News

Why Apple Must Sell a Cell Phone

Thursday, December 21st, 2006 at 3:25 PM - by

A lot has been written about the rumored Apple cell phone. Even so, one must soberly consider that maybe, just maybe, that's not in Apple's plans. Yet, considering the present situation, Apple must now do so according to an article at Information Week published Thursday.

The author brought up an important point in his recollection of a General Electric customer survey years ago. "...General Electric was looking at the popcorn maker market, and comissioned (sic) a consumer survey to find out what people thought about the existing products. Surprisingly, GE's own popcorn maker came out on top in areas like reliabiilty and customer satisfaction. The surprising part -- GE didn't actually sell any popcorn makers yet. Instead, consumers had formed strong associations with the GE brand, and had projected those features onto a non-existent product."

The conclusion was that all the best thoughts about what a cell phone should be are being projected onto Apple. Apple, essentially, is now synonymous with the best cell phone ever designed, even though the product doesn't exist.

And that's why the author thinks that Apple just ought to sell a cell phone anyway. "Apple fans are notorious cheerleaders, so even if the phones only had one button and tended to explode after four hours of continued use, there would still be fans out there praising its curves and colors."

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Dec 21, 2006 5:50 pm

That's a ridiculous assumption.

APple has to create an iPod phone to protect it's market of iPods, and of the music playing portables. Simple. If they don't then music playing phones will take over the iPod market faster than a blink of an eye.

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Mikuro said:

member since 15 Jun 2002 with 450 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:01 pm

Guest wrote:
That's a ridiculous assumption.

APple has to create an iPod phone to protect it's market of iPods, and of the music playing portables. Simple. If they don't then music playing phones will take over the iPod market faster than a blink of an eye.

I don't know about that. Music-playing phones — including the iTunes-enabled ones — have not been wildly successful yet, and they don't seem like they're getting significantly better.

I do think Apple could easily make a push into the market, though. I would like to see a cell phone that Doesn't Suck™, and from all I've seen of the current market, I'm really not convinced such a thing exists. That makes it Apple's kind of market.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:14 pm

Guest wrote:

APple has to create an iPod phone to protect it's market of iPods, and of the music playing portables. Simple. If they don't then music playing phones will take over the iPod market faster than a blink of an eye.

Yeahhhh... they've been saying that for like three years now. Doesn't seem to be happening.

But I can understand Apple hedging its bets, in case this ever changes (doubt it will much).

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:42 pm

Didn't the recent Bond movie have a IPod cell phone in it?

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:56 pm

The iPod phone is inevitable because mobile phones are getting to the point where they can replace an iPod in capacity at least. Rogers here in Canada has a 4GB music phone and is advertising it heavily. A few years ago I might have said that mobile phones with cameras built into them wouldn't catch on, but it's next to impossible to get one now that doesn't have a camera in it. Soon it'll be impossible to get one that doesn't play music too. Then the iPod's great interface will be up against the inconvenience of carrying two devices.

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macslut said:

member since 03 Sep 2004 with 60 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:14 pm

Apple needs to release a phone, because if they don't, I'll die... I'll just curl up and die!

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:17 pm

Guest wrote:
The iPod phone is inevitable because mobile phones are getting to the point where they can replace an iPod in capacity at least. Rogers here in Canada has a 4GB music phone and is advertising it heavily. A few years ago I might have said that mobile phones with cameras built into them wouldn't catch on, but it's next to impossible to get one now that doesn't have a camera in it. Soon it'll be impossible to get one that doesn't play music too. Then the iPod's great interface will be up against the inconvenience of carrying two devices.

And it just doesn't matter. Because multifunction devices are always inherently a compromise compared to dedicated devices, in terms of cost, complexity, and ease of use.

Interesting that you mention cameraphones. They've caught on, but they have done anything but kill off digital cameras. See where I'm going with this?

No less a source than The Economist predicts that multifunction and dedicated devices will co-exist side by side. Neither will kill off the other, because there are valid reasons for both.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:32 pm

Apple MUST sell a phone Pod.

Reasons there are aplenty.

1. Increase profitability of its retail channel

2. Increase control on flash memory market and associated profit margin

3. Widen platform: Computing + Digital Music + Digital Video(iPod+iTV) + Communications + Games

4. Capture an ever greater consumer awareness

3. Consolidate a powerful virtuous circle

4. Combine the iPod halo with the iPhone halo

5. Consequently, undermine market awareness of Vista

6. Consequently, accelerate Apple's computer market share growth to an irreversible momentum

7. Get 10%+ US computer market share before Vista grows foothold

8. Critic Mass reached, developers will come back to Mac

9. More research, new products, expand the circle

IMHO, the iPhone, or whatever its name, is a very much important piece in this game.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:54 pm

Guest wrote:
Apple MUST sell a phone Pod.

