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What If Apple Made A Cell Phone And No One Cared?
PreacherTom writes "Prudential Equity Group analyst Jesse Tortora penned a note saying that Apple is readying a music phone — and a separate, combination video and music phone. He expects Apple to introduce the devices in January at Macworld, a conference for Mac enthusiasts where the company typically debuts new products. At least one of the phones will offer Wi-Fi connectivity and both will become available in the March quarter of 2007 ... but will anyone care?"
Yes. People will care.
Next?
I detect no bias in the above submission, none.
www.GrenadeHop.com
Wi-fi. More space than a Blackberry. Still lame.
My amazing wife - Artist, Author, Philosopher - Laurie M
anyone want to buy a slightly used apple newton?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
If you build it, they will come. If it's white - shiny metal, or has a click wheel, the people will buy it for the cool-factor alone. As long as they don't break quickly, and they can fit them to play MP3s, and add maybe one or two features like a laser pointer, or built in toothbrush, the cell phone market will never be the same.
Oh You POS
Excuse me, Mr. Analyst, but I suspect you're underestimating Apple.
I think if Apple actually has something in that line coming out it'll surprise you. Yet another music phone isn't radical enough for Steve Jobs, battery life or whatever aside, besides, the ROKR was ho-hum which should say something about what people really want. I wouldn't be suprised to see something clever like combination unit, which merges a cell phone with an iPod, either could be used independently, probably partnering with someone like Motorola to make the phone part to spread the risk (assuming Motorola is willing to give it another shot.) Perhaps it'll also do VoIP in some clever way. Preemptively dropping Apple's shares on such speculation seems a bit rash.
In any event, the iPod is getting on in years, celebrating it's 5th birthday, still going strong, but always needs some little tweak (like the slim and tiny nano) to keep in interesting and trendy. I agree with the analysts regarding an integrated unit with battery concerns and such, since most people do keep a separate mp3 player even when their phone will play tunes. I've got a phone which will play music, but I'd rather not be having to recharge my battery every day. The most likely place for me to listen to tunes is in the vehicle and it'll have a CD/sat. radio with USB to handle that. Taking on a commodity market would be fitting oneself for an albatross.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Apple, who produced one of the most talked-about piece of consumer electronics in the last 10 years, gets ready to combine it with a phone, probably THE most talked-about piece of consumer electronics in the past 10 years.
Why would anyone care?
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
Well, now that we've established that this guy knows what he's talking about...
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Jesse Tortora
who?
The fact that a story was written about it asking if anyone would care PROVES that someone would care; otherwise we wouldn't bother reading a story about something no one cared about.
Duh.
Click on those ads, people. Cuz that's the only reason this story was even published.
You post a story and noone cares?
Microsoft might. I think a smart strategy for Apple would be to rumor technology they know is a bad idea then watch Microsoft spend billions to play catch up with nonexistent products. It's kind of how Reagan collapsed the Soviet Union.
What would be neat is if the extended features like playing music, using cameras, etc., could all draw their power off of a separate battery than the phone. That way you could use as much of the extra features without worrying about killing the phone itself. Naturally during the "recharge" process both batteries would be rejuvinated.
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
Analysts fail to realize the Apple puts a tremendous amount of thought into their designs. The author cites a statistic that most people with MP3 players also have music-capable phones, but doesn't mention that none of those music phones have the Scroll Wheel. That is what makes the iPod, not the iTMS, iTunes or the stylish design...the scroll wheel is the reason why the iPod is a success. The iPhone will have one as well. "Limited appeal" my ass; The author obviously doesn't understand the appeal of current Apple products, otherwise he wouldn't be questioning their move into the handset market. This is going to be an exciting year if Apple realizes the iPhone; the average iPod owner recognizes Apple's ingenious user interface and mobile phones' general lack of one.
It doesn't matter how wonderful the phone is.
If Apple lets Verizon Wireless (my CSP) or Cingular cripple it (and that's about the only way the Cellular Service Providers will sell it) then it will be just as useless as every other phone out there.
And so, I won't care.
