Apple to Become Wireless Provider?

nonsuchworks writes "Forbes reports on the possibility of Apple becoming a 'mobile virtual network operator,' or MVNO, in order to extend the iTunes and iPod brands into the cellular phone market. This would allow Apple to circumvent the cellular carriers who have so far balked at carrying the iTunes-enabled mobile phone." From the article: "It might sound far-fetched, but the pieces are in place for it to happen later this summer. Apple is already developing a hybrid iPod/cell phone with handset maker Motorola. And companies ranging from the Virgin Group to The Walt Disney Co. are proving that a new network model can allow all kinds of businesses to easily enter the mobile market."

Cellphone iTunes?

[__aahsof7392]

Who actually listens to music on their cellphone anyway? When's the last time a company built a cellphone just for the purpose of making and receiving calls?

In other words

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple continues to do absolutely everything possible to do everything they can except enter the PDA market.

So expect increasingly powerful phones, increasingly powerful mp3 players, everything else, but as soon as you suspect they might try to harness that power or color screen or brand recognition power to do anything useful, or suggest they could challenge the PocketPC's increasingly total dominance of its segment before it becomes impossible to enter the market, or suggest they could pull out some of the truckload of IP and good ideas they're sitting on from the Newton... GACK! NO! NO SOUP FOR YOU!

showing that it can work?

[drhamad]

When is the last time you saw someone with a cell phone from one of those so-called competitors?

This is a big market for a company to jump into. Apple may be doing well, but they are no Virgin or Walt Disney, and they don't have those kind of resources.

Apple has surprised us all before at one time or another, but I'm going to say it anyway: I don't think this would happen.

Slow

[COMON$]

The main reason people dont like to use Cell networks for stuff like this is speed. There is so much web content out there that any wide area network using Cellular technology ends up being a huge pain. Now imagine if you started pumping iTunes media files and pictures over this slow network....yikes.

Or is there something I am unaware of here?

Re:Simple. Team up with Walmart.

[garcia]

Install a WiFi Max mobile station at each WalMart and you have close to an instant cell network not to mention ISP, and Cable TV replacement.

Walmart would likely disallow what it deems to be "inappropriate" traffic to flow over its network.

The BIG advantage...

[Johnny Mozzarella]

Apple can decide what goes on the phone and control the user experience. They don't have to put on every bell and whistle that Cingular or Verizon wants. Nor do they have to cripple features like bluetooth or limit syncing to over the network.

I would love to see tight integration with .Mac, iCal & Address Book. Some widgets would be nice too!

Re:Cellphone iTunes?

[hardaker]

Who actually listens to music on their cellphone anyway?

• Actually, I do. But my phone does it and I have ear pieces... I find it better when flying and other places to do that rather than drain my laptop batteries.

When's the last time a company built a cellphone just for the purpose of making and receiving calls?

• Admittedly this is a mixed blessing. The one thing you don't want your phone to do is break when you're trying to use it as a phone. But modern phones definitely have that problem, and both my last two phones have either crashed or locked when trying to use it as a phone. That's definitely bad. But yet because I need the other functionality (calendars, lists, etc) because I refuse to carry around multiple gadgets I keep buying a multi-phone even though I know it's going to be less of a phone. Interestingly enough a good friend of mine complains constantly about just wanting a phone that works as a phone. All the time. What did he buy for his last phone? That's right... A treo.

Face it...

[timtwobuck]

Wireless is a thing of the future, everything, eventually, will be wireless (unless an evironment or process forbids it).

Also, combining devices is also a thing of the future..it doesn't make sense to have 3 different devices with three different chargers that can't communicate, or communicate with some beat-arse protocol

It was destined that the iPod, since it is the defacto portable music player would become wireless, integrated with a cellphone, and eventually into a PDA/ICBM launcher.

The integration could go the other way, with the cellphone becoming the Mp3 player, but since the iPod is proven, and has a large fan-base (who in all likely-hood own cellphones), going in this direction will snare many more people.

Re:Cellphone iTunes?

