Apple iPhone - To Be, or Not to Be? 230
An anonymous reader writes "With the Apple WWDC looming on Monday, the internet once again beats itself silly over what Steve Jobs has in store. At the most fanciful end of the scale, there's talk of the Apple iPhone, to which CNET says, 'keep on dreaming', and Gizmodo says, 'no visible evidence'. The only solid evidence of an iPhone, beyond the endless mocked-up images, is the discovery of hidden phone-related code in a recent iPod updater. Macrumors has some info on what the keynote may contain -- and there's no mention of an iPhone. So, as the rumor mill continues to grind over the weekend, let the predictions begin. Is there an Apple iPhone, or is there not?"
Rumors (Score:4, Insightful)
Not to be (Score:2, Insightful)
"To be, or not to be. Not to be." [sets of iExplosives]
I really doubt it (Score:5, Insightful)
Combining and iPod, Newton and cell phone is an interesting idea, but we have seen that there is some consumer resistance to combining gadgets. Unless Apple can really come up with a new and exciting way to 'do' the cell phone, I don't expect Jobs will entertain the notion.
I know that there have been patents for mobile devices filed by Apple, but I expect many of those are part of their Mutually Assured Destruction stockpile of patents.
My 2 cents, for what its worth.
Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:3, Insightful)
Is it a good unit? (Score:4, Insightful)
Nevermind syncing features, like Bluetooth or ir. I would expect Apple to want to give that to their users.
So far, I have found few phones as functional as my (old) Nokia 3650, and it's broken. Is an iPhone a phone for me?
Some of those mock-ups are pretty bad. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I really doubt it (Score:2, Insightful)
What I CAN see as a possibility is a Bluetooth iPod that can communicate/sync directly with Bluetooth phones.
Newton vs Cellphone (Score:3, Insightful)
I doubt that an iPhone would compete with an iPod. I too want to see bits of the Newton restored to a (modern) product we can actually buy and use. I am so unpleased with modern handhelds and cellphones, that 'I want to believe' that Apple will make a useful product in this arena, where they are conspicuously absent.
Re:Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:2, Insightful)
Which is kind of ironic, when you look at it...
Re:Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:3, Insightful)
Before I begin I must say that I really doubt that Apple would even consider forcing all new ipods to also be phones so you will be able to buy your plain old ipod to play music and have a seperate phone. Having said that ...
Is it hard to imagine that someone could build an audio player/phone combo where the user would decide what happens to calls when audio is playing? From mixing the two to pausing/muting the audio to take the call to putting the phone on silent, preferably with tweakability based on whether a number is in your phone book, what group(s) or even just if it has a CallerId or not.
Next, if Apple made a cell phone I would imagine they are far more likely to design it for the end user then most mobile manufacturers who design them for the networks. As a result you may even be able to turn off your phone/network without powering the whole device on and off (don't waste battery on the cellular network along with not being interupted). They may even (but I doubt it) build a unit to take two sim cards and allow you to have multiple networks (preferably simultaneously) so you could turn off your business/personal line at suitable times.
As for whats with the eggs in one basket ... simple, why carry multiple devices? Why not carry a swiss army knife instead of a dedicated blade, screwdrivers, pliers, corkscrew etc (if it is suitable for your needs)? Why have to backup multiple devices when you can backup one (and why don't mobile phones have a standard irda/bluetooth/card/cable dump and restore function, to a common open format).
Bottom line is the mobile industry is screwy, and will remain so until the end users take the purchasing power (curiously I've heard reports that bundling/subsidising phones with network contracts is illegal in Norway, the home of Nokia). Until then the phones you can buy will only be the phones the networks want you to be able to buy.
Re:Rumors (Score:5, Insightful)
<sarcasm>Hey, yeah. And remember that time when they opened up a chain of retail outlets despite the fact that many other such outlets were tanking and analysts were sure they were smoking something? Boy, did they screw the pooch in that deal!</sarcasm>
The thing you must never lose sight of is that Apple finds its own way of succeeding sometimes by doing things the way no other "sane" (read: "hidebound") person would do.
Will the iPhone become a reality? I'd say no, for completely different reasons than "everybody's doing it already."
