bloomberg.com — 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
Dec 13, 2006 View in Crawl 4
arizaDec 13, 2006
Interesting that ESPN mobile service was brought up. ESPN is part of ABC/Disney which is now best friends with Apple.... could it be that ESPN wasnt doing well and was ultimately killed so the Apple could take over the ESPN MVNO infrastructure?? Apple would sell the MVNO service at a loss or small gain just so that they can control the whole iPhone experience (think iTunes) and give people access to the iTunes store (rather than VCast or whatever other crap cell carriers push on customers)they would make their money selling the actual phone along with iTune music and video downloads (which I am sure are making money by now)Actually the more I think about it the more it seems like Apple would only go into this if they could also control the cell service.
flaminioDec 13, 2006
I kind of assumed this is what Apple would do all along. Apple is about controlling the whole widget to best serve it's customers at a premium. I suspect most people not familiar w/ the wireless industry read the title and assumed Apple would be building and operating it's own network. Obviously this isn't the case.Cell phones are now about function and fashion. People choose carriers based on who has the best phones. Why should Apple drive business to Cingular stores when it already has an optimum direct sale and low-scale retail models? Obviously Apple won't make as much money as if it owned the network, but it don't have the same risk and it will still make more money than if it just handed it over to Cingular.
bagelpirateDec 13, 2006
Now I have to be a cell phone salesmen aswell? :(
superkendallDec 13, 2006
MVNO does not mean you have to charge more than the real carrier - I use Virgin Mobile, and it's really cheap compared to other plans.
jonkneeDec 13, 2006
It wouldn't be one handset with both GSM and CDMA. It would be two different versions. Like the RAZR V3 and the RAZR V3c. CDMA would need carrier support while GSM could be sold unlocked through channels like the Apple store.
flag564Dec 13, 2006
"Does flag564 EVER read the articles? Of course not. He sees "Apple" in the headline and jumps in to post his (blah blah blah) to mantain."Arent you the guy who just admitted in another thread to owning Apple stock.So we can assume as soon as you see an Apple story, you will be their to do an astroturf job?
zang74Dec 14, 2006
Will you ever take ownership or responsibility for your comments, flag? Every comment directed at you usually ends with something along the lines of "yeah, but (insert 'fanboys', 'fankids', 'Apple' or 'you') did so-and-so. That's shifting blame. You didn't even comment on whether or not you read the article, but rather just made derogatory comments. Quix has a point; you DO jump on a lot of Apple stories just to take a shot at the company or it's users, and 99% of the time it's in a way that has nothing to do whatsoever with the article in question, sometimes even contradicting it. That leads many (myself included) to believe that you don't read the articles. You just come to make derogatory comments.If I jumped in to every Zune/MS/Linux article's comments section with "yeah, but everyone here is just a stupid MS/Linux zealot with no job or life", you'd label me a troll. Now. before you go spouting that I DO do that, actually do your research and look at the comments I've made since joining Digg. They can be found on my profile page.And guess what? You do troll the Apple section of Digg. You've admitted to intentionally starting things to get "fankids" riled up, you make erroneous and false statements, and you jump on un-promoted Apple stories like it's going out of style. You seek out the s**t you make, dude. Get over it. It's childish.
applebyteDec 14, 2006
And we all know how often Ben Reitzes of UBS is right about Apple:<a class="user" href="http://www.applerumortracker.com">http://www.applerumortracker.com</a>
quixDec 14, 2006
"Arent you the guy who just admitted in another thread to owning Apple stock. So we can assume as soon as you see an Apple story, you will be their to do an astroturf job?" - flag564flag, I know this will be far beyond the capacity of your two semi-functioning brain cells to understand, but appreciating a company's fine products and investing in that company because you see a bright future ahead does NOT make you a paid shill. Unlike the authors of the Zune "fan blogs" you so enjoy reading.