When leaks on Apple products begin to agree with one another perhaps they really are leaks and not just guesses and also not Apple misdirection, so consensus in the US press is that Apple is looking at a relationship with Verizon, to broaden the sales potential of the iPhone to the other major US operators, and separately that this it will involve two devices, a lite version of the iPhone and some form of media pad.
In parallel another story has it that Microsoft is talking to Verizon about coming up with a rival to the iPhone. This is one rumor we should be able to lay to rest. Why go to Microsoft, when LG, Samsung or HTC can do a better job. No-one has managed to make a decent Windows Mobile based touch phone (the Sony Ericsson Xperia included), so while Verizon may be talking to Microsoft about this, it doesn’t mean it is happening.
However the media pad idea rings very true, partly because no-one has ever used the term before, so Apple may well be creating a new device genre, but actually that’s also very simple to guess at rather than rely on a leak. The truth is that the iPod Touch has had more success than anyone ever expected. Why is that? It’s the touch stupid.
Quite simply the thing doesn’t have any visible controls, and there’s something that is very appealing about a rectangular, featureless device which, quite simply, does everything. OR at least offers every type of media. What would you call that? That’s right, a media pad.
Ask Arthur C Clarke wrote 2001 A Space Odyssey. In it he postulated a self creating featureless dark Obelisk which doubled more or less as, well as anything ‘ a kind of intelligence provoker, a sun builder, an interplanetary transport. While Apple isn’t ready to go that far, we’re pretty sure that if Apple had designed the Amazon Kindle it would have been a flat touch screen, with a hidden on button.
All of this fits in with Apple’s comments about not going into the netbook market and not being able to make money on devices which are that cheap. If it does all of the entertainment functions of a netbook, then Apple can EXTEND its existing device genres adding many of the essential missing ingredients which a netbook has and which portable Apple devices currently don’t have.
We just read a piece from an Apple hater saying that the iPhone has a long way to travel before it’s a netbook and listing the differences
These were mainly being able to manage hardware upgrades, the use of standard connectors, being able to use any brand of Flash memory, being able to upgrade the operating system and install any piece of software required, being able to type fast on a proper keyboard, having a browser with full web access and being able to play any media type. So he means media from non-iTunes sites. Finally he says that being able to put on a mouse and attached keyboard and use it as a desktop.
The truth is that some of these are Apple philosophy things, like only playing Apple files types and even its Macbooks wouldn’t allow that. While others are genuinely limited by the size of the hardware.
The iPod Touch can communicate with the world mostly through Wi-Fi, and that’s pretty standard, anything else can go on the end of another Wi-Fi device. And 4 billion mobile phone users don’t upgrade operating systems under their own steam, so that’s not a problem.
And given that Apple has just installed its 1 billionth application from its App Store, there doesn’t seem to be much of a problem getting new software onto its devices ‘ just do a version for the store.
But being able to type fast on a proper keyboard is an issue, and making an iPhone or an iPod Touch bigger, and giving it a larger virtual keyboard, where your fingers don’t mistype so often, gets round this feature.
Also a full web browser can be installed on a larger screen, so once again the media pad idea rings true. You might even be able to squeeze two player games on the screen if it was big enough, and it would be better as an ebook reader like the Kindle, if it had more screen space.
The idea of a Lite version of the iPhone is just giving in to the major trends up and down the length of the handset industry ‘ smart phone features are being put into smaller and cheaper devices ‘ so Apple is probably just creating an iPhone for all of us and very possibly that could be outside the exclusives that it has with companies like AT&T. That way AT&T would get the REAL iPhone while rivals might only have the iPhone lite.
Either way Apple is just doing what it did with its iPod range. The iPod came out on a heavy hard disk drive first, then lowered in capacity in value for money Flash based lighter versions. Why would that formula not work in a phone? People are even calling this phone the Nano iPhone.
It takes Apple time to establish the brand, learn what people like about its devices and then create something that retains much of that appeal, but goes down the scale. Now might well be a good time for that.
As for the other issue of opening up the US to Verizon (another 86 million mobile service customers), that’s a matter for strategy. If Apple can get the same amount of profit (not revenue) by working solely with AT&T, then we are sure that will continue. But if it can offer a slightly different product range to Verizon while keeping AT&T fully committed, then why not have the best of both worlds. Remember Verizon almost scuppered the iPhone by sending Apple away with its tail between its legs, unable to cut a deal for data traffic revenue sharing on Apple’s terms, which is why the iPhone went to AT&T. So Apple has no loyalty there.
It is a long way from saying that perhaps Apple will NOT work with Verizon to saying that it won’t produce a CDMA phone ‘ that’s long overdue. It needs a device for China and one way of getting it into discussion with China Telecom, because it has a CDMA network. After talks broke down with China Mobile this makes China Telecom the only game in town for Apple and achieving that would also open up all the other CDMA networks around the world, including in Korea. Apple should, in fact must, do a CDMA iPhone next.
What is left is whether or not a new bigger iPod Touch will allow phone calls, and our guess is that it would not, but it might still have a cellular connection, in the same way the Kindle has, for downloading content ‘ video, images, books and music ‘ we think that might be a shrewd move by Apple. Then it could partner on AT&T’s network for that traffic, and keep it very happy. If an iPod media pad has Wi-Fi, it might use that as a VoIP phone, like the Sony PSP does.