Apple's Smart Phone Depends on OS X Tie-Ins

anaesthetica writes "According to AppleInsider, Apple is not only working on a cellphone + mp3 player iPhone, but is working on a second model designed to be a smart phone, highly integrated with Mac OS and .Mac. The smart phone has gone through several iterations, as the notoriously demanding Mr. Jobs ordered the elite team working on the phone to redesign and re-engineer their prototypes. Capabilities are reported to include Front Row interface, syncing contacts and iCal with .Mac, "call ahead", iChat video conferencing integration, WiFi, and a slide-out keyboard. Too good to be true?"

Comments

Re:Here is what I think would sell like hot cakes.

[spectral]

Stop using verizon. My phone uses bluetooth (no cable involved) and windows treats it like a file system (IBM/Lenovo laptop) that I can browse and move stuff to/from the phone whenever I want. Mac OS X uses the bluetooth file transfer utility, and I think you have to do that if you're using a non-IBM/lenovo laptop as well (or an IBM/Lenovo laptop without their bluetooth stack). I use Cingular. Most GSM phones are the same. Verizon is the only one to cripple their bluetooth so badly, that I know of.

Re:No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

[minus_273]

you can sync your ipod with outlook.

An ineffective monopoly on a pointless product.

[argent]

It got that monopoly by virtue of the fact that they control the DRM formats that can be played by their music play, which has an overwhelming share of the market.

What monopoly? This isn't like Windows, where you need to run Windows to run Windows applications. Every song I've bought from the iTunes music store is stored in DRM-free audio CDs (as Apple recommends!) and can be played on any music player in the world.

I'm not locked into iTunes, or the iPod. I don't even *like* the iPod. I gave my iPod to my daughter and I'm using iTunes because it just works better than the other music players I've used, and because Fairplay is "honor system" DRM... Apple doesn't try and stop me from feeding the output of iTunes into a recording program, or Garage Band, or anything else. I buy from the iTunes Music store because it just works. I also buy from eMusic.

I've had an MP3 playing phone, and after using it a while I decided that I've never had a sillier device. Take the two devices that I own that are hungriest for power, and run them off the same battery? I have enough trouble as it is with my phone being dead when I need it!

You really want an MP3 playing phone? Make me an offer on mine. But you don't get to return it when you discover what a bad idea it is.

Re:Abuse of monopoly?

[anothy]

you fundamentally misunderstand "monopoly". don't feel bad, it's a common mistake (especially 'round these parts).

it's useless to say that apple has a monopoly on iTunes Music Store sales, the same way it's stupid to say that Ford has a monopoly on Taurus sales. Ford doesn't have a monopoly on cars, which is the industry in which they compete; similarly, apple doesn't have a monopoly on digital music sales, which is the field in which iTMS competes. true, Apple has market dominance in a way that Ford does not, but market dominance does not equal a monopoly, by a long shot.

apple has no ability to lock anyone into anything related to phones. for starters, they've already licensed the ability to play iTMS tracks on someone else's phone. and, of course, there's still the fact that iTMS does not represent any form of monopoly. there's nothing wrong with them offering Mac-only (or .Mac-only) features unless their abusing a monopoly position by doing so (or is Apple somehow "wrong" for not making Safari, iChat, GarageBand, or Spotlight available for Windows?). Given no monopoly, there can be no such abuse.

i'd agree that it's bad that it's illegal to try to work around the Fairplay DRM breakage, but that's entirely irrelevant to the rest of your post.