[lhbtubajon]

This is a serious complaint. The parent could be erroneously moderated as a troll, but the reality is that while a thousand little (and big) functions have been added to cell phones over the last few years, what has been done to improve the quality of the call itself?

For >50 years, developed nations have enjoyed highly-reliable land line phone systems, complete with excellent sound quality (for a phone) and consistent "signal".

I wish phone companies would spend a little more of their time and money making wireless networks as reliable as land lines have been for so long.

Give me a phone that makes and takes calls, doesn't drop calls, and sounds good. THEN talk to me about how it can stream content.

good!

[jdunlevy]

even just the rumor of this might be enough to spur the current American cell providers to offer internet service somebody might actually find useful...

Actually...

[alvinrod]

You'll probably be able to get the phone for a relatively low cost. Most mobile phones are sold for a loss by cellular companies so that they can get people to sign a service contract that more than makes up for the loss they will take from the phone.

I could easily see one of these phones with 100 song capacity selling for as low as $150. You'll be selling your soul and signing a 2 year service agreement though.

My Dad got a phone for $80 with a plan. After he accidentally ran over it about a year later, it would have cost him over $300 to buy a replacement phone that was either the same model or similar to the one he had.

One of these phones probably won't cost much more than an iPod with similar storage capacity.

More Stuff At The Apple Store

[blueZhift]

Very interesting. I suppose if this takes off, you could buy the iPod Cell phone and a wireless plan at the Apple Store with prepaid minutes like you can at Virgin now. Given that cell phones have become something of a fashion accessory, Apple could have a great deal of success in that market even if their wireless plan ended up being pricier than the competition. Imagine all of those current iPod owners who would happily dump that current cell phone in favor of Apple's new hybrid. Mo money, mo money mo money! As Bill Gates can attest to, one of the secrets of long term success is to get your customers to keep buying the same products from you periodically!

T-Mobile, next acquisition?

[Anonymous Coward]

Being that Deutsche Telekom has been rumoured to be shopping around T-Mobile, this could be the property Apple should be looking in.

T-Mobile is profitable and fast growing, however, the carrier is said to require a $10 billion investment in order to extend their coverage one standard deviation, to stay competitive with Sprint and Cingular.

T-Mobile and Cingular both use GSM with its IP like structure carries data with the minimum of encasuplation and overhead, and while Cingular has leaped ahead with its EDGE 3G rollout, T-Mobile is stuck at any average of 56k on its GPRS network.

T-Mobile doesn't have the subscriber base that Cingular has, but it does have enough network capacity for its community - unlike Cingular that is oversubscribed, and faces the challenges of integrating disparate network types - Analog, TDMA and GSM, into a single GSM-Edge network.

Anyway, if Apple can bring their brand perception to T-Mobile, and roll out custom handsets that take advantage of T-Mobile ubiquitious internet service, this may be the birth of a subscriber based iTunes on demand, allowing customers to listen to streaming, 40k AAC stream, today, over existing tech.

T-Mobile has the network, sufficient speed and is for sale - Apple has the product and the technology to make 56k worthwhile as a communications medium.

Re:Yeah right

[The Lynxpro]

"This is about as likely as Apple switching to Intel x86 chips... oh.. wait."

Or marketing a flash-based iPod.

Now if they'd only finally bring out a two button + scroll wheel mouse standard for their Macs!* :)

*Before I get flamed, let me explain my statement. It is my belief that if Apple finally brought out a two button + scroll wheel mouse, coupled with the always reliable style of Apple, Apple would pick up a lot of sales to the PC market and steal away marketshare from both Logitech and Microsoft, not to mention halt the trend of Mac users buying two button mice from the two previously mentioned companies. My argument has nothing to do with the fact that Mac OS and OS X are designed with the simplicity of a single mouse button in mind. I'm not mocking that; I'm only stating for the record that the vast majority of computer users prefer two button mice and Apple would be wise to begrudgingly accept this and market another sure-fire profitable item for all of us. Especially since Apple seems to understand Bluetooth the best out of all the manufacturers I've mentioned in my rant.

