Apple-Cingular iPhone rumor
From ThinkSecret:
Apple and Cingular have signed an agreement that will make the US’ largest cell phone provider the exclusive carrier of Apple’s forthcoming phone, sources report. Apple’s iPhone remains on track for an early 2007 release.
As previously reported, Apple’s phone will feature a candy-bar design with a 2.2-inch display and 3 megapixel camera. Robust iTunes and iSync support will also be delivered with the phone.
If this comes to pass just as iTV is launched, some really cool things can be sold through iTunes with Cingular getting a cut. It’s the right way to go for Cingular. The Sprint and Verizon music stores are a flop – overpriced, and thus underused. Video’s been an even bigger bust. Does anyone know anyone who’s paid $5.99 to rent a movie from Sprint to be viewed on a phone and nowhere else?
RED herring?
Word has it that there was a break in at the RED hype factory. You just can’t make this stuff up. Well maybe you can. Strange how corporate espionage disproportionately strikes companies without product or revenues. Let’s face it, if I’m among the super rich and lose my trade secrets to a bunch of common burglars, do I go public just to get the sympathy of a gaggle of Internet sycophants? Of course not, but it surely is a great excuse when I announce the inevitable delay to all those people who plunked down a deposit.
It’s beginning to look like Startup.com without the cute kid.
My favorite post on the DVXuser.com thread:
You’ve now joined the ranks of Howard Hughes, Tucker and others who were a little too revolutionary for comfort.
Somehow I don’t think 4K movie cameras that look like they plug into R2D2 are up there with aircraft and automobiles in their revolutionary potential. People please get your BS meters tuned. How many of us in the video biz really, really need a 4K camera? And how many of use want rev. 1.0 of anything born from the dream of a sunglass designer.
iPhone, where art thou?
The Economist [subscription required] posed some interesting theories about why the much anticipated iPhone from Apple has yet to be announced. Apple would either have to sell the phone at a significant premium, or sell it through operators to take advantage of operator subsidies to customers. Neither is appealing.
But…
There is another option: for Apple to set up as a mobile operator itself, by leasing network capacity from an existing operator. This is known in the industry as a “mobile virtual network operator”, or MVNO. It would give Apple complete control over sales, service, support and billing. But it would be expensive and risky.
Might be risky, but fills in some interesting pieces of the digital strategy. .Mac video uploads, sharing through bedfellow-of-the-week Google, plus hooks to all those nifty Google tools like maps and local directories.
Take it a step further and an Apple MVNO can provide some really interesting features like the ability to program and share with your iTV.
Google, with more to gain, is a more likely phone partner than Disney (already has two MVNOs) or Motorola.
Looking more like Napster every day
The San Jose Mercury News reports that Universal Music is pondering a copyright infringement suit against YouTube. It’s very possible the party’s almost over. Piracy and sharing won’t go away, but YouTube could be significantly diminished.
iWhatever
The mainstream press was all over Apple’s iTV announcement. Steve Jobs has struck a deal with Disney (surprise, we knew that) to sell movies through iTunes. Before jumping on the Apple bandwagon consider the significant differences between selling movies online and selling music.
- Consumers like to own music, but rent movies. iTunes doesn’t offer a movie rental option. Amazon’s new service allows rentals.
- Though iTunes was developed to feed the iPod, users have the option of burning a CD and playing their music on standard players. iTunes movies cannot be burned to DVDs. iTunes movie viewers will be tethered to their Macs, PCs, and iPods until iTV is released in early 2007.
- iTV is yet another set top box. Consumers have enough of those. An STB that requires an 802.11 connection? Just ask the Geek Squad how comfortable consumers are setting up wireless networks. It’s completely possible that Apple will figure this out and make configuring a home network as easy as configuring an iPod, but don’t bet on it. Airport’s just as much a pain in the neck as a Linksys to set up.
- Archiving will be a problem. If consumers can’t burn DVDs, purchased movies must live on hard drives. We know how well consumers back up their data.
Apple’s requiring a level of sophistication from iTunes movie buyers beyond what is required of music buyers, has added more cumbersome digital rights management, and has yet to release a device as elegant as the iPod for movie buyers. This might not be a slam dunk.
