Submitted by Apple last week asked the US Patent and Trademark Office to grant it a trademark on the term “Mobile Me,” AppleInsider has discovered. My take: I have blogged about this in the past, here and here.
Mobile Me: An Apple Phone?
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I seriously doubt this because in the USA, the term Cellphone is used considerably more than Mobile, It’s more likely to be some form of .Mac extension which allows you to access your user account on any mac in the world, by syncing you’re entire User folder.
or maybe even something akin to what IIRC IBM was looking into, a portable User folder on an external Storage device, so you can take it anywhere with you.
Well cellphone maybe more popular in the US, but most americans know what mobile means. On the opposite in most other countries (which tend to be non english-speaking) cell means absolutely nothing. If you try to sell a product with the name Cell in europe most people willl believe it’s a sequel to Splinter Cell 🙂
This will likely become the iPhone, and considering that Motorola has already said that they won’t include iTunes in any of their new phones, it would make since that they push it out in the summer, with the rest of their Intel products.
However, who cares, because the audio playing phone is more novelty than anything else, because Apple has sold so many ipods. If I have an ipod, do I really want to run my cell phone battery down playing music. Also, which carier is going to push the iphone, when you consider the fact that thier dieing to get into the music markets themselves.
These are indeed good points. Which is why I suggested a WiFi VoIP phone alternative on one of my blog posts linked above instead of a GSM/CDMA solution. Each one has its novelty…
I think apple could make a really slick iPDA.
So, like, a Newton? Not to say that just because they tried this before and failed means they’ll fail if they try again, but the Newton was slick too.
Nobody buys PDAs anymore. This is a dead market. Smartphones (with WiFi) are the future.
Nobody buys PDAs anymore. This is a dead market. Smartphones (with WiFi) are the future.
Agreed. However, if Smartphones are truly the future, one might also say that Cellphones will soon be a dead market as well (if you say a smartphone is not a PDA, then you must also say it is not a cell phone as it is an equal combination of the two). Since it’s all just a matter of nomenclature, I think we should give tbostick78 the benefit of the doubt and assume that by “iPDA”, he means “smartphone”, or heck, even “smartpod” as I’m sure Apple is heading that way.
Well as of macworld SF i’d expect “iPod pro”, although I think “iSlab” would be cool. And yes, smart phones are essentially PDA’s… they just have a couple extra hardware components and a subscription for particular connectivity. We cannot depend on Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, or any others to cooperate on software to sync between incompatible devices. And if you could have 802.11 to sync with your .mac or home or work computer, and load some multimedia such as iPod, I think it could be very cool. Especially the way Apple simplified MP3 player interface. They might make a more “connective” pod even more attractive and convenient. Possibly even a “take your preferences/bookmarks/contacts/configs with you” approach. I realize you CAN do this with a thumb drive, a cell phone, a PDA, and various software utils… but I think apple could wrap this up into a nice cohesive experience.
I would prefer ONE unit instead of 10 units. Today you have your Camera+Mobilephone+PortablePlayer+PortablePC. I would prefer one unit instead of all this stuff. Why not just make ONE good phone (which actually works) and add in a HDD which is energy efficient and get this stuff rollin’. I don’t mind recharging my batteries once a day if I get all in one.
Palm has been the closest to this I believe, but since their stuff since 2 years pretty much is a no go, I think it’ll take 3-4 years before we see something which is actually usable.
My real wish however, would be to see something like a cheap software based on an RTOS kernel (maybe OSS) which has on top powerful phone capabilities (should be possible to use some of all that VoIP technology here) and make a package to utilize the nets (CDMA, 3G, GSM1800/1900/900 etc etc). Then just let it spin a HDD and load normal apps in for usage. Put in Foobar2000 for music etc etc.
Then make a patent free card that people can buy with a simple plug n play interface for GFX chip+Soundchip+MiniHDD/Flash mem etc etc… and let people build phones which are cool, capable and unique. I’d love it. This would also make it possible for small companies to become real competitors to big dragons lika Nokia. This way we would have so many cool phones on the market and competition would really make things happen, pricewise and featurewise.
Cheers
I read the excerpts and it seems like they’ve left out the kitchen sink 🙂
I think that they are casting a wide wide net just in case they ever want to go into an iTMS over cellular.
The filings mention satellite communications. This might mean XM, serious, satellite TV, or anyone of the at least 5 satellite telephony operators.
Basically IF apple were to make such a devive, it seems like it would incude the following:
ATSC, ISDB and DVB-H television
Digital FM, AM radio and satellite radio (XM, serius)
CDMA, GSM, Satellite telephone
WiFi with VoIP
on top of the iPod that already exist today… that seems like an awful lot to cram in!