Monotone

[Doc Ruby]

These business gyrations are all based on the monopoly model. Mobile telcos have monopolies on access to their customers: witness their blocking the iPodPhone because they demand a "royalty" for every download, even when their network isn't in the loop (synced to a computer which downloaded over the wired Internet). Record labels are in the critical path, because their cartel insists on collecting a toll on music transactions, even when they're out of the loop (fair use of copyright in listening to your own home music collection across the mobile Internet). Even Apple is consistent with this model: they're in the lead with negotiations with those other "legs" of the path from the musician to your ears, while they run their little empire as the sole supplier of their OS and HW, while enforcing "look and feel" to the narrowest spec in the industry.

We are teetering on the watershed, between mobile multimedia network terminals ("phones") which do whatever we want, constrained only by our imagination and sustainable monetization, and a vertical stack of monopolies controlling the pipeline to your senses. It looks like the odds, the big money, all favor the monopoly. Which sounds terrible.

Re:Cellphone iTunes?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are several entry level phones so stop whining.

And most modern phones have excelent quality, if your calls drop etc. you can put the plame to your
cheapo operator.

Btw your problems indicate that you live in the usa..

Re:Yeah right

[Rude Turnip]

"I'm only stating for the record that the vast majority of computer users prefer two button mice..."

I think a more accurate statement is that they are *used to* two button mice. I use a PC at work (say 8 hours/day) and a Mac at home (say 1 hour a day) on a daily basis. The difference in interfaces between Windows and OS X is such that I simply never miss having a second mouse button in OS X. I'm not saying that one is better than another (security issues aside), it's just that they are different.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Slow

[Thu25245]

1. Download a song using iTunes on your PC, over your broadband connection
2. Sync it with your iPod over a firewire/USB connection
3. Sync it with your cell phone over a USB/Bluetooth connection.

Who said anything about using a cell network for this? That's why the mobile network operators are so pissed.

Re:Apparently we have exhausted all the good TLAs

[Anonymous Coward]

Shouldn't it be AWFL (Acronym With Four Letters)?

If mouse buttons is the only gripe...

[paulsomm]

Seriously, if your big gripe is the mouse, then Apple is definitely doing something right.

For the beginning user, one mouse button is easiest. Take your grandmother (or, rather, mine) and try to explain right-clicking. Sure, she can get it, but it takes a little time (she likes to double-right-click and often mis-clicks the left button for the right or presses the center activating both buttons).

For the rest of us, is it such a big deal we have to guy pay $10-$70 for a multi-button mouse? Sure, I wish Apple at least gave the option with a new Mac, but come on, is this worth an entire thread over? Or rather, again? The post was about Apple becoming a phone company.

I'm not sure how I feel about apple becoming a cell company. Would I buy an iPod/Phone? Doubtful. I'd rather have an all-in-one PDA that plays music instead of an iPod that makes phone calls. My Treo plays MP3s, does AIM, surfs, has a Nintendo emulator, as well as my calendar and work emails being constantly in sync wirelessly. I'd rather be able to subscribe to the iTunes cell service on my phone than buy an iPod phone.

But, then, I'm still a bit cautious about this whole itunes on the phone. Given the spotty cell reception I get, any sort of streaming service would be painful at best.

Re:I bought a two button bluetooth wireless mouse

[modecx]

Who cares, honestly--and more to the point, who actually uses those RSI inducing apple mice for more than a few days? Grandmas, and people who want their mouse to look like their Apple. Think about it... It's true!

Why do they need to go right clicking about when they have a hard enough time double clicking (witness Windows XP)? That's right, they don't, and even if they did, they wouldn't be sure how to go about it.

Nobody bitches about Dell or Gateway giving away relatively cheap, underfeatured mouses by default... And even if Apple did make some uber-mouse that is the bestest of the best in every respect, there'd still be people complaining about it, how it adds a hundred-fifty bucks to their computer price, and how it dosen't do what they want, or how the design makes their hand fall off, or how they like trackballs or tablets, or those little nubby things better for whatever reason.

It's just better to let people get what they want on the free market--where users drive innovation--than to constantly invest huge resources making a product that tries to be everything to everyone.