iPhone Forcing Open Wireless Networks?

fermion writes "Wired asserts that the iPhone blew up the wireless industry. This article argues that because Apple demanded the opportunity to control their own phone, and ATT née Cingular agreed, other companies are opening up the networks, and Google now has the opportunity to make Android a reality. There are other tidbits. Allegedly Verizon turned Jobs down without even listening to his pitch, a decision they may well regret now that they are hemorrhaging customers. Also, that Motorola and the networks were responsible for the fiasco dubbed the ROKR, something which I believe given how damaged the American version of the RAZR was compared to international version. It also estimates that the iPhone cost upward of $150 million to design, and earns Apple about $200 profit per phone."

Comments

US, welcome to the world

[Marcion]

Europe and most of the rest of the world has GSM and GSM alone. You can take a SIM card from any carrier and put it in any phone. It has always been like that.

Re:US, welcome to the world

[Anonymous Coward]

The UK actually still has a number of handsets per operator that are 'locked' to that network. Whilst it's true that you can get these phones unlocked to take any SIM, it's not free to do so and it's often available from some pretty dodgy looking places.

Re:US, welcome to the world

[Marcion]

I simply meant that it is not like America where there are different phone connection protocols with different levels of reception depending on where you are, there is just one across the whole of Europe. Of course, if you actually try to use your phone across Europe then they kill you with the roaming charges, but at least it means if you buy an unlocked phone then you can use it anywhere.

Re:US, welcome to the world

[cheater512]

Its not just Europe, its the entire world.

I can take my Aussie (where I live) phone and bring it to Turkey (where I am atm) and it will work fine.
I also have the option of swapping SIM cards to a turkish one to save money.

I actually didnt know that the US wasnt like this.
Seems kinda (well *really*) stupid to me. :)

Re:US, welcome to the world

[TamCaP]

Erm... Europe is larger than the USA... Little list

• Europe: 10,180,000 km^2 (3,930,000 sq mi)
• European Union: 4,324,782 km^2 (1,669,807 sq mi)
• Texas: 678,051 km^2 (261,797 sq mi)
• USofA: 9,826,630 km^2 (3,794,066 sq mi)

All data after Wikipedia. Densities differ - true, but still, don't use such exaggerations to support your argument (which is not bad in itself).

Re:US, welcome to the world

[4D6963]

Europe's like what...the size of Texas? [...] Your comment displays your ignorance of America (much like most American's ignorance of Europe is so frequently pointed out.) The country is freaking HUGE.

Yes, that's right, we ignore a lot about America, mostly the fact that it's huge, that and the fact that you guys are "number 1". You should repeat it more often, we're still not hearing it. Oh and I'm pretty sure Europe is only a third the size of Texas ;-).

Re:US, welcome to the world

[Kinthelt]

Europe's like what...the size of Texas? Apparently, Europe covers an area of 10,180,000 km^2, while Texas has a mere 678,050 km^2.

Your comment displays your ignorance of America (much like most American's ignorance of Europe is so frequently pointed out.) What's the definition of irony again?

Re:US, welcome to the world

[Pantero Blanco]

Europe's like what...the size of Texas? If we had that many folks living in such a small area, then different types of coverage wouldn't be an issue.
But for that vast amounts of rural area the US has, CDMA makes providing service that much easier. Even where I live, wedged between two metro areas 50 miles in each direction, CDMA is much more reliable than any of the other protocols.
Your comment displays your ignorance of America (much like most American's ignorance of Europe is so frequently pointed out.) The country is freaking HUGE.

Spain is about the size of Texas. Europe is a bit bigger than US...4 million square miles versus 3.5-3.7 million.

Your point that the large rural areas in the US affect telcommunications there is valid, but your first comment was nuts.

Re:US, welcome to the world

[technomom]

I'm an American and a user of CDMA phones and I'm asking you politely to stop defending our country and the use of the CDMA network at least until you learn basic geography or maybe math. Thank you.

Re:US, welcome to the world

[Alioth]

If so, that'd be like talking about America and only meaning the western USA. I think most people think of the European Union when people talk of Europe (just like people think of the USA when saying America). The European Union includes nearly all of central Europe and most of eastern Europe today. This is almost 4.5M sq. km, so still several times larger than Texas.

Additionally, the EU has a population of just under 500M people - around 200M more than live in the United States. The EU is a much larger market than all of North America.

