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)
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:4, Interesting)
s/Apple/Steve Jobs/ and you're right on the money. The original Mac was going to be a failure because nobody wanted locked-up proprietary boxes with no CLI or expansion capabilities (and besides that, the Lisa was an abysmal failure), Mac OS X was going to be a failure because who would want to run NeXT Step on a Mac? The iTunes was expected to be failure because 'everyone' downloads illegal music, why would they pay even 99 cents/song?
Everywhere along the way, Jobs saw ways of adding twists to make it work.
What I envision: an iPhone that not only has a built-in PDA based on either Palm OS or some slimmed-down Mac OS X, and not only has an iPod built into it, but one with a video iPod integrated as well. Oh, and you can add this optional GPS package for $X. Throw in built-in wifi and bluetooth connectivity, and you've got one hot device that people won't be able to keep their hands off of.
If Apple introduces it Monday, remember, you heard it here first!
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.
Cell phones need Apple's touch (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Rumors (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Rumors (Score:3, Insightful)
1. Cellphones have to be replaced.. I go through one in about 8 months. Normal people take about 2 years.
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:4, Interesting)
Saturated market? Please. There's lots of cell phones out there, sure. And they all pretty much suck ass. Choose one, several, or all of: Poor build quality. Poor integration with the other information sources/sinks in your life. Poor user interface. Poor performance (battery life, RF reception, sound reproduction). Apple can't do much about RF reception and has limited freedom with respect to battery life, but every other thing is either a software issue or an industrial design issue. Guess what two things Apple kicks ass at?
Cell phones are a saturated market much like digital audio players were a saturated market.
All they'd have to do is roll out a GSM-based phone and they'd have access to most of the world's market. Combine that with something like iCal and Addressbook for windows much like they've already ported iTunes to support iPod use on non-Apple platforms and they'd be printing money.
Re:Rumors (Score:2, Interesting)
Saturated with Crap (Score:3, Interesting)
Imagine an iPhone, available in white and black, which is fully a touch screen device capable of multiple points of input at a time. No butt
ichat phone (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v520U3vS2iI [youtube.com]
I contacted gizmodo, hopefully they will post it
Re:ichat phone (Score:2, Funny)
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
Not to be (Score:2, Insightful)
"To be, or not to be. Not to be." [sets of iExplosives]
The only.... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The only.... (Score:5, Funny)
Damn kids.
Re:The only.... (Score:2, Funny)
Oh, and you forgot, "*shakes fist* And get offa my lawn! Dirty hippies!!"
Re:The only.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The only.... (Score:5, Funny)
I prefer the type of phone that you crank in order to get the operators attention, and then say "Maybel, connect me to my mother."
Re:The only.... (Score:2)
Well, people have already done a rotary-dial mobile phone [makezine.com], and some mobile phones support voice recognition, it might be amusing to have a mobile phone in an old-fashioned housing, with a crank input and voice recognition, so you'd turn the crank to activate the voice recognition and then tell it whom to call.
No, you don't! (Score:2)
Oh, and please use your turn signal!
Re:No, you don't! (Score:3, Funny)
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.
Re:I really doubt it (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I really doubt it (Score:2)
Re:I really doubt it (Score:2)
Eventually someone will come up with a protocol that can do this on limited power, but bluetooth is not the answer in that space.
Re:I really doubt it (Score:2)
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 A
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I really doubt it (Score:2)
That is precisely why I do think Apple will do a phone platform. The only gadget in the entire world that is more popular than an iPod is a cell phone. Its their only competition (see the new Chocolate phone by LG; that thing IS a nano).
Re:I really doubt it (Score:3, Interesting)
I picked up a T-Mobile SDA, their WiFi smartphone, and I have dropped all plans for buying either an iPod or another PDA. Granted, WMP mobile is the most rudimentary player on the planet, but it plays music. And with all the other features of the SDA (Internet access wherever there's public WiFi, the regular PDA functions, and last but not least a cell phone) there's no j
Re:I really doubt it (Score:3, Interesting)
and more and more people are getting their media via their phones. every time I go to asia, I'm shocked by how pervasive cell phones are and how much more of a viable replacement for a desktop they're becoming.
wedge a decent phone into a video ipod, get the interface right and support EVDO (and whatever the asia-market equivalent is) transfer rates and you've got a product that pretty much
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
Re:I really doubt it (Score:2)
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.
There is some resistence, but obviously not TONS of resistence. Look at how many cell phones have cameras in them. PDAs have pretty much died-off, and their functionality has gone into phones (which is what Jobs predicted).
Besides, mo
Apple iPhone Nano (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:2)
Some people would prefer to carry a separate iPod and phone. It's not like Apple are about to stop selling iPods. An iPhone would have a low capacity and compete with the nano. It wouldn't be a rival for the iPod itself.
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:2)
Re:Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:2)
Re:Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't think it'll work. I do think tho, that the references to a phone in the iPod updates may refer to a bluetooth connectivity with the iPod. Didn't see what the references were, tho, so I could be off base.
I think this is just pure speculation. Fun speculation, to be sure, but speculation nevertheless.
Bring on the Reality Distortion Field! Its affect on me must be fading...
