Slashdot Mirror
Apple iPhone - To Be, or Not to Be?
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?"
I think apple knows it would lose tons of money in this saturated market.
"To be, or not to be. Not to be." [sets of iExplosives]
Similar to the upcoming US election results
I have serious doubts that the iPhone will ever come to be. Apple is focusing on media as its second core competency. The move to Intel chips and the looming possibilities opened up by virtualization will keep Apple moving in interesting and exciting directions for the next couple of years.
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.
Who'd turn off their iPod full of Rammstein just to answer a phone call from your Dümass friend? Seriously, though, if I buy a device for the purpose of listening to music, I don't want anything to stop it to answer a phone. If I'm listening to my music on my iPod on the way home from work on the subway or bus, I don't really want to be bothered in general; I can always check my phone to see if it's anyone important. If it's someone who may have critical news, then I'll probably answer it, but otherwise- well, the Music > the Conversation. What's with this whole "one piece stop shop" MP3 phone obsession anyway? Throwing all of your eggs into one basket will only leave you eggless and unhappy if that one basket asplodes, or gets stolen. I'd rather keep my devices separate, for both backup reasons and convenience reasons. I can also go camping with my MP3 player without having to be tethered to a cellphone...
Keeper of the Wang
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?
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
Any idea which one is real? Any of them that do not have the numbers in a 3 x 4 grid with right angles should not fly. There's no reason for those odd angles which make you have to look to find every button.
Where were you when the voynix came?
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 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.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
Which is kind of ironic, when you look at it...
That didn't really make sense. But I'm going to post it anyway.
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.
Never underestimate the dark side of the Source
There is no way in hell Apple is going to be able to make phones and be the maker of MP3 playing phones that has a higher market share than everyone else put together. They can license the iPod/iTunes names, and software to present an iPod experience, and even hardware, to all the other phone manufacturers and have that hold on the market. But there's no way they can make and sell a cellphone that would end up being the most popular cellphone in the US, let alone the rest of the world.
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.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
And conversely, their inattention to myself, a nobody, leads me to speculate that Apple is not going to be focusing on consumer products at this year's WWDC.