AT&T, Cingular, T-Mobile

[jhcarnelian]

Those carries have been open for a long time: I've been using unlocked GSM phones on them for years. The iPhone is a big step backwards: it's carrier-locked and non-programmable. Far from moving the industry forward, Apple has been taking it backwards.

If you want a nice phone, get an unlocked Nokia N95-3; you get 3G speeds, a 5Mpixel camera, stereo speakers, GPS (works with Google maps), a Safari web browser, and lots more. You aren't locked into a contract or carrier, and you can put in a different SIM card when you travel.

is it just me?

[ed.han]

...or with the spate of news articles about how revolutionary and paradigm-changing the iphone is, is anyone else expecting to start seeing an "iphone = chuck norris" meme?

"the iphone is so cool, the ISO is creating a new temperature scale based around it."

"the iphone is so powerful, it can cure cancer...once unlocked."

"the iphone is so versatile, it can not just play music, be a phone and browse the web, but imagine a beowulf cluster of them!"

is it just me? i mean, i think the iphone is pretty darned cool, myself, and i don't even own one. but there's been a great deal of fawning over it. not that apple doesn't deserve accolades for it, but jeez guys...haven't we collectively crossed the threshold of justifiable praise into fanboyism?

ed

Re:is it just me?

[Admiral Ag]

It's a game changing device, same as the original iPod was. There were mp3 players before the iPod, but they weren't the sort of thing the ordinary person would buy. The vast majority of users like the iPod/iTunes combo because it takes about 10 minutes to learn almost all of the features. The iPhone is the same for smartphones. I have a Samsung smartphone. I live in Korea, so it does TV and everything else, but the manual is over half an inch thick. Anyone who watches Apple's 15 minute iPhone movie already knows how to use it. How many people have a PDA or a smartphone? Not that many, and the main reason is that the learning curve is too much for many people.

The most important thing is that the iPhone isn't primarily a phone. It's a Newton that happens to have phone capabilities, and solves a lot of the problems with the original Newton devices (like input).

Unless you've seen a jailbroken iPhone/iPod, it's hard to appreciate how much potential it has as a portable computer and gaming device. Some of the jailbroken stuff is cool (like the etch a sketch simulator). The SDK is the equivalent of releasing iTunes for Windows. It's the thing that will put the iPhone over the top. For example, the touch screen and accelerometer will make for some awesome games. Apple should really hire Nintendo to write some, owing to their success with the DS and their ability to make cool games for it.

Jobs made the right bet on the interface. The versatility of a portable device is proportional to the flexibility of its interface. While people are correct that it is slightly easier to type on a proper keyboard, the versatility more than makes up for that. My PSP is a great device, but it is never going to be as versatile as my iPod Touch. I can't wait to see what 3rd party developers will do with it.

Of course, the iPhone won't suit everyone, and there are plenty of legitimate reasons for not using one, or for waiting for the 3G version/software updates, or waiting for a rival product, but that doesn't stop it from being a game changing device. I seriously doubt that in 5 years it will be easy to find a portable smart device that doesn't have a multitouch interface.

Android FTW!

[multiview]

1. The headline is horrible. iPhone didn't contribute to wireless networks that are open by some means.

2. iPhone won't open the market. Android will. Reason: Android is fully customizable. Soon or later Skype[1] or any other VOIP/instant messenging app will be available. Data traffic will become more important than regular POTS calls. Eventually one carrier might step out of line and get out of the entrenchment by offering reasonable data traffic packages. The game theory for this is a prisoners dilema, and we know that all participating players will lose at end. But that's just good for the customers. Technology will dictate it at the end, and it's Google Android that will take the lead here; not iPhone that is tied to carries by contracts.

[1]Skype itself is a total horrible vendor lockin, but hopefully the protocol gets reverse engineered one day and we will all enjoy open clients. Everyone that uses a multi-protocol client with MSN/ICQ/AIM/JABBER knows that suddenly a single protocol becomes quite easy to replace and hence its power to dictate the rules (as it so for skype at the moment) vanishes.

iPhone Owner here.

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

I love how Apple has managed to sell the phone at their apple stores, and all you need to do is pick it up, plug it into itunes and fill out a form and you're all setup on at&t very easily.

The setup is a very nice experience. No need to go to some at&t store for anything. If you dont have an apple store, you can order from apple online, have it shipped to your house and you can turn on the at&t service yourself through itunes. Its just a nice way to do things.