Re:Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:2)
Which wouldn't make any difference whatsoever. A phone's a phone in the eyes of the airlines; they're not going to start up different regulations for different makes and models. "Oh, if it's an Apple model, *and* you can verify that "plane mode" is switched on, then it's ok." No way that's gonna work.
An Apple phone will have the same problems as every other type of pho
Re:Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:2)
Re:Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:2)
Re:Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:2)
Odds are it wouldn't interrupt your music, except maybe with a chime to let you know someone is calling. Then you could look at the caller ID to see if you want to interrupt your MUSAK to talk to whoever it is.
What's with this whole "one piece stop shop" MP3 phone obsession a
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 w
Re:Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:2)
Pocket space.
"Throwing all of your eggs into one basket will only leave you eggless and unhappy if that one basket asplodes, or gets stolen."
You'd have fewer 'stealable' items to keep track of.
"I can also go camping with my MP3 player without having to be tethered to a cellphone..."
Do you go camping a lot? The reason I'd want my phone to play MP3s is because I'm often at places where I have my phone but not my player. 90% of the tim
Re:Music Conversation (at least on a cellphone) (Score:2)
Clearly, we need a converged iPod/Phone/Wallet/Keychain/spare change holder device.
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?
Re:Is it a good unit? (Score:3, Informative)
Application development is not a symptom of the phone, but rather the network.
Verizon/Cingular wants to charge you $5 for Tetris, and if they allow just anyone to develop an application which can then be d
Re:Is it a good unit? (Score:2)
As a phone, it is very small, it works well with blue tooth and my Mac. I have no problems getting pictures on and off. It was easy to make my own ringtone for it and get it onto the phone. It fits in my pocket really well. I like the charger. The battery life is great. And the phone looks cool. I've always kind of wanted a flip phone, bu
Re:Is it a good unit? (Score:3, Interesting)
There are phones that do that (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's a review [my-symbian.com] for it. You can run whatever you want on it. You can write your own programs in C++, Java or probably other languages too. At least my unit has no stupid lockings. I can install whatever mp3 songs I want as ringtones or for listening. And there's even a third-party internet radio player that you can install.
iPhone (Score:3, Informative)
Well, the current iPod is not a video iPod according to Stephen, so maybe the next one will not be a phone?
Makes sense.
Some of those mock-ups are pretty bad. (Score:2, Insightful)
If I worked at Apple ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:If I worked at Apple ... (Score:2)
Re:If I worked at Apple ... (Score:2)
For example, you might use 0XA991DEAD as a magic number if you want to cast a pall over the future of the company and make money by shorting the stock.
Former Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble says (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes- but... (Score:2, Interesting)
This is a market they will address. During their last earnings telephone conference they basically let everyone know that they are aware that the phone and iPod markets are converging and that they are not sitting still. So its a matter of when, not whether.
Not gonna happen (Score:2)
I think Apple is content to license iTunes to phone manufacturers themselves; indeed, the only reason Apple has to enter the cell phone market is to push iTunes. Mobile phone vendors are also notorio
I basically agree, but "free"? Not so much. (Score:2)
I agree with you that Apple isn't into entering previously saturated markets so much. However:
There is no room for that in the cell phone market, which is oversaturated with low-margin Asian manufacturers/vendors whose phones are often given away for free
Saying phones are currently "given away for free" is hardly right. They're wedded to contracts with the phone companies. My Motorola got soaked this February out whale watching, and I can tell you it wasn't "free" to replace the thing with a much worse
Re:I basically agree, but "free"? Not so much. (Score:2)
I think you mean the ROKR. And I would have got a ROKR except for two things: it looks very lame sitting next to the RAZR (why couldn't they have put iTunes in the RAZR!), and it stores a paltry 100 songs. The whole point of the iPod (for me at least) is that it stores my entire music library. (I don't quite understand the appeal of the smaller iPods which proves I'm not perhaps the target audience.)
Plenty of room for a good device (Score:2)
Why could Apple not be the producer of the next RAZR, where different phone companies resell the hardware and Apple provides the same compelling hardware/software integration they have with the iPod, with Apple perhaps dictating terms to the phone companies so that they could not disable features.
Also, Apple would p
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:2)
Somebody should tell Nokia that. [vertu.com] Of course, those are completely ridiculous phones, probably aimed at the sort of folks who'd buy a Maybach [maybachusa.com], so that's a bit above what Apple'd probably be interested in.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:This absolutely WILL NOT HAPPEN (Score:2)
The next Virgin Mobile (Score:2)
That could make a lot of sense because then Apple would be able to control design of the total device and software, which is really the thing that Apple could bring to cell phones that would be comeplling to buy.
Simply
Re: (Score:2)
Marking words (Score:3, Insightful)
That comment is probab
Re: (Score:2)
iphone h4cks (Score:2, Interesting)
There are several... (Score:2, Informative)
No, but fun to imagine (Score:3, Interesting)
I think it would be a huge success should Apple decide to build an iTalk that is a high quality phone, maintains everything we expect in an iPod, has decent battery life, and has the popular Apple style. I haven't had a decent cell phone in years. I find most of today's phones too small, lots of plastic and very lightweight. Count me in the camp that hopes they build one at some point.
