If Apple want to do an end-run around wireless carriers, and enter the prepaid market with a bang, they need a device that can be bought without carrier subsidy for a price lower than (or extremely close to) their subsidised iPhone.<\/p>\n
Tis a big ‘if’ I know, but if they did, what would they compromise and what would they keep?<\/p>\n
Keep:
– iTunes music \/ movies \/ tv integration
– WiFi \/ cellular Internet connectivity
– iMessage
– FaceTime
– “VoiceTime” \/ phone calling
– Siri
– 16 hr battery life
– Darwin core operating system
– iOS interaction modes \/ conventions (including physical home button)
– ARM chipset<\/p>\n
Compromise:
– screen size & resolution
– rear-facing camera?
– storage capacity
– App Store -compatible apps (for now)
– Internet tethering<\/p>\n
Throw away with glee:
– 24m carrier contracts
– SIM card slot\/space<\/p>\n
So what could this device look like? Perhaps Apple could go one or two ways.<\/p>\n
Option One:<\/p>\n
Front:
– 480×864 pixel screen at 2.5 inches.
– Reduced multitouch capability (down to perhaps 3-point tracking)
– Home button
– Front camera only<\/p>\n
Inside:
– ARM Apple A4
– 8GB flash
– iOS 6.2 fork (a la AppleTV forked iOS)<\/p>\n
Job summary:
An iPod nano that now supports:
– Retina Display -quality media (“An iPod\u2026”)
– messaging & calling within Apple’s ecosystem (“\u2026a phone\u2026”)
– Safari \/ email \/ PIM services (“\u2026an Internet mobile communicator.”)<\/p>\n
“Are you getting this? It’s the one device!”<\/p>\n
I suspect the one device to rule them all.<\/p>\n
(Check back soon for option two.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If Apple want to do an end-run around wireless carriers, and enter the prepaid market with a bang, they need a device that can be bought without carrier subsidy for a price lower than (or extremely close to) their subsidised iPhone. Tis a big ‘if’ I know, but if they did, what would they compromise… Continue reading ifPhone<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple","category-ios","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s1RxuW-ifphone","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":574,"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gearfamily.net\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}