Reasons there are aplenty.

1. Increase profitability of its retail channel

2. Increase control on flash memory market and associated profit margin

3. Widen platform: Computing + Digital Music + Digital Video(iPod+iTV) + Communications + Games

4. Capture an ever greater consumer awareness

3. Consolidate a powerful virtuous circle

4. Combine the iPod halo with the iPhone halo

5. Consequently, undermine market awareness of Vista

6. Consequently, accelerate Apple's computer market share growth to an irreversible momentum

7. Get 10%+ US computer market share before Vista grows foothold

8. Critic Mass reached, developers will come back to Mac

9. More research, new products, expand the circle

IMHO, the iPhone, or whatever its name, is a very much important piece in this game.

1. Cell phone hardware is a loss leader, the companies make money on the service, which Apple either wouldn't sell, or would just subcontract. If most people knew what cell phones really cost unsubsidized they would freak.

2. Huh? What does control of flash memory have to do with phones? Cameras maybe, PDAs maybe, but phones are a pretty tiny portion of this market.

3. Possible, though widening your focus is only a good thing to a very limited point.

4. OK, that could be good.

3. (the second 3) Huh?

4. (the second 4) & combined halo's provide what? An "iPhone" wouldn't provide any sort of halo for wuite some time if at all.

5. Huh? Phones & iPods have little to do with Vista. Especially since Microsoft's products in bot arenas are either crap, or build by everyone else.

6. No such thing. Does no one remember the last time Jobs was at the helm?

7. That isn't going to happen. Vista launches @ the end of Q1 for consumers (I think). The foothold is instant, probably 98% of home PCs purchased after that will ship with Vista. There's no way they will hit 10% by Q2, nor does it matter. Though I am happy to hear that Apple's sales is actually growing while the overall PC market is flat.

8. Where have you been? There are plenty of developers for the Mac. The ones that want to be here are, the ones that don't will ALWAYS find an excuse.

9. Apple will always do more research & have new products. Hopefully. Again, though, I have to remember the 90's.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Dec 22, 2006 3:23 am

Meh, phones will never replace MP3 players in my opinion. Yes, I have a camera phone that doubles as an MP3 player, but with it's current memory it only holds about 10 songs. I also own a 30GB iPod Video... I have yet to see a 30 GB Micro SD card.. so my phone currently cannot compete with my iPod. Even if they did come out and get cheap enough to be cost effective I know alot of parents would would rather by their kids iPods than turn them loose with a cell phone! I suppose you could buy the phone and never activate it.. then you'd have.. an MP3 player. Hmm.. What was the point of that again??

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Dec 22, 2006 3:32 am

Guest wrote:
music playing phones will take over the iPod market faster than a blink of an eye.

Someone's going to get a very itchy eye blinking at that rate, it's been...ooooh, maybe five years since the first mp3 playing phone came out (that's a guess, so don't pull me up on it), and they haven't managed so far. Sony Ericsson's attempts aren't exactly pushing down ipod sales, nor are they used very often on my commuter run when compared with the ubiquitous ipod headphones.

Let's hope there's a goodly supply of eye-drops available.

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Dirt Road said:

member since 24 Oct 2002 with 1228 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Dec 28, 2006 12:12 am

Quote:
phones will never replace MP3 players in my opinion. Yes, I have a camera phone that doubles as an MP3 player, but with it's current memory it only holds about 10 songs.

I just wound up bringing home a Samsung phone + camera + MP3 player — I really didn't care about the MP3 player, or even the camera, but the price was "right" after rebates. After just a few days, I see the possibilities... while I listen to my iPod during my daily commute and through the day at work, there are other times that I leave it at home but would like to have at least some of my music. Likewise, when I plan to be taking pictures, I bring a digital camera — but there are times that I don't have it when I need it, and this phone has a 2MP camera built-in.

No, phones will never replace iPods or even mediocre digital cameras. But when you want to travel light, they sure as heck can supplement them — for example, if you're out jogging or bicycling, why buy an iPod shuffle if you already have an MP3 player in your phone?

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:00 am

Wish list for inclusion in Apple's Cell Phone Ipod ... (and I think it should be called ICell seeing that IPhone has already been taken by another company):-

1. A functional PDA (like they had on the Newton Message Pad only updated to include running of apps like mobile filemaker, excel, work, browsers, etc) ... that also has a Stylus that you can write with on any surface (it would transmit the writing movements to the blue tooth device ... I would think that the pressing of the stylus starts it transmitting to the paired device).

2. Multiple Sim Card capabilities, so that you can have accounts with multiple carriers and choose which network you want to talk on (for either rate reasons or for keeping work/personal usage separated)

3. Landline integration ... how many times do you need to use a landline to make the call ... and wish you could just transmit the number in your cell phone's address book down the line

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