a guess.
Start rejoicing!!!!!!! Apple Fans, this will be huge!
dd
This GOOGLE cloud server APPLE Thang…
is the KEY to KILL Canadians poor phone systems.
BELL & ROGERS & TELUS & PRIME
bye bye…
This is how JOBS will bring iPHONE to CANADA.
THIRD time saying this.
DONE.
DO not tell my boss I told you. OK.
My job is on the line over this.
Google should acquire the 700 MHz spectrum, buy Sprint and use their infrastructure to bring online a wireless ISP capability almost overnight. Sprint is already building out a WiMAX network.
They could offer voice and data services over WiMAX and blow away the competition.
.and for an instant they ceased to be Google and Apple. They became Goople!
doubt Msoft will let them win the auction
Maybe.
It’d be fun to watch though. Best thing that’d happen is MS would blow their entire cash reserve to win such an auction.
Then imagine the hilarity as they try to squeeze Vista into a device to use the spectrum….
There is no Robert X. Cringley.
And Marc Stephens is never right.
“Cringely explains how in his full article and also writes that Apple’s iPod classic has issues that will soon create some PR problems (supposedly, Apple will have its corporate hands full with this which is another reason why Apple won’t be involved in 700-MHz auction.”
What’s this iPod classic issue he refers to?
Here are Cringely’s complaints:
The complaints I am hearing about the new iPods classics are (in no particular order):
VERY Slow menu switching response
Display of clock rather than song info when “Now Playing”
Inability to use existing AUTHORIZED 3rd party dock products (including Apple-advertised)
Audio skipping during operation
Slow connection to Macs and PCs
Inability to disable “split-screen” menus
Lagging and unresponsive Click Wheel
Camera connector not working
Inability to use EQ settings without skipping and distortion
——
Not sure whether this is a real problem (haven’t been hearing that much on the blogs), or whether Cringely’s own iPod is having some issues.
All of it sounds fixible with a simple firmware update, as he himself suggests. Doesn’t sound like the sky is falling…
Greg,
he lists the issues in his article, but if you go to the MacinTouch website and read about them there, then it seems to me that Cringely is exaggerating them.
The ‘issues’ will probably be easily fixed without, as he implies, Apple being totally taken up with the problem and not being able to concentrate on other things.
That’s just Cringely making a mountain out of a molehill.
I’ve been posting about the high probability of Google and Apple working together to bypass the low US internet and mobile communications bandwidth controlled by the telco oligopoly. The telcos business model is and has been to gouge their customers and not spend their huge profits to build out their infrastructure and bandwidth. This hurts Google’s and Apple’s respective business opportunities. But it also makes the telcos vulnerable.
Cringely is right that Google already has build out a huge part of the infrastructure that it needs to challenge the telcos. I do not know if the particulars of his theory are correct, but Google would have to be crazy not to pick up the final missing piece – wireless spectrum – to allow them to defeat the telcos and get the latter’s hands off their throats. And Apple can supply a huge demand for Googles bandwidth. It only makes sense that the two of them work together on this.
“Number Two, I want the 700-MHz band so I can force feed our mind controlling tv shows to billions of people”
“Dr. Evil, there’s a problem…”
“Yea you stupid dolt, last week you pulled your content from iTunes which has new devices everyone wants to buy in favor of some lame site you started which doesn’t even work right. Now you don’t have any money you stupid jackass”
“Scott, I’m very angry, and when I’m angry, Mr Bigglesworth gets upset. And when Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset, people DIE!”
“Go ahead DAD, I know your trying to kill me, but you always fail because your stupid, all of you, stupid, stupid stupid!”
“Come here Scott, give Daddy a hug”
“No”
“Scott”
“No way”
shouldn’t it be “Apple’s plan for world domination and how Google’s involved.”
I have an iPod Classic – and I’m afraid to say that every one of the faults he lists are displayed on the iPod I have….
* VERY Slow menu switching response
* Display of clock rather than song info when “Now Playing”
* Inability to use existing AUTHORIZED 3rd party dock products (including Apple-advertised)
* Audio skipping during operation
* Slow connection to Macs and PCs
* Inability to disable “split-screen” menus
* Lagging and unresponsive Click Wheel
* Camera connector not working
* Inability to use EQ settings without skipping and distortion
Job #1: Kill off Microsoft.
People, let’s not lose focus here.
We finish Job #1, and then humanity can move on.
My rant of the day:
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I just came from a couple of tech forums and boy oh boy.
The geeks are not happy unless they can crack everything in sight, and if its locked for any reason, then the mfg is a rotten scheming “take over the world” company. LOL
I just think that Apple is making a product(s) that are designed to run well together. OK, they have certain legal obligations to protect copywrite, but there is no rule, law, or even saying that when you make a product you have to make it easy to rip apart for everyone to use for every purpose. I just do not know what these people are thinking (or not thinking 🙁 ).
Apple products, designed to be easy (and fun) to use. And if you want to take them apart and re-program them, then they are not Apple products anymore, just loose parts that you can use at your leisure. Live with it. Us – average- people just want a product that works. And we are really happy when it works well and looks super “neat” too.
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JMHO.
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