There are other mobile devices. Apple doesn’t have contracts with mobile phone companies. Of course a Mobile tablet would work. It would work either stand alone tablet or in conjunction with another mac, and mobile home folders(that have yet to show up).
Apple has all the pieces to make such a device work. Now to get ive to design it.
I would hope for a p2p wireless mesh voice/data network, every computer/phone doubling as a wireless router. A big, moving, messy, virtually unbreakable network.
I like the idea of an apple phone… I still haven’t seen a cell phone I like. They are still relatively user un-friendly. My phone (LG model on Sprint) likes to take a picture every time I reach in to my pocket to pull it out. The speaker phone sounds terrible. It thinks I have voicemail when I don’t. I can’t get my contacts from my computer into it without a funky cable and lame hard to use software. Surfing the web is slow and painful despite Sprint having a nationwide high speed wireless network ~500kb/s. etc.
Apple could private label Sprint or Verizon’s network (they both have EDVO so you could do some really cool stuff with it). I’m not sure how useful the 802.11 idea is given the limited range. Seems early for this idea…. and EDVO/mobile broadband will probably make 802.11 much less important it as it becomes more pervasive.
Apple could do cool stuff like upload contacts to the web. Maybe some voice command stuff that actually works. Some actually innovative UI/form factor stuff on the phone… The iTunes stuff is obvious… perhaps a 3-4 megapixel camera… almost all cell phone cameras are junk.
I am FURIOUS that I can’t easily get the basic functionality I want in a phone. I can’t get a phone that “bluetooth”-syncs my Mac’s Address book. I can’t get a phone that plays MP3’s because Verizon DISABLED that feature to suck up to MSFT/WMA (which I can’t use because of MSFT DRM). I can’t conveniently make ringtones. I can’t EASILY add phone numbers to my phone.
I could carefully pick up SOME of these features by changing phones or providers, but there is no ONE PLACE I can get everything I want.
I don’t know, the current smartphone market is all about defining a platform. I guess they could make an ordinary closed cellphone or define their own platform but there is cut-throat competition in both these areas. WiFi phones? Again what would be the market?
>WiFi phones? Again what would be the market?
Web browsing, IM and VoIP.
All the high-end NEW phones have WiFi nowdays from Nokia and Samsung. This is going to be the norm in 2 years time.
Yeah but if you only have WiFi what’s the use? It won’t be much different from a Nokia 770 in that respect. If it’s only got WiFi you could only ever use it as such. Since it won’t be as portable as a phone there would be no need to such a restrictive form factor.
Side note (all very much IMHO); the reason why WiFi is making it into cellphones is the lack of use of data services. Operators have invested all this money into shiny new 3G networks and most of the traffic is voice and text messages. The high cost being the limiting factor. If people get sucked into these data services using free WiFi they are probably much more prone to use these services while ‘on the road’ so to speak.
[mahoney reformulated some postulates of this message]
Edited 2006-01-12 04:49
Seriously I am a big apple fan, but I wish people would stop saying things are proof of something soon to come out. “Mobile Me” doesn’t necessarily mean a Phone it could mean Laptop services or iPod services, etc. Nothing in that article clearly 100% spelled out phone. The text seemed to broad to mean phone. Although I would like a much better phone I doubt Apple will produce one anytime soon.
It already syncs with your contacts and calendar… I just wish I didn’t have to carry a phone together with my mp3 player.
And BTW, I own a nokia 6230i with 512mb ram which can play mp3. But it’s really a crappy mp3 player (the GUI is just awful, USB cable is slow and readonly on mac, and you need to take off the battery to get the memory card out).
I’d rather see apple adding phone functionality (I don’t require much) than phone makers slowly learning how to make an usable UI for their mp3 player application.
Why does that sound so akin to {censored} me…
as in “{censored} me running”, or “Oh for christ sake, {censored} me.”
The unfortuante thing with making a chip that is compatible with all networks means that it is a power hog. Just think that you need to support the following
GSM 450, 800, 900, 1800, 1900
UMTS 800, 1900, 2100 (and maybe 1700 and US 2100 once those are auctioned off)
CDMA 450, 800, 1700, 1900 (1x and EVDO)
The *only* way to make such a device happen is if the chip is not hardcoded to do specific technology/frequency combos but if it can be multipurposed and let software decide what the chip will function as. (so at bootup – or network reset – the chip can run a check of what is available and latch on to that and use it)
I would love a multipurpose device – but I also think that battery life is not there just yet.
In order for my smartphone (HTC blue angel) to be useful I need to be able cradle it when not used. So at home and in the office it is cradled all the time. With the amont of talk and data that goes through this puppy (via GPRS and WiFi) the battery can get sucked dry pretty fast. battery technology is not quite there yet IMHO
Do you throw them away when the battery runs down?