iPhone

Curious, how can this have been discussed before when it's something you heard from your friend? Does this tell this story to everyone?

you mean late model newton (the last one before it was killed off)?

Ok.

Here's my theory why apple _may_ get into the mobile communication device market.

in a word: itunes

now i know most of you are saying is what?!!? itunes.

Yes itunes...

Here are my thoughts.

If AOL and apple close the deal. Apple will be the leading provider of digital music in the world. How did they get there? Short answer by providing the big 5 and AOL with a techonlogy infrastructure. In this case for selling single music titles. it saved the Big 5 and AOL from spending 10s of millions themselves and the possiblity of it failing.

Currently Imusic is a test. But its the best test these industries have ever seen. Its like a bunch of cavemen were flicking rocks togther in a Cave and Steve walked in with a Bic Lighter.

What if apple is doing the same with mobile comuunications (notice i did not say phone) Here's our platform its just as cool as the imusic platform but does all the cool thing the next gen communcation devices require, Work with us and you can save money, get cool tech, and We'll take a nickel off of every call This gives them a way into the cut throat market. By working with them..Don't know how they deal with Symbian (buy them?) But it could be exciting.

They probably won't call it a phone either.
Aren't there some hints about Erricson as well?

Here's hoping...

I remember reading recently that Apple is trying to get a new industry standard connector made. Basically the inner workings of a cell phone without the case, number pad, screen, etc. Just a card lie an AirPort card only smaller.

That seems to fit with your idea keyboard 12.

yeah if apple offered a gprs spped mobile/wireless service built into laptops that'd rock

If this exists, which frankly I doubt, it's not the iPhone.

Like you'd know?

Oh yeh.

Forget that.

edit:

I like Harald

this fits with so much already discovered info:

-camera (remember the discussion about a camera that was supposed to be waterproof?)
-the latest news about a device that is tablet in nature, but larger than newton?
-kormac's DNA

But you can get those now. PC/Cardbus devices that you pop a SIM card in and you get GSM/GPRS access on your laptop. There are USB versions too.

Apple would be better off adding PC Card slots to *all* its laptops rather than re-inventing this particular wheel.

Well, kinda, but why would it be waterproof if...this machine literally could not withstand being under really any kind of water. Sure the camera might survive, but all the other--and more important parts--would not.

Problem with SIM cards is that they are GSM only. Great if you live in Europe, next to worthless in the US. Add a BlueTooth headset, some awesome power technology and you have an awesome phone/pda... thing.

It would be a bulky phone for sure, but if you can keep it in your briefcase and still make and receive calls, who cares?

8)

SIM cards are not gsm only.

GSM is the global standard, and the one all the big companies support (Nokia, Moto, SE etc). It is widely used in the US but not all carriers support it favouring CDMA.

I just want an Apple branded P800 (it's already tri-band GSM)

Color me silly, I stand corrected.

Having it built in, like Airport, allows Apple to build the antenna into the computer. This sounds like a good idea to me becouse you cant break the antenna off then. The card idea would allow one "device" to be produced, and the user could install whatever card his cell phone company supported, allowing Apple to cover all of the service providers with the same basic computer/pda/tablet/phone or whatever...sounds like a good idea to me, and this would fit into Apples design philosophy as well.

Hmmm. Calling it "discovered info" makes it sound like we know it is true. I was thinking that it sounds like recycling discredited rumors. I want to believe but lets face it, there have been thousands of tablet rumors over the last five years and no tablets.

No you don't.

Care to elaborate, O and A? Which non-GSM mobile systems (can and do) use SIM cards?

Escher

Why is everybody being so cryptic today? Com'on people, let's rise above one-liners that don't convey any information!

Escher

Could this be the "communications device" that Mac Rumors referred to? Seems like it's a quasi-PDA almost-phone-but-not-quite kind of media device. Yep, that nails it.

"We don't know what it is, so we'll say that it's probably everything we can think of tied up with a ribbon."



After the release, they can crow that they did correctly predict a "device," even if most of the details were wrong.

Think simple! End this hysteria!

Apart from the Newton, what "categories" did Apple invent?

iPod is no more then a music player; iTunes is no more then jukebox software; iMac is just a consumer PC; Music Store is just that ... and so on ...

Only they kick arse so much they define the category.

If Apple do a comms device you'll say "Huh! Is that it!??" riiiiight up to the time you hold it ... just like iPod.

Would you suggest I don't buy a P800 yet?

So you're saying iPhone is just a phone?

3G for a start... imode too I believe.

The SIM holds contacts, the phone number and network ID. It has nothing to do with the network protocols used, that's all done in the handset hardware.

In the mid 90s here in the UK we switched from analogue to digital and it meant we all needed new phones. It wasn't a SIM thing.

OMG!

3G, world standard, video conferencing!

Harald?

I said end the hysteria!

That's all I said!

All I did was point out some truths about Apple products and no more. I have a P800 and love it. I'd base my purchasing decisions on what I need or want now and not on some random dude ...

I think you are all nuts.

I was hoping for a better basis than a belief. I was under the impression that "3G" is simply the next generation of GSM, at least as the term is used in Europe. Are there any members of this board who reside in Japan who know whether iMode phones use SIM cards?


