Apple Phone
Apple should release this at WWDC on Monday:
The next digital hub device is the SIP phone. Apple prides itself on pushing the industry, designing new products and making old products new and more useful.
There are 3 componets to the SIP phone. Hardware, Software and .Mac.
Hardware:
(1) handheld phone that charges like a regular phone. It works off 802.11g and/or [Class 1 Bluetooth] and connects to AExtreme and/or AExpress. If Apple choices Bluetooth, the Class 1 would connect directly to the computer itself. ***Apple would also need to offer both a USB Class 1 dongle or internal card.
It looks and operates like regular cordless phone. It interoperates with Address Book and Answering machine software on the computer.
Software:
There is a SIP software phone on the desktop that's integrated with the software based answering machine. The answering machine would have all the feature set normal answering machines would but would have a couple extra Apple would throw in. For example; when a person leaves a message, the message would be encoded and saved to a special iDisk folder which would auto sync to .Mac.
.Mac:
Members can then log in to .Mac Mail and check a specific VoiceMail Messages email folder to listen/delete and Save as needed.
Overall, messages can be checked from the Internet, Phone, or computer.
iLife: This product would be a good compliment to the software package and therefor increase the overall pricing to $55-$60 dollars.
Pricing threshold for the phone itself would need to cover the hardware and design cost for the wireless protocol used plus Apple margin. Customer price threshold is probably $100 dollars or in bundles with AExpress or Aextreme for discount.
Whether Apple uses blutooth or Wi-Fi, this would be a great Apple product which they can capture market share, add additional revenue stream and increase revenue in existing products. This product can continue to push Apple's concept notion that "The OS, Hardware, Applications and the Internet can all work as a seemless system to enhance the excitement and productivity of all who use Apple products and services."
The next digital hub device is the SIP phone. Apple prides itself on pushing the industry, designing new products and making old products new and more useful.
There are 3 componets to the SIP phone. Hardware, Software and .Mac.
Hardware:
(1) handheld phone that charges like a regular phone. It works off 802.11g and/or [Class 1 Bluetooth] and connects to AExtreme and/or AExpress. If Apple choices Bluetooth, the Class 1 would connect directly to the computer itself. ***Apple would also need to offer both a USB Class 1 dongle or internal card.
It looks and operates like regular cordless phone. It interoperates with Address Book and Answering machine software on the computer.
Software:
There is a SIP software phone on the desktop that's integrated with the software based answering machine. The answering machine would have all the feature set normal answering machines would but would have a couple extra Apple would throw in. For example; when a person leaves a message, the message would be encoded and saved to a special iDisk folder which would auto sync to .Mac.
.Mac:
Members can then log in to .Mac Mail and check a specific VoiceMail Messages email folder to listen/delete and Save as needed.
Overall, messages can be checked from the Internet, Phone, or computer.
iLife: This product would be a good compliment to the software package and therefor increase the overall pricing to $55-$60 dollars.
Pricing threshold for the phone itself would need to cover the hardware and design cost for the wireless protocol used plus Apple margin. Customer price threshold is probably $100 dollars or in bundles with AExpress or Aextreme for discount.
Whether Apple uses blutooth or Wi-Fi, this would be a great Apple product which they can capture market share, add additional revenue stream and increase revenue in existing products. This product can continue to push Apple's concept notion that "The OS, Hardware, Applications and the Internet can all work as a seemless system to enhance the excitement and productivity of all who use Apple products and services."
Comments
phone:
add gsm/gprs quad band functionality for use worldwide on gsm networks. with gprs you can get location and info of what's around and directions off of the phone.
Add ipod to the mix 4gig is fine for now. remove one item from my pocket. make entire package fit into ipod mini case. Clamshell the case to include a small keyboard.
Add to outside of case solar cells to allow for trickle charging in bright light -office or outside
Make the phone unlocked to use any sim chip on any gsm/gprs network. In fact the new chipsets from the cell chip suppliers also allow for cdma and gsm/gprs on the same chip.
Perhaps have 2 sets of batteries in the case. 1 for cell functions the other for the ipod. make them removable and replaceable.
Add to software/.mac the ability to synch on the go to update and retrieve off of .mac appointments and contacts.
Add the ability to save my desktop settings and allow for the log on to remote apple computers with my settings and prefs in place and/or the ability to access my mac at home/work from anywhere
wish list- add biometric security to the phone so that this data is safe and encrypted.
