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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?"
Apple controls fairplay, which is used in the number one music store, and refuses to license it. 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.
So, now they are going to expand that - by virtue of large existing music collections - into a sizeable market for a mp3 playing phone. There will be only Apple's phone choice for these people who are already brought into the music store. They are then going to turn that into further lock in for the Mac platform by offering Mac only features rather than generic APIs to the hardware features.
As far as I can see the only difference between this and the office/windows lockin that Microsoft has going is that it's illegal to try and break Apple's DRM format. At least you can *try* and make an Office clone. This is not good news for customers!
I have no doubt that Apple will make a good, compelling product. I just wish that they would get slapped hard with respect to their degree of integration which is rapidly turning into lock in. It's actually easier to return Windows than an OSX license for example - that kind of thing should be enough of a warning sign already.
Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
Wow... so let me get this straight... this is a phone that requires OSX, which requires and Apple PC. Wow. I think that Apple has successfully earned the dubious title of "King of Lock-In". What's next? An iToilet that requires an Apple PC, OSX, an iPod, and iToilet Paper? Will it require iPlumbing to be installed in an iHouse? I think it's ridiculous, but obviously, there are gullible people out there buying this stuff...
Does anyone really use Macs ?
No, really !