Apple iPhone Rumors Resurface

donkeyDevil writes: "Following the rule of 'i before e except before P,' rumors of an iPhone resurface in the New York Times (registration required). The evidence: OS features, foiled acquisition attempts, PIXO relations, and the genius of Steven P. Jobs. Unmentioned, Apple's tried phones before. PIE produced a nifty desktop phone design, Apple Europe produced some nice telephone-computer integration software."

Interesting discussion on the register.

[Matthias Wiesmann]

There is an intersting discussion [theregister.co.uk] about this in the register. To summarise, it makes little sense for Apple to design and build its own phone - a partnership with Sony and Ericson would be more reasonable. Designing and builind a portable phone is much more expensive that building a MP3 player. All Apple wants is to integrate the phone into their digital hub.

Re:Everyone's Desk

[Registered Coward v2]

The thing is, a phone and a Computer are the two things that everyone has on their desk. Judging by their past successes (keyboards, mice) maybe Microsoft should start making phones as well.



They did - it failed in the marketplace because it was expensive and offered no must-have features.

Re:Everyone's Desk

[ejdmoo]

MS has made a phone. link [technofile.com]

Granted it's old, and not sold anymore, but you hooked it up to your serial port, and when there was an incomming call, it could screen it for you and give different answering machine messages to different people. Pretty cool.

Another piece of evidence: iPhone.org

[mTor]

Check this: www.iPhone.org [iphone.org]

This, of course, doesn't prove anything but it is interesting nonetheless.

Registrant:
Apple Computer, Inc. (IPHONE11-DOM)
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
US

Domain Name: IPHONE.ORG

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Eddings, Kenneth (KE557) [e-mail]
Apple Computer, Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
M/SAti 60-DR
Cupertino, CA 95014
408 974-4286 (FAX) 408 974-1560

Record expires on 15-Dec-2003.
Record created on 15-Dec-1999.
Database last updated on 18-Aug-2002 05:26:24 EDT.

Domain servers in listed order:

NSERVER.APPLE.COM 17.254.0.50
NSERVER2.APPLE.COM 17.254.0.59

Re:Why not?

[superdan2k]

I'll tell you why not. Because Apple doesn't produce cookie-cutter products. Steve Jobs can't just go to the company that builds Nokias and say, "Produce XXXXXX of these, but oh yeah -- make the case white and silver."

For Apple, it doesn't work like that. Not anymore. Apple has come the conclusion -- rightly -- that the ergonomics and user-interface are just as important as functionality. No, they are integral to the functionality of the device.

For most people this is so obvious that it usually gets overlooked. A great book that demonstrates this is The Design of Everyday Things [amazon.com] -- if you haven't read it and are in product engineering/design, I highly recommend it.

The point is, what truly sets Apple apart, is its attention to detail. The small details can make or break a product, and they know that. It's particularly well-evidenced in their laptop designs and the iPod. If you haven't had a chance to play with either of these, find someone who owns one and spend 30 minutes of your life with it, and you'll see what I'm saying...

the iPhone brand is already taken...

[i_am_nitrogen]

I already own a $400 POS desk phone called by the name of iPhone [cisco.com]. It has a 640x480 monochrome touch screen. It was bundled with a bigplanet [bigplanet.com] multi-level marketing scheme my parents bought into a few years ago. I doubt Apple would want to be associated with such a butt-ugly piece of hardware.

They'd have to come up with a better name if they released a phone of any kind.

FYI to those posting NY Times articles.

[burnsy]

FYI to those posting NY Times articles. You can get NY Times articles via the AltaVista news search engine [altavista.com] and no registration is required.

Link to this article, no registration required.

Apple's Chief in the Risky Land of the Handhelds [nytimes.com]

Re:Interesting discussion on the register.

[faichai]

Too true. This fits in well with Apple's digital hub theme.

Through Symbian and through the use of standards such as SyncML (that allow syncing of contacts and lots more besides over normal TCP/IP) Apple has a more or less a single partner to work with that enables compatibility with a whole raft of manufacturers including Sony Ericson, Nokia, Panasonic, Siemens and Samsung, who co-own or partner with Symbian.

Furthermore, if they really do not see current phones offering what they expect (and for apple these are mostly UI related shortfalls), then the Symbian OS is the perfect platform for building a Mobile UI on as all the telecoms and networking functionality is already present, and is in fact how Symbian OS is marketed. Partners license the core parts of the OS, then slap a UI on to allow for product differentiation and boom they have a product.

Apple OS 10.2/SonyEricsson and bluetooth

[sachemcst]

Apple is making progress towards this. Don;t know if anyone has seen, but the SonyEriccsson t-68i will be able to synch the calender, address book etc. in it with Mac OS 10.2 via bluetooth. Have yet to see it work in person, but as a Mac user it's enough to make me consider buying one as I'm looking for a new phone anyway.