PLEASE STEVE J.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!
no I don't want a treo!
Edit:
on the home phone side look what B&O is doing with aluminum cases
http://www.bang-olufsen.com/sw4387.asp
http://www.bang-olufsen.com/sw21393.asp
Sincerly
Brian Zebeaune
www.zebeaune.com
Originally posted by Zab The Fab
....so how do we get this guy a job at Apple....?
Sincerly
Brian Zebeaune
www.zebeaune.com
have Steve J call me we can do lunch.
I'd like to see an 802.11g-based IP phone that would connect to GSM/GPRS only when "roaming" out of WiFi range. It would also be able to use Rendezvous to create networks on the go. It could be a truly wireless router by sharing its GPRS or 802.11g connection to bluetooth devices such as other phones, handhelds, or even Macs. It would have iChat installed to connect to both AIM and Rendezvous chat sessions. Why not also give it XServe management and status notification utilities? Background synchronization with .Mac would be a must. Sherlock would be far more useful on a phone than on a computer. I'm sure a streamlined version Safari would be present. And, last, but certainly not least, it would support AFP.
Originally posted by TednDi
have Steve J call me we can do lunch.
I was dialing, but then I paused...there's no way you sound like someone who could survive a vegeterian lunch....
Sorry, not calling my old pal Steven P. Jobs...
I think Steve likes people who go for blood!
T
iDunno.
really Steve J. at least you could have done is mail me a beta of the damn thing!!
3200 bux for a monitor, nice though it may be, I really need a new phone. I'll get to the pixar monitor later!!
poop, I don't want a treo. palm os is old and lame.
BTW, according to Harald there was an Apple phone, made in cooperation with SonyEricsson. It was dropped before release.
Before asking Apple to release a phone, consider the market: How many people buy their own cell phones? How many services even allow them to? The "market" for phones is alien territory for Apple, and it would mean that Apple had a lone widget, and the nature and quality of its most basic service - phone service - Apple couldn't control.
Originally posted by Amorph
A phone would be part of the Digital Hub, so off we go.
BTW, according to Harald there was an Apple phone, made in cooperation with SonyEricsson. It was dropped before release.
Before asking Apple to release a phone, consider the market: How many people buy their own cell phones? How many services even allow them to? The "market" for phones is alien territory for Apple, and it would mean that Apple had a lone widget, and the nature and quality of its most basic service - phone service - Apple couldn't control.
I know, but they were in alien teritory with the mp3 player and killed the markte. with a gsm phone/ipod and a slight bit of information a chimp could change a sim card. Most (all?) gsm phones are manufacured able to both be locked and unlocked. unlocking only means that the software value is set to a particular cell provider. An unlocked phone is by default set to all carriers. The sim chip (provided by the carrier) is all that is needed to access any one particular carrier. Change the sim chip and the carrier changes. You can have multiple sim chips but only use one. The others remain in safe keeping. This happens all of the time in europe and asia. I have an unlocke phone and it works for att wireless, cingular, virgin (uk) and orange(uk) all of these i have tested and tried and they work perfectly. Apple can produce such a product integrate it into great software and charge its usual premium.
Look at the ipod it is a glorified hardrive and mp3 player but it is sucessful as all get go
Originally posted by TednDi
I know, but they were in alien teritory with the mp3 player and killed the markte.
No they weren't. Apple is a consumer products company. They sell directly to end users. The iPod was no different. Remember, I'm not talking about the product category - I have no doubt that Apple could design a killer phone, too - I'm talking about the market. The iPod was a new product category released to a familiar market. An iPhone would be a new product category released to a new... well, it's not a market.
with a gsm phone/ipod and a slight bit of information a chimp could change a sim card.
Doesn't matter. If the phone service companies say, in the contract, that you can only use their phone with their service (which most of them do, based on my looking around a while ago), how many people will second-guess them, or work around the restriction? The stuff you're talking about is not something that 90% of consumers will ever do - not because they're not capable of doing it, but because it would never even occur to them, or it would seem "risky" relative to the comfort of using, say, Verizon's phone with Verizon's service.
So Apple would have the choice of selling to the tiny minority of people who hack sim cards, or wading into unfamiliar territory and hammering out contracts with service providers. They apparently decided that it wasn't worth it. It might also be that the kinds of phones Apple would be interested in just aren't that widely used. Certainly, the vast majority of people around here use whatever came free with the service.