Lots of phones out there that have great specs as announced by the manufactures. And then the phone is crippled in software by the cell service companies, and it's a piece of trash that no one wants. Or, you can buy the uncrippled version for $499 (still with a 2-year contract).
I don't think even Steve Jobs could convince Verizon not to cripple a phone so that it will only accept music through the Verizon cellular data network. Because a phone that isn't so crippled won't need an over-priced data plan, and will lose Verizon profits that they are convinced they deserve.
Sorry, no.
Part of the joy of Apple products that the they control the entire experience. Part of that is that (with some notable exceptions) ongoing costs and hassles are minimized. I have an iPod. I love it. It works great with the iTunes Music Store. You don't *have* to use the iTMS, though. You won't have that option with a Verizon-crippled cellphone.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is... Oops. Frank, I've got your sig again! Where's mine?
Because if Apple makes it then people will actually be able to figure out how to use the stupid thing. Every non-techie person I know uses their phone for making calls and maybe as an alarm clock. Phone user interfaces are so horrible that even the more technically inclined usually have to work at making them, well, work as designed.
With regards to people worrying about Cingular, Verizon, etc. crippling them - I would bet that Apple set themselves up as their own virtual carrier like Virgin did (leasing airtime from Cingular / T-Mobile if they want global compatibility, or from Sprint and Verizon if they want decent broadband speed - not to turn this into a GSM/CDMA flame-war). This way they can have their iTunes store on the phone as well...
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
If Apple came out with a cell phone, Chuck Norris would use it to defeat terrorism at the tune of Dead Bodies Everywhere.
Apple products do not appeal to the masses because Apple sells its products at a premium.
Last I checked, the iPod was an Apple product-- if their is any other DAP on the market with such broad appeal, I'm pretty much unaware of it. Not that I'm a fanboy, but come on, they own that market.
Along the same lines, why buy an Apple cell phone when you can buy a Nokia phone for less money?
Why would anyone buy an iPod when the can get better and cheaper DAPs from Creative and Sandisk? Marketing, mass appeal, and a loyal fan base. To suggest that an Apple cell phone wouldn't sell is pretty short sighted.
You've talked to both of them?
That's not how it works.
You (yes you!) are continually paying for phone upgrades, whether you get one or not. Those people who do not upgrade their phone on a regular basis are subsidizing those upgrades for everyone else - the amount that one pays for a service plan is computed, based on the percentage of people who will get phone upgrades, to pay for the subsidization. I'm guessing they guess a little high on that percentage so there's some money left over, and they use it to give out upgrade specials, but it's just a guess.
Regardless, it's not that they're so cheap that the phone company can offer them for free. It's that the phone company buys pallets of them in an unconfigured mode and configures 'em themselves, then handles distribution to their stores themselves, and meanwhile is charging every subscriber on their network for all those phone upgrades. If you don't get a phone upgrade every time you can, then you're just subsidizing someone else's upgrade.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
That depends on your definition of "better." For most people, I suspect "better" means "works with iTunes" or "has a large selection of accessories" or "has a simple interface." In this case, the iPod actually is the best DAP.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Which Dell model, exactly, can you purchase with OS X? Assuming the answer is "none", I think your characterization of the Dell system as "equivalent" is a bit misplaced.
I don't think Nokia makes a phone that seemlessly connects with iTunes, or handles video from iTunes.
There are oodles of people with existing iTunes libraries (some iPod owners, some not) for whom an iTunes phone is a major selling point. Now, if you want to say "why by an Apple phone if a Motorola phone is cheaper", well, do we know that an Apple phone will be cheaper than an otherwise-similarly-equipped Apple-licensed Motorola iTunes phone?
Frankly, it looks like these 'analysts' have only one common thread: Apple is making a big mistake.
The reasons keep changing, but apparently Apple is going to be crushed by . Sell your Apple stock before it's too late!
Considering the number of analysts who really don't get Apple, the article isn't much of a suprise.
The article even quotes an analyst who thinks Apple's next big thing is selling an Apple computer with Windows preloaded. Here's a hint: Apple is not out to become the next Dell. Apple has their own OS, and its users generally buy Apple to get that OS.
