The Apple Phone should scare the crap out of the mobile industry
Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) — Apple Computer Inc. may serve as its own wireless carrier if it delivers an iPod-based cell phone next year and rely on the company’s network of retail stores to sell service contracts for the device, UBS AG said.
Bloggingstocks has just received an interesting tip that the Apple iPhone will have a January 15 release date. Apple’s Macworld Expo runs from January 9 -12, and the money is on Apple to announce at Macworld that the iPhone exists and will ship at some future date. This tip alleges that iPhone’s release date (the shipping and purchasing date) will be just days after Macworld Expo.
Apple’s possible entry into the mobile phone market is causing excitement because everyone knows that almost all mobile phones hardware, software and services really suck.
Once upon a time Apple straightened out the MP3 industry, which after years of development and millions of dollars still couldn’t come up with anything that wasn’t silly, expensive or boring. So, they plopped the iPod into the midst of all that mediocrity and created a new industry. Apple now owns most of that market. Microsoft had to once again copy Apple’s device and services just get their worthless version onto the counter.
Now the stalled and cluttered mobile phone industry may be the next to get their asses kicked by the Apple industrial design team. Low end phones will have nothing to fear - cheap cells sold to people like me who just want to call their wives or the odd client will keep their place in the product mix.
But you will see a pile of cadavers at the middle and high ends of that market - up where the profit lives. Teens and grownups who actually need a portable communicator that works in the real world will be throwing their wallets at Apple in a delirious bid for freedom from the clutter of bad devices and confusing service plans
If it happens, Apple’s phone will be simple, easy to use, cooler than shit and beautiful. Bill’s Zune and the rest will collect dust until their engineers once again start their imitation engines. Meanwhile Apple will carve out a huge chunk of that market and take all that money home to play with.
Even if it never comes out, the mere threat of a mobile phone being done right by Apple may finally get the other designers and marketing drones off their butts and back on their drawing boards where they should have been for the last ten years.