Look at the ipod it is a glorified hardrive and mp3 player but it is sucessful as all get go
Why? Because 1) iPod sells directly to end users, and 2) Apple controls all (or most, in the case of PC iPods) of the experience. The service you use is iTMS, and unlike with the phone, this service is optional; the synching software is iTunes and iSync; and there's some chance that the host machine is a Mac. With an Apple phone, it's a lone widget. There's no synching software for Windows (they could provide that, of course), and the service isn't Apple's (they could provide that too, theoretically, but it's not gonna happen).
There is no analogy between the iPod and the iPhone, and it's because of the nature of the services they tap into, and the nature of the markets they're sold into. To look at the problem of the iPhone, you have to look at the cell phone market. There aren't many analogies to other product categories there.
you are right inthe uneducated american market. Sorry, the world is a bit ahead of the US here in cell phones. In asia and europe consumers switch out sim cards in the airport after leaving the planes. by themseves. I don't mean to sound facitious (pardon my spelling and typos all) but it isn't too hard and americans can be educated in the operation. We all adopted cd's and Dvd's. To keep the "consumers are stupid and won't adopt anything new" is like saying we should all use the command line and not upgrade because it's too hard.
I am talking about a product that isn't a stand alone phone. What I want is an integrated 4g ipod phone hybrid. Mac and PC users have the ipod they have a cell phone and they have a PDA.
Wrap them all into a single product (exept for the pda which i will explain why later)
Ipod -needs no explination we all like it and know how it integrates into itunes.
Phone- we (presumably) all have one- unlock it On apples part let the users swap in the sim cards. Apple isn't interfering in anyones contract. It is up to the user to select a service and get a number. You can call any gsm provider and get a sim card without a phone. Your phone. Your number You pay for both.
The current hitch is that the cell companies subsidise the phones. They then use the phones to entice you into longer contracts. They lock the phones to keep you in longer contracts. Your phone unlocked is good.
PDA- time has come the smartphone is here this is a software issue (apple does this the best (imho)) Most people want to get data out of the pda. Although some will argue this point (for you yes, a pda is the solution) Synching on the fly is my desired ability. Use the .mac service (tiger does this now)
Bundle the whole thing into a nice package with bluetooth and an app like salling clicker (www.salling.com) this is your itunes remote and mobile prefs etc for use on any mac!
The reason that I believe that the time has come for an apple phone is that with the prevelence of sd cards there will come, in the near future, the convergence of music and phones and pda(light) functionality. The ipod in it's current form will then be obsolete.
Convergence isn't just for the home. It is a lifestyle concept.
Carry one item not 3. make it apple. bring more people to the interface.
Look at itunes for windows and the ipod. Make the product then have it's cool factor sink in then offer it to windows users later.
This produt is coming I just want apple to be in the lead.
quote:
"doesn't matter. If the phone service companies say, in the contract, that you can only use their phone with their service (which most of them do, based on my looking around a while ago), how many people will second-guess them, or work around the restriction? The stuff you're talking about is not something that 90% of consumers will ever do - not because they're not capable of doing it, but because it would never even occur to them, or it would seem "risky" relative to the comfort of using, say, Verizon's phone with Verizon's service."
If you don't use a companies phone then they will not be able to give you customer support that is a downside. They still allow it. They just don't make much mention of it. Apple can provide this support. Or outsource it.
On another note, the cell companies may not be able to give you some of the services using your own unlocked phone.
from att wireless service agreement:
Devices not purchased from us or our authorized distributors (a) may not provide you with some or all of the features included in your Service (b) may not allow you to use features and functions while off our network, including those that work while on our network, and (c) calls to 911 may not go through on any network. Call timers included on your Device are not an accurate representation of actual billed usage. By using the Service, you agree to abide by the terms and conditions of any applicable software license.
The number will work but the downloadable ringtones and stuff may not.
Or sell the units to cell carriers and the general public. I just want' mine unlocked. Freedom of choice that's all that I am saying.
You can buy an unocked treo 600 by the way and it will work. price is near 700 bux Big market for apple. That's ibook territory and more than an emac.
Still and all, I like the discusssion and welcome your comments even if there is no hope. Perhaps someone at apple will hear me and for that I keep hoping.
note the memory stick duo and the mp3 player in the phone. Oh, and sony just launced the connect music service.
Apple could concievably get microsoOFFed again.
http://www.sonyericsson.com/product/s700/