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NOT Reinventing Wireless Telecom
Tom Evslin wrote a great post on how Apple wasted an opportunity to really "reinvent telecom" which was Jobs' claim at the start of the show yesterday.
And for a contrary point of view, here's Jason Devitt's take on iPhone.
Comments (7) | Posted January 10, 2007 in Venture Capital and Technology
Comments
I took it for granted that eventually iPhone will work on networks other than Cingular. It is common sense that proprietary networks and h/w aren't going to work and we have plenty of examples like the original online services: AOL was exclusive in the early days when they only offered access to their online service and not the internet, Prodigy and Compuserve the same. Jobs can't be arrogant enough to believe one exculsive agreement with Cingular is enough to emerge as the leader in mobile, it's too limiting and only applies to North America. Could it be that this exclusivity is really only for a short period of time? I certainly hope so.
Posted by: tomo | Jan 10, 2007 4:20:46 PM
The article surmises that there is a huge vacuum that will be left for a competitor. Let's analyze that sentence. Apple JUST NOW joined this market segment and *poof* just like that they are a major and serious player. The market has had eons of time and opportunity to create an agnostic phone or a phone with such similar characteristics as the iPhone. However, no one did it. While I would have loved to have seen Apple be the one company to do this, it is possible that the exclusivity of the relationship may not be as long term as we think.
I just don't understand Cingular of all companies. Just dreadful. If they were going to make a GSM phone it would probably make more sense to port it to T-Mo as they have such a presence in Europe as well as in the US.
My feeling is while it is understandable on how Apple could have done this... or could have done that, the reality is that they DID revolutionize telecom. I can think of no example where someone entered a market and in 24 hours make significant market fluctuations as we saw with RIMM and Palm.
Posted by: Ted | Jan 10, 2007 8:22:27 PM
Fred,
I disagree with Tom, and I also think that the market may have been right to hit RIMM. Nor do I have any difficulty understanding the decision to go with Cingular. Too long for the comments though:
http://www.brash.com/brash_dot_com/2007/01/and_so_the_ipho.html
Jason
Posted by: Jason Devitt | Jan 10, 2007 10:23:52 PM
A totally useless writeup
It's always easy to come out with bitches.
What does Apple know about Telecom ? Nada .. nothing, so how could it transform it?
wifi .. get real, wifi is not a service and can never be for real use.
The exclusive part is just a marketing thing for starters .. they will open it up for other carriers.
Apple doesn't want to (can't) transform Telcom .. it only wants to protect it's ipod franchise. With cell phone eating into the market .. it had to have sometimet to compete, otherwise ipod would have become a dead-pod.
Posted by: ss | Jan 10, 2007 11:15:02 PM
While we all wish someone would transform Telecom, Apple's not in the telecom business - they are a consumer electronics company. They ARE transforming the cell phone market.
I believe the iPhone will be the best on the market (even with its shortcomings) for a long time to come, but it will also cause other phones to become an order of magnitude better. Apple is showing them what they should be doing, and hopefully a few years down the line some company releases an open phone like the iPhone (which is what I've always wanted).
I wish there was a phone like the iPhone on which I could install my own applications, and also choose my provider FROM THE PHONE. Somewhere on the phone there would be a list of network providers (including local wifi spots), and whichever had the strongest signal would get my call. If I'm home, I use my wifi; if I'm out somewhere where cingular has best signal, I use cingular; if I'm out somewhere where t-mobile has the best signal...
Posted by: Bill Erickson | Jan 11, 2007 9:45:03 AM
To expect Apple to release a network agnostic phone that also works using VOIP over WiFi is asking alot. The VOIP market is nowhere near mature either, and a loss in call quality would reflect poorly on the new iPhone.
Cingular and T-Mobile are GSM so I expect the phone will work with T-Mobile within two years of its release to Cingular's customers. However, Sprint and Verizon are CDMA. Apple would have had to design another phone in order to work with their networks. I'm sure it will happen, but I don't expect a company like Apple with little cell phone experience to do this right out of the gate. By making their iPhone exclusive I'm sure that opened the door for Cingular to give alot of cell phone industry knowledge to Apple.
Apple has put alot on their plate with putting OS X on a cell phone. In addition, getting the UI and apps right is an enormous undertaking. Their competitors have had many years to refine their products.
I think Apple was right to focus on the UI first. They also have WiFi and bluetooth on board as well as a 2.0 mega pixel camera. That is pretty awesome and I can't think of many phones that have those features.
I'm sure we'll get more products to fill out Apple's product line in the near future. To complain and say this isn't a revolution is just pandering for headlines.
JOhn
Posted by: John Peterson | Jan 11, 2007 9:46:18 AM
what's in a name? According to Cisco a lot.
I know you've heard already, here's a discussion on CNBC this morning bout the Cisco/Apple/IPhone infringement case.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=163227518
Posted by: paul | Jan 11, 2007 3:35:13 PM
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