The iphone is awesome, but its not everything it could or should be. Apple has created a great platform but they have fallen short in features. It looks as if Apple is going to continue to support the iPhone by adding more applications thanks to the upcoming SDK, and they will be adding new features to existing phones as well as future versions. The iPhone looks like a platform, rather than a phone.

Right now, the iphone is lacking a lot, but it does somethings extremely well. Whats interesting is how people are willing to look past the shortcomings just to have an iPhone. In my case, and in many others, we werent aware of the shortcomings. I mean come on, how can it not have cut and paste?

Apple isnt being aggressive enough in adding features that the iphone lacks. Copycat phones are showing up, they're stealing a lot of ideas from Apple, and they are adding more functionality faster than Apple is. Granted these copycat ui's arent as elaborate or graphical, but they a made by the known players in the cell industry... and they can move very fast.

Re:iPhone Owner here.

[Tom]

but they have fallen short in features. Which doesn't have to be a disadvantage. I'm reading "The Design of Everday Things" at the moment, and can very much recommend it. It's a few years old, but it's still very much true - more features doesn't mean a better product. Not if you don't get the user interface design right and your cool features are unuseable - as most of the "smartphones" and more and more of the normal mobile phones are.

To me, what makes the iPhone special is that it's the first mobile phone where you can actually use all the features it has. Setting up a phone conference recently was simple and straightforward. Someone later tried to explain to me how I could've done the same on the old Nokia company cellphone, but he couldn't remember all the proper steps. That is the difference that counts for me, and even though there's one or two things I'd like my iPhone to be able to do, it's more important to me that what is there is useable.

Verizon "hemorrhaging" customers?

[Coopjust]

As much as I hate Verizon Wireless for crippling their phones, if Verizon had 62.1 million subscribers in June 2007 and 63.7 subscribers as of January 8th, 2008, how can they be "hemorrhaging" customers?

AT&T may be clobbering them, adding new acquisitions to 67.3 million lines (from 63.7 in June 07), but Verizon has a turnover rate of less than 2% and they've increased the total # of subscribers since the iPhone release.

The fact that the iPhone shookup the wireless industry and forced others to innovate and improve is true, but Verizon isn't dying. They DO need to play catchup with AT&T though; AT&T is widening their lead.

Nokia phones are open, not iphone

[weave]

I own a Nokia N95 *AND* an Iphone (using t-mobile and at&t respectively), so I think I can judge these fairly.

First, I love the iphone in so many ways. The user interface rocks, web is better than the Symbian one (although they both do real web pages, unlike Apple's claims to be first), and the iphone's email app is much, much faster than that crap on Symbian (I have an inbox of several thousand messages so that might be part of it, but the iphone handles it like a breeze, and quickly)

With that said, I really like how I can do what I want with my unlocked Nokia. I use gizmoproject to do VOIP on it, I can pop in a prepaid overseas SIM when I travel, I can even load putty on it for pete's sake. Bluetooth options are endless including tethering with a data plan.

iphone is crippled in many unforgiveable ways, like crappy bluetooth support (what, I can't send a photo over bluetooth or tether my laptop?), no MMS, lack of WPA enterprise WIFI support (horrible), email app "helpfully" scales down the pics for you to VGA, and on and on.

These are all software design issues, which makes it even more intolerable.

Hopefully Nokia learns some lessons and adapts its software and Apple addresses the shortcomings in a future software update. At least let me use the iphone at work on the wifi network there. Sigh...

Re:Very american-centric article

[rbanffy]

I think this internet thing mostly did away with that other thing of national borders and geography.

In the end, every article and every discussion here and on every other discussion-centric site has different demographics.

I use Ubuntu and I don't think of it as American, European or African.

For the rest of the world, it's interesting to note how the stranglehold of the telcos (due to probably insuficient consumer-protection laws) has held the US back in respect to mobile telephony.

Jobs Considered Linux?

[wchatam]

From TFA: Engineers looked carefully at Linux, which had already been rewritten for use on mobile phones, but Jobs refused to use someone else's software.

Really? That never stopped him from using FreeBSD or Mach in OS X.

My guess is that it was the GPL that kept Linux out of the iPhone and OS X. This is not meant as a flame against the GPL or Apple, but I am curious if OS X or the iPhone would be based on Linux if they could have gotten it with a BSD license.