Foxconn to manufacture Apple's iPhone - report - Page 2

Originally Posted by Johnny Mozzarella
Sounds good but it better have Bluetoof.

Originally Posted by melgross

Is that something new? Or do you type with a lisp?

Originally Posted by mugwump

What's a "chorines"?

Originally Posted by jdcfsu

In the States each carrier basically has a different network. Some can handle bandwidth better then others, etc. The unlocked SIM phone is the best option for global sales, and why I think it makes the most sense. An MVNO would probably make more sense here in America, but would also probably fail.

Originally Posted by melgross

I doubt if Apple would do a prepaid service.

Originally Posted by -dF

I don't care if it's poo wrapped in tin foil with fish hooks sticking out of it - I'm getting one!

Originally Posted by melgross

I doubt if Apple would do a prepaid service.

Originally Posted by ryukyu

There's an srticle over on Wired News that's touting the SIM approach for the iPhone.
http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,...tw=wn_index_14

Originally Posted by pioneer01

That is definately a PhotoShop job, I can tell

Originally Posted by jdcfsu

I think the iPhone will either be MVNO or a straight SIM "unlocked" cell (which I think is more likely). That way they can sell it in their Apple Stores and you can run it on any carrier. Some carriers will be better then others, but it makes the most sense. Look at how successful the BlackBerry is, and it's offered by all the major carriers.

Originally Posted by jameshopkins

Yeah i think the SIM unlocked makes the most sense too. Apple will want to be able to sell it direct.

What do you mean some carriers will be better than others? Here in the UK, most of the carriers are pretty much the same, they all offer similar services, and are similar in price.

Originally Posted by doemel

That's not what I mean. I don't need Apple to provide any service for me except for iTMS and selling me the iPhone and unlocked SIM so I can continue using my cheap ass Prepaid service. I don't care about all the 3G-or-whatever-mobile-carrier-companies-invent-next-to-extract-more-money-from-your-pocket connectivities. All I need my phone for is

• Phone calls. Why has everybody forgotten what phones were intended to to in the first place?
• Text messages. IMHO, MMS is just a waste of bandwith and a way for carriers to make more money off of you.
• Maybe organizing some data. Contacts. Calendars. Period.
• Looking good.
• Being small and unobtrusive.
• Being easy and intuitively to operate. Unlike pretty much any cell phone OS I have come across so far.

For all that I won't need a cell phone plan. Any prepaid will do.

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

It'll be a non-starter in Europe without prepaid not that the phone manufacturers ever get to decide that anyway. There have been a few phones available exclusively on one carrier or on contract initially on release here but must people just unlock them and stick PAYG sims in.

What's interesting if this report is true is that Apple aren't using an existing phone manufacturers such as HTC or FIC to build their phones. That means it's not an off the shelf design even at the basic hardware level.

It's also an interesting time in the phone OS world. The Symbian OS phones are switching to Symbian 9.x which breaks compatibility with previous Symbian phones and the new phones (Nokia N series, SE P990, M600...) are pretty buggy despite the OS improvements. I sent back my P990 as it was so unstable. Microsoft hasn't quite got there yet. Palm have split entirely from Access now so fuck knows what they'll do - Windows Mobile I guess. Linux QTopia has it's work cut out gaining traction as it's so expensive and now there's a really nice open source phone platform called OpenMoko with cheap handsets too.

So, even if Apple's iPhone 1.0 in January is lacking, it joins a whole industry of software that is also severely lacking. If they do an iPhone Nano candybar simple phone and an Apple OQO running OSX, I'll buy both. :-)

Originally Posted by melgross

I don't think so. It wouldn't be unlocked unless Apple could get the carriers to support the full feature set, which most carriers simply won't do.

Apple is a believer in the entire "experience". They won't allow a carrier to modify that. It's likely one of the major reasons why their phone isn't out yet.

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

Even in the UK we're getting some of that. Oddly it's usually because carriers try to ADD features. For instance, Orange adds it's own front screen menu system to some phones and on the P990 I had they somehow forgot to include the RSS news reader that ships as standard. The added overhead of their buggy software also meant the phone ran sub par too.

