“In a note to clients issued Wednesday, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster suggests three ways Apple can stay ahead of the coming wave of smartphones powered by Google’s Android OS,” Phillip Elmer-Dewitt reports for Fortune.
• Build an iPhone for Verizon. Munster continues to believe there’s a 70% chance Verizon will get an iPhone before the end of 2010.
• Give the iPhone a battery that lasts longer than one day.
• Turn the iPhone into a digital wallet via RFID technology.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “JES42” for the heads up.]
And give it a keyboard!!! A plastic keyboard with unevenly sized plastic keys that you slide open to replace the battery!
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Lets face it, Verizon will not get an iphone. They know they aren’t getting it, thats why they bash the iPhone in their ads.
Maybe Gene Munster Cheese meant to say a battery that lasts longer than a day—and doesn’t explode. Yeah that would be cool.
Adding RFID to the iPhone may be cool, carrying your wallet around everywhere you go is so last year. Plus, when I lose my phone, I will have even more to worry about.
From the original article:
Build an iPhone for Verizon. Munster continues to believe there’s a 70% chance Verizon (VZ) will get an iPhone before the end of 2010. The value of more than doubling the phone’s addressable market — i.e. adding Verizon’s 89 million U.S. subscribers to AT&T;’s (T) 82 million — would more than justify the cost of manufacturing a CDMA iPhone, according to Munster.
I like Munster cheese. It tastes great. I wouldn’t trust it to predict the likelihood of a Verizon iPhone, however. And I’d have to question whether or not the Munster cheese has been paying any attention to the extremely anti-iPhone ads Verizon have been pumping out lately. 70% is wayyyyyy too high.
“Apple has built a moat around their apps,” he writes, “in part by excluding Flash, preventing app developers from building apps in Flash and porting them to all mobile platforms.”
…or they just don’t want a semi-hostile third party dictating iPhone development for them. Plus, if Flash-based apps were to run poorly, or drain the battery too quickly, or cause crashes, that could lower the reputation of the iPhone as a reliable platform. They’re still forming first impressions with the iPhone at this point, why in the world should they cede part of that experience to a company who has demonstrated very little interest in supporting Apple’s plans?
Um, wouldn’t “creating a CDMA version of the iPhone” (which is what making it available to Verizon means right now) be catching up to the competition, as most of them make both GSM and CDMA versions already (not all, but most).
No thanks on RFID.
I think they just have to continue to do as they are doing; using their vast source of innovations including those from the Newton era to enhance their mobile offerings with additional functionality from a software standpoint.
Also, on the App Store, if they were to encourage developers to make Mac versions of some of the apps, in particular games, they could add a click here button for the Mac version.
I think Apple likes things the way they are now. Steady and predictable growth on iPhone sales while maximizing profit per unit. If Apple wants to add a second wireless carrier, they should go with T-Mobile (or Sprint as they roll-out their 4G network).
An Apple/Verizon partnership would have too much ego clash.
Again, a very simple answer to the question: How can the iPhone stay ahead of its competition?
Answer: Get the hell off AT&T;as soon as possible!
My list:
4G
Foward-facing camera for video chat
A battery with decent life!!!!
It was interesting… I was on a tech support call w/ Apple today over an issue I was having w/ Snow Leopard.
We got onto the topic of the iPhone. The Apple tech told me he carries an HTC Hero (Android) on Sprint b/c he can’t stand ATT’s crappy service…
So Apple employees are getting other devices due to the poor service of AT&T;… Hmmm….. now that’s something to ponder!
BTW, the part about Apple building a moat around iPhone apps isn’t exactly true… many are being ported to Android… and some of the featured apps in iTMS appeared on Android months before iPhone (like Red Laser)…
Witless test man
Oh you almost convinced me but my cousin has an acquaintance who knows two guys that sell Droids in a Verizon store. They both have iPhones. So looks like iPhone has 100% more Droid drones changing to iPhone. Go away troll.
Put on a flah for the camera and a fm radio. Thats all i’m askin for.
No RFID. That’d be the first feature I’d turn off. Unless some new tech emerges for batteries, I doubt Apple can dramatically increase battery life, so I’m not asking for that, either. I don’t care one way or another whether Verizon gets the iPhone. What I really want is a better, faster updating, more accurate GPS.
When I read that headline, I expected to see the usual tripe from journalists who think they know better than Steve Jobs: give the iPhone a plastic keyboard, enable multitasking, allow any and all apps and let Verizon be a service provider.
Verizon won’t get the iPhone. At least not until June 2012 at the very earliest. Why these journalists can’t understand that ATnT has an exclusive 5 year contract with Apple is beyond me.
iPhone on T-Mobile please?
GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) supports a global market, where one’s mobile phone works all over the world in 212 countries, or proprietary CDMA that works for Verizon customers in USA.
Hrm… really not that hard to work out, is it?
“Munster continues to believe there’s a 70% chance Verizon will get an iPhone before the end of 2010.”
How convenient in your time frame Munster!??
Before the end of 2010? It is not required to be an analyst to provide those kinds of time frames. How useless he is.
Keep believing Gene.
The battery thing is a given with the pace of battery technology development. The other two are yawn and yawn.
A forward facing phone for video chats and multitasking would be game changers for Apple. Remember the things the iPhone was not when it was first released and what it is now. In two more years it will be that big of a jump or more. Especially with the PA Semi chips at it’s core.
Video chat? Really? It’s a phone. Just call people you want to talk to. It’s like what, a tap and a scroll and a tap, and you’re talking to them (or you can voice dial). Do you need to see them? Do you really want people asking to look at you all the time? How often do you think you’ll want to say no? Especially when you’re dumper dialing. Do they really want to see you?
Expected improvements aside (better battery life, better reception, faster processor, full internet function with Flash, etc.), if I had to ask for one thing, I’d agree with other posters – flash for the camera and boost resolution to 5MP (okay, that’s two things, but it’s the same function). 5MP is enough. Never need to go higher (just boost the sensor quality, focus, and image stabilization as you’re able to, don’t fall victim to the megapixel fallacy). I’d start taking pictures l would actually want to keep, rather than because I hope it will turn out but end up disappointed with the results most of the time.
“Do you need to see them?”
Sometimes when horny pro golfing billionaires need a naughty fix, you can’t say no.
I would love to see the iPhone on the Verizon network. But, their business models are the opposite. Apple treats the carrier as the commodity and Verizon treats the handset as the commodity.
I do think that the AT&T;/iPhone combo has hurt Verizon. That’s why Verizon has gotten aggressive with the ads. But, I think that Verizon is too arrogant to deal with Apple. They are waiting for an iPhone contender. That way, they don’t have to compromise.
Flash = porn “tube” sites = network collapse. End.
Also runs like shit on OS X, b/c Adobe is a bunch of tools.
I’ve been wondering a lot lately why there is only one Apple. No other company on Earth, in the history of companies, is like them. Why?
Perhaps because the world is full of stupid people, like Munster, who wouldn’t know an original thought if it bit them in the ass?
I…
Nevermind.
iChat on my iPhone please!!!
Hey Phillip- thanks for your 2 cents worth- overpriced but thanks.