There have been rumors of an Apple phone (not a Motorola or other phone that uses iTunes) for years now. I have difficulty believing that the same company that changed its entire product line from PowerPC to Intel chips in just over a year would take several years to develop a telephone.
I don't mean to discount the complexity of modern phones, of course, but Apple has wireless technology in its Airport lineup, and has embedded experience from the iPod. They have the pieces.
Frankly, it just doesn't add up that Apple would try to enter an extremely competitive market where the margins are so thin.
Let's look at the history of the analyst's wisdom:
1.) Apple has to enter the mobile phone market, or it will be destroyed. (ie. smart phones will replace iPods, and Apple is going to get left behind)
2.) Apple is readying a phone, but it'll be late to market and Apple doesn't know what it's doing.
- Two (that I know of) phones that play iTunes are released; neither are from Apple.
3.) Admit reality, and recognize the faults with theory #1
- According to TFA, playing music isn't something most consumers care about in a phone.
4.) Find a new 'mistake' for Apple: That they must still be readying the iPhone, and it will be a colossal failure.
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
No, not really. The Motorola ROKR had iTunes, but it was never Apple-Branded, nor designed or manufactured in any part by Apple.
You mean like the Mac Pro that costs $1,000 less than the equivalent Dell, doesn't require cash shelled out for antivirus, firewall, and antispyware software, and runs Mac OS X?
Because it's likely the Apple phone won't suck like today's phones do?
These were easy questions, got any others?
"Sufferin' succotash."
And Apple did their best to cripple the hell out of it. The "iTunes" software on it would only allow 100 songs to be sync'd, even though the phone was capable of holding far more and the phone's audio player would play as many as you want. I don't even know why Moto or Apple bothered with that. I think S.J. knew it was a dumb idea because they introduced the iPod Nano immediately after they introduced the ROKR at whatever keynote that was. Moto was pissed because the Nano totally blew it away buzz wise. I can only hope S.J. did iTunes on Moto to get an easy "in" with the folks at Cingular so that the iPhone will have a home as soon as it's released.
Don't people get tired of writing these and being proven wrong a month later? I guess after the 90s "Apple is dead" FUD didn't work, and all the "iPod killer" FUD articles of the last 24 months didn't have an effect, so now it's time to go after the iPhone?
Where is BusinessWeek's "Zune, yawn" article? Wouldn't that make more sense given Apple's staggering financial success announced this week and their path toward supplanting Gateway as the #3 U.S. computer maker?
"Sufferin' succotash."
The thing that the author just doesn't get is that Apple fans will buy or at least hype anything that Apple releases(I know because I'm one of them). Steve Jobs could shit in a box, Jonathan Ives will shape it into a cube, they will sell several million units and get a ton of attention. Time would have the iShit on the cover and Walt Mossberg will say that it is the ultimate in human excrement.
This isn't like the PC market where Dell == HP == Gateway == Lenovo and you are buying purely on price or half-baked feature x. Apple has a dedicated fanbase with a common respect for clean design and seamless integration and they know that any product coming out of Cupertino will offer that as a base, plus something that is at once totaly obvious, and completely new (or at least implemented in a sane way).
I guarantee that if Apple announces the iPhone at MacWorld 2007, there will be at least half a million people with their credit-cards out before the next slide in Steve's presentation.
"Not that I'm a fanboy", but I like to strike the same poses that I see in the famous iPod "silhouette" bilboards, and I can look just like them.
Except I'm fat. Really, really fat. Why doesn't Apple ever put any silhouettes of fat people in those ads, anyway? And I've got an afro wig and I can do the Cabbage Patch as well as the next guy.
Apple needs to let me make a billboard.
I do love you so, Mr. Jobs.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I think he was looking for answers, not more questions!
who | grep -i blond | date cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger; mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount; sleep
You actually pay for your own upgrade...
Every time you upgrade the lock you into a minimum 12 months.. sometimes 18 months. The rental over that period is usually far more than the price difference between the upgrade and the wholesale price of the phone (often more than the retail price) - so you simply pay over the next year.
People who don't upgrade are paying for their upgrade even though they didn't get one - however they can leave for another company whenever they want, which is quite useful.
But can it play music from the iTunes Music Store?