What's the big deal? (Score:4, Funny)
Dial:
6,5,4,5,6,6,6
5,5,5...6,6,6
6,5,4,5,6,6,6,6,5,5,6,5,4
(By the way, I am not responsible for any long distance or airtime charges you may incur)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:What's the big deal? (Score:2)
"Mary had a little lamb"?
Obviously, being British you need something far closer to your heart. So, I present Beethoven's Ode to Joy, the anthem for our glorious European Union!
336996321123322336996321123211 !!!
iPhorOne... (Score:2, Funny)
iPhone pfft. (Score:2)
quotes (Score:2, Funny)
Hacker1: Something WAS in the iPod. The code leads off in this direction.
Hacker2: [holding up a print-out of a code] "Look, sir: iPhone!
Apple lawyer: Don't act so surprised, your highness. You weren't on any mercy mission this time. Several transmissions about iPhone were beamed to this site by Apple workers. I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you.
Inter
Possible Further Collaboration with Nike (Score:2)
Re:Possible Further Collaboration with Nike (Score:2)
Oh, the commercials we would have seen! Don Adams, [wizbangblog.com] you left this world too soon!
~Philly
IT Focus at WWDC (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, it may be that Apple always does this sort of thing to convince people like me to buy Macs. And we surely know that the Mac Pro will debut (as well as 10.5). But the full court press that I am getting suggests that this year's WWDC is as much about people like me as it is developers. Does this indicate anything about the content of Jobs' keynote? Probably not. But the treatment that I am receiving when I have almost nothing to do with development suggests that they are trying to garner as much interest as possible, and as much buy-in as possible.
No one remembers Softbank? (Score:2)
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/05/12/1648586.
Other iPod advancements (Score:2)
I really never have stood behind the iPhone idea, I think it might be kind of interesting, but it seems very unlikely, since Apple tends to concentrate on simple, elligant, and effective devices that do one thing, and one thing well. I think any increase in Apple's involvement in phones will be through their continued partnership with Motorola.
On the flip-side, it's hard for me to believe that the WWDC will go by without any iPod announcement. It's been nearly 9 months since any change in the iPod lineup,
Re:Other iPod advancements (Score:2)
Bear in mind what the "D" in "WWDC" stands for - this is a somewhat more narrowly-targeted conference, so it would probably be used for a number of announcements that would mean nothing to much of the Apple customer base (an announcement of a new Core Fillintheblank facility coming in Leopard would probably go over the head of most Mac owners, for example).
The iPhone is already here. (Score:2, Interesting)
The iTunes phones will never gain critical mass acceptance as is because of the 100 song limit. That was Apple imposed as to not to interfere with iPod sales. One would have to believe that any iPhone that Apple (may) implement would have that in mind, that it would be not to interfere with its current Cash Cow, the iPod (and the Nano). So, if there would be an iPhone, I wouldn't see any Memory Card Interface and be limi
No iPhone (Score:2)
You think Verizon will allow users to download songs directly from ITMS, and bypass their network?
Of course, I was wrong about the Apple stores and Apple switching to the Intel processor.
my predictions (Score:2)
No goddamnit (Score:2)
for christs sake this has been going on for years, its not gonna happen get over it.
Another thought (Score:2)
The writer pointed out that the old Sprint telephone ads for their land lines suggested they were so clean, you could hear a pin drop. Now, Cingular is advertising they drop the fewest calls for cell users. (they don't say they don't drop ANY, just fewer than the competition)
He states that most cell call voice quality is AWFUL and that he thinks the "culprit" is convenience. Typical consumer will choose
Re:Hype hype hype (Score:2)
I doubt Apple would ever make an iPhone, it seems like an idiotic business decision -- phones are a whole different creature from mp3 players, if this was not FUD then we would have it backed up by "hey, Apple hired a bunch of *insert cell-phone manufacturer here* employees"... but if they did make one, I would have to
Re:WWDC? (Score:3, Informative)
It's where the Apple developers get together and talk development of Apple related products, and Apple gives them a sneak peak (a VERY LITTLE fuzzy peak) at their future plans.
Re:WWDC? (Score:3, Informative)
There are several technologies that Apple comes out with that depend on 3rd party support. For example, Spotlight works better when third parties make adopt its protocols to make data spotlight indexable/searchable. Dashboard is another example.
The main reasons people don't adopt these new APIs are: lack of education and need for backward compatibility.
WWDC also is a good place to give feedback to Apple about what they
Re:WWDC? (Score:2)
...for use on ATM machines, or for Internet access on DSL lines.
Of course, they'd also have to make them available for use on OSes built with Windows NT technology.
Re:WWDC? (Score:2)
Or, at least, about specific future hardware products. People presumably came away from WWDC 2005 with the specific information that most if not all future hardware products would have x86 processors in them.
But, yes, Apple doesn't do roadmaps, so you won't hear things such as "we'll be coming out with a quad-Kentsfield Mac mini in six months" at WWDC.
Re:This is the WW DEVELOPERS Converence (Score:2)