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iCell in the Works?

Posted by Zonk on from the ican't-talk-now dept.

SirWraith writes "Ars Technica is running a story speculating on the possibility of an Apple cellphone." From the article: "At last week's CES, Motorola officially dumped Apple with its new ROKR E2 phone and its new iRadio digital music service. ... After the ROKR's lackluster launch, speculation abounded that Apple was saving the 'good' iTunes phone for itself, and the new 'Mobile Me' trademark lends credence to that line of thinking. At this stage of the game, it looks like Apple is moving in the direction of launching its own cellular service complete with its own lineup of phones (or phone, as the case may be)."

10 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. This wouldn't surprise me.... by FalconZero · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Portable device convergence has been obvious for years, with the inclusion of cameras, music players, video players, video calling, games etc... being crammed into mobile phones, it's unsurprising that Apple would want to segway its iPod market into the mobile phone market.

    Which would you rather have? An iPod, or a phone with an iPod built in? If Apple doesn't capitalise on the current media and consumer 'love' for iPods, then the plethora of other devices with similar or superior function will destroy Apples market (and it's only so long before flash storage becomes comperable in capacity to drive based iPods.)

    Apple could quite easily pull off a 'one phone' network not because it was technically superior or cheaper than other networks/handsets, but because Apple would do what Apple does best, give it a slick UI/customer experience and use their flair at advertising to buy the market.

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    Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
    1. Re:This wouldn't surprise me.... by telekon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If they had just built bluetooth into the damn iPod, this wouldn't be an issue. One headset, two devices, one device, eight, who cares... switch back and forth, transfer files without a bunch of cables... oh, wait, that would be too easy. Seriously. The RIAA ruins everything. Not that I don't love my sexy Moto RAZR, and my iPod, but the RAZR has bluetooth and it's SMALLER than the iPod. if both had bluetooth... life would be simpler. But, no, life can't be nice and easy. Fucking RIAA. Okay, this wasn't intended as a rant, but I seriously want to lynch those bastards... or at least force them to listen to the bilious phlegm that they pass off as music.

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      To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion.

    2. Re:This wouldn't surprise me.... by IronTek · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I was against the concept of a camera in a cell phone for a longtime.

      After I got a phone that had one, I started to think what it would be good for. I figured it was a comfort to have it in the case of an accident.

      Sure enough, I got into a small fender-bender in a parking lot. It was completely the other person's fault (they backed into me), but they later tried to blame me! Luckily, after it happened, I snapped some pics on my phone and sent them to my insurance company and theirs.

      The photos show clearly where my car was and where their car was. My insurance company didn't pay a dime. I received a check from theirs.

      So I don't think convergence in this respect is a bad thing.

  2. Ironically ... by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting
    You may recall from yesterday an article on Sun and Apple's possible mergers. Interestingly enough, at the bottom of that article you will find:
    "Your iPod is like your home answering machine," McNealy said. "I guarantee you it will be hard to sell an iPod five or seven years from now when every cell phone can access your entire music library wherever you are."

    Well, sure. Unless your iPod is your cell phone.
    Perhaps the author of that article had a lot of insight and perhaps they already new about this news.

    Either way, I'll follow suit and ask how much longer will it be until the iPod is your computer, media player, internet access, cell phone, credit card, personal identification, financial recorder/advisor, taser, keyless entry and pace maker?
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    My work here is dung.
  3. Tiger Can Rotate the Screen As Well by Kasracer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Another interesting development is, when Tiger originally came out, a new feature was added that no hardware currently takes advantage of. Tiger can rotate it's screen just like all other Table PCs and most PocketPCs.

    Off hand I don't remember how to force it to do so, but Tiger does have this feature. Combined with the new trademark, we may see an Apple PDA and/or Tablet sometime this year.

  4. Apple Patent by catwh0re · · Score: 4, Interesting
    In other mobile phone related news, Apple have a new patent for a screen that doubles as a camera. (In Soviet Russia, Screen looks at you!)

    Amongst the uses they include mobile phones.

    Also can someone stop beating this rumour to death. They'll release it when they figure out a cool name for the product iCell just sounds lame, especially with the supersecret spreadsheet applications "Cells" (amongst a host of other rumours.) With the latest Apple nomenclature, it'd probable be MacPhone.

  5. Apple will simply buy a network by astonishedelf · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have on this website and on another predicted that Apple will simply buy a mobile phone network. Before anyone argues that they don't have the market cap, I will say that smaller fish have been known to swallow biggers ones, and I believe that there are venture capitalists and banks that would be prepared to back Apple on this one. It's the only logical way to go.

  6. Possible Look of iPhone by schlpbch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Isamu Sanada is an industial designer who designs fictious
    Apple products in his spare time:

    http://www.applele.com/index.html
    http://www.applele.com/pictures.html

    I personally favor this iPhone design:

    http://www.applele.com/pict_04hipod_r02.html

    Almost better than the real thing!

  7. Can they add a phone without clunking up by antifoidulus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    the interface? Hard to say. To me one of the biggest appeals of the iPod is it has the best damn interface there is for a portable music player. Now is it possible to keep this interface while adding a phone interface? Of course I could be wrong, but I'm guessing no. All they need to do is to give Nokia a ring to find out just how difficult it is to make a phone that also does something else. Face it, humans probably aren't going to change significantly in the next 5 years so we will be stuck with the limitations our little fingers and faces give us. To me, that is the biggest obstacle facing convergance devices.

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    Monstar L
  8. Cell or VOIP? by FishandChips · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Other speculation is that the play here isn't for a conventional cellphone. It's for VOIP.

    A conventional cellphone means that Apple would have to kowtow to all the carriers and their phone would be just one phone among a plethora of other, well-established outfits (Nokia, Moto, Samsung, whoever).

    But a VOIP phone using wifi would enable Apple to sidestep being just another player and control the whole thing all the way down the line. Of course there is the minor problem of establishing a huge wifi network, but maybe this is where Google and friends come in, and anyway didn't someone say this is all wild, wild speculation?

    Can't recall where I read this. Mabye yesterday on Slashdot :)

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