But can it interface with a car stereo, and have the car's controls work? An iPod can, but every other DAP can't because automakers are standardizing on the iPod's dock connector and control protocol.
But does it include an easy way to find the song you want to play? Can it synchronize its playlists with your desktop jukebox program? Can it use "smart" playlists?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Hi, this is the RIAA calling; thanks very much for your confession! We'll have our lawyers contact you with a bill.
Build up an iTunes collection and you're stuck with Apple players, for life.
OK, it's time again for the Obligatory iTunes Anti-FUD Post.
Remember, kids, iTunes != iTunes Store. If you put your own ripped (or pirated) music into iTunes, THERE IS NO DRM AND NO LOCK-IN. Sorry to shout, but it's amazing how often this point is ignored, misunderstood, or obfuscated, no matter how often it's repeated.
iTunes and DRM only mix when the music is *purchased* from the iTunes Store. Even then, it's trivial for even Joe Sixpack to defeat the DRM if he senses that the end of iTunes is near: burn and rip, or use a hack such as QTFairUse for better quality.
iTunes is perfectly capable of dealing with non-DRM music in any format QuickTime can handle, which includes AAC, MP3, WAV/AIFF and Apple Lossless natively as well as Vorbis and FLAC with plug-ins. (The iPod can't handle the plug-in formats, but if you use Vorbis and FLAC you probably think the iPod is "lame" because its interface isn't confusing enough. [Just teasing!])
iPods are far more than a status symbol. I always thought I wouldn't be one of those guys, and I am. I broke down and bought a 60GB one. Let me put this in perspective though. I am a huge music fan. I buy 2-3 cds a month on average and generally goto a concert every month if there's anyone around worth seeing. I love it a lot, and listen to music all day in lab. I never liked using the all in one digital jukebox thing itunes was, and used xmms for years. I had my music organized by artist and just put on the directory I wanted to hear.
Then I bought a mac. I started using iTunes, I went through and reencoded my music as I realized oggs were a waste of my time. iTunes just made all the things I did easy. After a while i thought about getting an iPod too. however I had already ripped over 20GB of music to my hdd and I had gotten nowhere near done with my music collection. I looked around at audio players, and I looked at integrating one with my car. I may have been able to save $20-$30 by getting some no name brand, however most of the other major players at the time weren't offering 60GB players. Kind of sold me on an iPod. The fact that I could hook it up to my car ($95 stereo, $75 adapter and done) made it even better.
The question to me isn't "do i need 60 GB of music with me at all times?" The answer is obviously no. That would take me a month to listen to. It's not that I need it, however when I'm about to go somewhere or whatever I don't want to go "oh shit what do I want to listen to... let me throw this on my mp3 player". Instead I grab my ipod and choose something I want to hear. Or I go on a car trip, and decide to listen to a different band.. no problem, I have it loaded on here. When you have a music collection of over 300 cds it's wonderful to listen to whatever you want, whenever you want. You might call me lazy for not being willing to reload it every time. Sure I am. I also value my time, and don't want to waste it.
Now with that all said, one of the biggest motivaters for getting an iPod was so I wouldn't have to keep so much music on my laptop (instead I kept it on my file server) so I could listen to music in lab. I know it's an expensive external hard drive, but when I'm driving anywhere, or walking or biking, or whatever I definately don't regret it.
Was my iPod expensive? Sure I paid a good chunk of change for it. Do i worry about my battery? no, if it dies I order a kit online for $40 to replace it. Is an iPod for you? No, you obviously don't find it worthwhile, however for those of us who do, it is naive of you to think we buy them only as a status symbol. Maybe some people buy the nanos or shuffles just to have an apple ipod, but most of us who buy the big ones are doing it for ease of use and convenience
Phil
Phil Schiller made a comment a little while back - "we think the camera is on the wrong side of the phone". I think you are going to see some category-busting features like videoconferencing.
"The world is a construct of forceful imagination. Those who don't know walk around in the reailties of those who do"
Because apple has made a bundle of money on the two things phones still desperately need:
1)Usability - Apple is very good at creating user friendly interfaces
2)Simple, streamlined design - Something which very few phones have these days
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series