On the other hand, I can't see ANY UK carrier being so daft as to disable Bluetooth or data like some US carriers have done.

Originally Posted by doemel

I sure hope it won't be tied to one carrier exclusively! Because I don't need and I don't want a cell phone plan. I prefer Prepaid and won't change that anytime soon. If they do tie the iPhone to some carrier (which might only be available in the States) the rest of us would be fcuked. So, please Steve, if you read this, don't feed those rip off mobile carriers even more dough and instead just sell your iPhone as is without any subscription. I don't care if the damn thing costs 500$, I was ready to pay that much for my first iPod, I'll be ready to pay that for my first iPhone as well.

Originally Posted by BEatMaKeR

I assume this will not be available to Verizon customers because of the Vcast competition... and T-mobile and Cingular customers will have all the fun.

and I have the Moto clamshell that sychs to my Mac,

Originally Posted by MacGregor

Now that most family and friends are "IN" with Verizon and I have the Moto clamshell that sychs to my Mac, I am probably a year or two away from switching .... if I ever do. Verizon is fine, though pricey and it has fairly good service in rural NW which I need.

But even more to the point, I need a clamshell. "Candy bars" are for middle schoolers. I want the main screen and buttons protected. I want it to slide in and out of pockets easiy. I want it to have an easy interface and a click-wheel-like first (on the outside of the clamshell) design for the 95% of the calls that I make that don't require numeric buttons (plus iPod navigation) and then the numerics inside when needed. I want easy synching to my Mac (obviously standard for any iPhone). And last I want at least 4Gigs of music storage.

So please, no candy bar or at least give us two versions.

Ireland: Can you use your Ive's like design sense and CAD programming skills to mock up a clamshell version of your wonderful phone?

Originally Posted by Ireland

Here's two i drew 6 months ago:





On both suggested models the green phone icon changes to red when on a call. It must be press to hang up, and the touch sensor is so clever it can tell the difference between your face and your thumb, so you wont hang up be accident, that and the sensor inside can tell if there is much light getting to the front of the phone, so it takes this and the time of day into account too before it decides if you really wanted to hang up Both models have touch sensitive numbers too.

Originally Posted by MacGregor

But even more to the point, I need a clamshell. "Candy bars" are for middle schoolers.

Originally Posted by psionic001

That looks a bit sketchy to me....

Originally Posted by melgross

I prefer the way my Treo is. I don't like clamshells that much.

It's just a matter of perspective. Neither is really better.

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

Candybars are infinitely better. No need for two screens just to tell the time or see who is ringing, having to flip a phone open just to answer a call or read a text message, less obtrusive, they're more robust, you only need one hand to operate them, you don't look like some knuckle dragging luddite from the Startac era or Paris Hilton wannabee.

The only thing worse is geek PDA phones with aerials.

I can think of lots of reasons why flip phones are horrible and not one good reason for them. If Apple makes a flip phone, then they'll be using brown plastic for the next iPods and doing a beige iMac.

An Applified version of the SE T610 candybar would be perfect for the low end phone. Still my favourite phone ever and it had absolutely perfect iSync compatibility right from the get go. Mix in the featureset of the latest SE Walkman phones like the W850 or the blogging features of the K800i with .Mac/iWeb.

If they're doing a PDA/Smartphone like a Treo, Blackberry, Nokia E61, SE P990 type thing, that'll be much harder to get right and still be stylish plus they'll still need software to run on it unless they've distilled iLife/iWork down to phone size too.

Originally Posted by MacGregor

Now that most family and friends are "IN" with Verizon and I have the Moto clamshell that sychs to my Mac, I am probably a year or two away from switching .... if I ever do. Verizon is fine, though pricey and it has fairly good service in rural NW which I need.

But even more to the point, I need a clamshell. "Candy bars" are for middle schoolers. I want the main screen and buttons protected. I want it to slide in and out of pockets easiy. I want it to have an easy interface and a click-wheel-like first (on the outside of the clamshell) design for the 95% of the calls that I make that don't require numeric buttons (plus iPod navigation) and then the numerics inside when needed. I want easy synching to my Mac (obviously standard for any iPhone). And last I want at least 4Gigs of music storage.