Re:Rumors (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I really doubt it (Score:3, Insightful)
I am one of those consumer's resistance to combining gadgets. It was mostly from me going wow phone, camera, pda and the sink all combined in one device... $400 later I had a phone that only worked when the planets aligned, a 4 pixle camera, a good paper weight and a sink without running water. I hate combined gadgets since in america when you combine you get something that is worth less than the sum of the parts and cost 3 times as much. If a $50 dollar phone and a $25 dollar camera works better then a $400 combined device we have a problem.
However I am HYPED about the ipod phone. Why? Because Jobs wont skimp. He has a track record of releaseing products that have designs that are thought out and uses components that are above the current market expectation. So if he releases a phone with camera ect it would be able to stand as a phone alone or a camera alone or a pda whatever alone and still be somewhat justified in the price. at least comparitivly to that of its competitors
Marking words (Score:3, Insightful)
That comment is probably going to look pretty funny hanging up on the wall in about a year.
However, why would the phone alone need to surpass all other phone sales? It would not, it would simply have to continue to grow the space ITMS audio and video could be sold into. If the combination of standalone iPods plus iPod phones is still the lions share of MP3 players in the market, Apple has succeeded - even if the iPod phones are not the leader in that single segment of the market.
I do think though that an Apple phone with the right feature set could easily surpass even the RAZR for sheer popularity, primarily because Apple is really good at industrial design that marries with software really well. Computer integration is still not as good as it could be with any phone out there today, partly because phone service providers want you to buy things over the network instead of loading them from your computer.
Re:Rumors (Score:2, Insightful)
I have a Motorola e815 that I purchased for the Bluetooth and syncing capabilities. It took some time before it was able to do so with OSX and iSync. Now it is supported.
Would I buy an Apple phone? Sure!
Why? Because I would love to be able to
a) Migrate my Mac-bound address books to my phone in a SUPPORTED manner. b) I'd love to have a colour phone that syncs with iPhoto in a SUPPORTED manner.
c) I'd love to take some MP3s for listening to on the BUS or wherever. My current phone does that but the software does not work reliably when the phone is closed. Would an apple-made phone be better? I would imagine so. in fact it would likely have iTunes support as a baseline feature.
d) Have a phone that could support FREQUENT firmware updates. I like the idea of seeing small innovative options come available for my devices. I hate that my 450.00 phone can't be updated without going to great lengths and visiting my Bell Canada rep. Phooey...I want complete integration FIRST, with features and reliability on par or a close second to that.
I don't need my phone for life-and-death emergencies, so to make it part of that digital-lifestyle hub thingy you always hear about from Apple would be very helpful. If I require a phone that works just as a phone then I'll get one of those cheap or free bundles with my corporate phone package.
Digital Hubs - that's where all the effort is going these days - into digital hub integration. Apple pioneered this effort, and it's going to pay off hugely.
JB
Re:Rumors (Score:3, Insightful)
2. Isn't it obvious that the iphone would be sold through the providers the same way Motorola, Nokia, et al are? Maybe it is oversaturated. One way to overcome that is to have a new brand name and a phone with motivating features. Treo, Q phone tried and succeeded to some extent already. It can be done.
Re:Rumors (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Rumors (Score:5, Insightful)
Gah! No! Stop throwing things in!
The primary problem with cellphones these days is that they're all maniacally throwing in additional crap like cameras and music players. The last thing the world needs is one more "feature"-laden monstrosity that's five times the size it should be.
If Apple were to enter this market, I think they would have the sense to see that what's really lacking is a simple, elegant telephone. That does its job with grace and speed, and doesn't try to be everything else in the world.
This is certainly one of the great strengths of the ipod, that most of the "ipod killers" don't get. They all try to conquer the ipod by telling people, "But you can listen to the radio, and record audio, and use it as a pda, and a cellphone, and a wireless access point, and a floor wax!" And while Apple has caved a little bit on photos and video, they for the most part have kept sight of the fact that people don't want to do those things. More features is not automatically better.
Sadly, I don't see any reason to believe that Apple actually is entering this market. Not so much for technical reasons as for the bureaucratic morass of dealing with cellular service providers, competing international standards, regulatory bodies, manufacturer subsidies, and the whole rest of the convoluted mess that is the cellphone industry. Apple is currently doing a pretty good job navigating a similar mess in the music industry, and starting to tackle the ones in the television and movie industries. I don't think they'd want to overextend themselves by taking on the telco industry at the same time.
A shame, though. I'd switch in a heartbeat to whatever provider offered an Apple phone.
Re:IT Focus at WWDC (Score:1, Insightful)