I understand what the SIM card does. But I'm not sure about the accuracy of your second statement. I was just under the (possibly erroneous) impression that only GSM networks used SIM card for those purposes. Otherwise, why wouldn't CDMA and TDMA service providers use SIM cards as well? SIM cards are so convenient for end users.


Do I understand correctly that you had to buy new phones, but were able to keep your SIM cards? Even if that is the case, my understanding is that the old analog network and the new digital network were both GSM services, simply of two successive generations. That is why they both let you use SIM cards.

I admit I know next to nothing about mobile phone technology, so my assumptions might be completely misguided. I'll ask my brother-in-law, who is a wireless analyst, to explain SIM cards and network standards to me the next time I see him.

Cheers,
Escher

in japan:

docomo (iMode): runs two systems: 1: a 2.0/2.5G system that is neither gms nor cdma. 2: a 3G wcdma system. this wcdma system is compatable with other wcdma systems, but, in fact, none (zero!) docomo handsets use sim cards, so they can not be used overseas.

vodafone: runs two systems: 1. a 2.0/2.5G system that is neither gsm nor cdma. 2: a 3G wcdma system that uses handsets that ARE compatable with other foreign wcdma systems. these handsets use sim cards that are standard and totally interchangable with any unlocked gsm fon abroad.

au: runs a 2.5/3.0 cdma system. no sim card. in fact, there are NO handsets in the world that run cdma and take a sim card. zero, none.

for yr info, there is a qualcomm chip that runs cdma and gsm, but there as yet, no handsets that take advantage of this. this combined handset would require a sim card.
cdma has no sim card for it now. there is ofcourse the EQUIVALENT of a sim card in the cdma world, but that is a hard coded number, and can not be user flashed in any real way.
the name of this sim equivalent for international cdma roaming is called IMSI.
IMSI - International Mobile Subscription Identity
This is a 15 digit number can be used to identify CDMA mobile phones to a BS in a roaming setting.

The description of that device sounds more like a tablet with a built in webcam. Nothing like a phone. You can make internet calls with a tablet+webcam device, tho. Add a new and improved iChat and you have something cool.

[edit] Now that I think about it, this could be great. You carry your iDevice (tablet+webcam) with you, and if you have a wireless network in range you can call anyone thru the internet. Instant videophone wherever there's an Airport base nearby. This device would be iChat's buddy like the iPod is to iTunes.

One word: Rosebud...

Harald, I understood what you meant.

An elegant system sometimes seems disappointingly simple at the outset..."Dang, that doesn't look very complicated or innovative...what do you call it again...the 'wheel?'"

I'm kind of wondering if there are some parallel prototyping going on in Cupertino with devices 'a la iPhone, pda and iPod (and hopefully "iVid"). Wherein Apple is slowly, secretly evolving each device with new capabilities until the correct combination of capabilities become marketable. As these capabilities converge with each device, Steve can decide when a device is ready for showtime.

Parallel development then sets up propositions, such as:

1. Does it make better sense to make a pda more iPod-like or make the iPod more pda-like. Steve obviously has decided on the latter.

2.Does it make sense to make a phone more like a pda or a pda more like a phone? Steve has so far conceded to the former.

Now

3. Does it make better sense to make a phone more iPod-like or make and iPod more phone-like since both devices may be converging? Not decided yet or maybe Steve has decided to keep both seperate.

Given the new iTunes Music Store, how far away is a wireless iPod that allows you to browse and download songs to an iPod? If that can be done reasonably well with all the legal requirements, then it would already be set up to be a wireless phone and Apple doesn't need to develop its own phone. It just gives the iPod telephonic capability....the earbuds are already there. That seems to be what has been happening to the iPod, especially since its "mobile hard-drive" capabilities are becoming more and more enabled.

Obvously it isn't a slam dunk idea and I'm not even advocating for it, but I think Apple is probably covering its bases by prototyping lots of ideas, and the iPod is so far proving the best implementation of music/pda functionality so far...and I wouldn't be surprised if Apple decides that the iPod will take up phone functionality as well once standards are established and a sim-like card can be added to it.

The 10.2.6 update adds support for the Sony Ericsson T610! IMO, that is an omen. It's a sign that Nitzer's paraphrase of Harald may be closer to the truth than we care to believe.

I want my T610 now! (Or I guess my T616 here in the US.)

Escher

I like the brushed chrome and black look of that phone too! With clear plastic highlights, I could see the next PowerMac styling going in that direction ... with the special Ives refinement of course.

http://www.sonyericsson.com/t610/

Then again, why can't you put a nav wheel on that thing instead of pushbuttons and make that a color screen iPod .... with camera functionality.

"the size is in between the big newton and palm"

did you mean fig newton and palm.. that would be nice

anyway... how about software? and OS? If they made a phone what OS would it run? Symbian? Palm? With Palm stock where it is and the fact that they are going to ipo the software division Apple could snap it up for next to nothing at this point.. not that they would because it's not that profitable yet...

If they released their own OS it wouldn't have much software available for it which would suck for those wanting to use it as a pda as well... Oh well I will have my P800 soon....