So please, no candy bar or at least give us two versions.

Originally Posted by melgross

We have more competition here. Each carrier does its own thing.

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

Yeah, we've only got O2, Vodafone, 3, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin, Tesco and maybe a couple of other MVNOs I've forgot eg. EasyMobile (just folded). They all do their own thing eg. T-Mobile has great data contracts, Orange is the only one to give you two lines on one phone. They all have various free minutes / free text offers. What they all have in common though is they all use the same phone standards, SIMs and frequencies so they're pretty much interchangeable as long as your phone isn't locked.

Most contract phones aren't locked so I can take an Orange SIM and stick it in a vodafone phone. Most PAYG phones are locked to the operator (or carrier in US terminology) but pretty much any market or non-official phone shop will unlock a phone for you for about £10. Since the phone has cost you only about £30 that's basically a completely unlocked phone for £40.

That's why we typically have 2-3 phones in the UK each and we just swap the SIM depending on the occasion and phones are disposable fashion items to some people.

If you're on contract, the latest PDA smart phones are also quite often free or under £50.

Apple coming out with a $500 phone will be about as popular as a brown zune.

UK phone users also forget that a lot of the USA just isn't covered by digital phone systems because of population density. It's like the phone system we had 10 years ago in parts of the USA and for years the USA had completely bizarre systems where you had to pay to receive SMS messages and couldn't even send them to other networks outside yours.

Originally Posted by adjective

When I was in the UK this summer I was befuddled by your cellphone systems. How the carriers just send out SIMs for you to pass on your old phones, etc. etc.

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

Yeah, we've only got O2, Vodafone, 3, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin, Tesco and maybe a couple of other MVNOs I've forgot eg. EasyMobile (just folded). They all do their own thing eg. T-Mobile has great data contracts, Orange is the only one to give you two lines on one phone. They all have various free minutes / free text offers. What they all have in common though is they all use the same phone standards, SIMs and frequencies so they're pretty much interchangeable as long as your phone isn't locked.

Most contract phones aren't locked so I can take an Orange SIM and stick it in a vodafone phone. Most PAYG phones are locked to the operator (or carrier in US terminology) but pretty much any market or non-official phone shop will unlock a phone for you for about £10. Since the phone has cost you only about £30 that's basically a completely unlocked phone for £40.

That's why we typically have 2-3 phones in the UK each and we just swap the SIM depending on the occasion and phones are disposable fashion items to some people.

If you're on contract, the latest PDA smart phones are also quite often free or under £50.

Apple coming out with a $500 phone will be about as popular as a brown zune.

UK phone users also forget that a lot of the USA just isn't covered by digital phone systems because of population density. It's like the phone system we had 10 years ago in parts of the USA and for years the USA had completely bizarre systems where you had to pay to receive SMS messages and couldn't even send them to other networks outside yours.

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

Yes, I'd forgotten about that. You can just buy a SIM for about £25 inc £5 of call credit and pop it in any old unlocked phone you happen to have. Takes about 30 minutes and you're up and running with a new number. I did that for my business support line a couple of years back since it's only used for incoming calls it works out at about £30 for the first year and £10 for the second year. My servers also send it SMS texts.

If you visit the UK just buy a SIM and pop it in your unlocked US GSM phone instead of paying stupid roaming charges.

Originally Posted by ecking

I wold prefer a flip to candy bar though.

Originally Posted by SpamSandwich

Same here. Better for screen protection and avoiding accidental dialing.

Originally Posted by mugwump

What's a "chorines"?

Originally Posted by firsttube

Misspelling of cronies. As in friends.

Originally Posted by firsttube

Misspelling of cronies. As in friends.

Originally Posted by melgross

Use a screen protector (cheap!), and candybar phones don't dial by themselves. You set it to lock out the keys, a quick press when turning the phone on activates the functions.