A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-...MU09032009STR1

It looks like Apple's move to carrier agnosticy could blow the whole market open. :D Which means that having everyone offer unlocked phones isn't far off. Which means we may soon see our own version of Car Phone Warehouse. ;) Or at the very least, better plans.

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

If one is aiming to open up the carrier cartels in the US, this is the way to do it. You've to play the system til you're big enough to 'matter', before trying to force your own ways to the market.

Then again, if Apple is doing this it's purely for capitalistic reasons because they have more to gain from the market that way. None of this free market ideology bs :D

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

If Apple is smart then they will release on as many platforms as possible. I don't know if they're also considering multiple versions of iPhone besides just the flash memory size. But either way, as I pointed out. For Apple, it's good to as many out as they can for now. Because if they don't change their strategy, a competitor like Android that can be installed on a variety of hardware on a variety of telcos is eventually going outnumber them once it picks up steam. And I'm sure Apple must've learned its lesson from the computer revolution.

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

It would be good for me because it would cause the carriers to compete more, and might cause the phone makers to work harder as well ("we don't have to compete with the iPhone, if we're targeting non-AT&T customers").

But, without a keyboard version of the iPhone, and an open App Store ... not interested in the iPhone itself, even on other carriers.

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

No way, no how, no Apple. No matter what carriers get it or how cheap it becomes, I have zero interest in having an iPhone. ZERO! I'm gettin real tired of glass slabs with goofy-lookin' chrome edges.

I just put up significant money for a N900 to have something more unusual and attractive, more capable and customizable, and especially more under MY control, including the music and videos I load in it.

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

Cant see Apple selling unlocked phones through carriers but they may sell the device to all carriers who show an interest and the device will be locked to that specific carrier and then you can unlock it at the end of contract.

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

Well, someone once said that Apple could sell their phone unlocked off their site, and preconfigured for a given carrier, and they'd sell like gangbusters. The questions is if they'd do that. And if they did, what other phone makers would do the same? They really should do that because it would put pressure on the entire industry to change in a positive way.

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

Well Nokia kind of does that, you buy the phone, put your sim in and it just works because all the major APN's are in the firmware.

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

Yeah, good point. The only thing you'd need then is a phone that would support the particular carrier you wanted to use it on.

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

look at apples history, no multiples of any computer model.

there will only be one iphone...

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

Actually Apple IS selling unlocked iPhones in Australasia from both their b&M and online stores and they're still selling like hotcakes. As of last week, the Apple Stores (retail) in hongkong and australia couldn't keep their stocks in longer than a day or two after replenishment and online orders have 2-3 weeks lead time.

But, these are markets that are already used to buying full priced phones without subsidies. With the iPhone 3GS prices of $750 (16GB) and $850 (32GB), I doubt they'd make any significant dents to the US cellular cartels if they were sold unlocked.


@tso: ipod nano -> iphone nano?

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

Yeah and look how Apple went from being the leader in computers to falling to IBM and Microsoft during the computer revolution. But Apple tends not to care about being the leader in marketshare it seems. So if they're content with keeping a smaller marketshare and making high premiums off of that then it's a strategy that works for them.

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

technically, ibm was hoping to tie the PC to them by making the bios inhouse while the rest where commodity parts.

but then a taiwanese company reverse engineered the bios, got a green light from the courts, and microsoft had a open agreement with ibm.

all in all, one could shop PC's as a commodity, and expect them to run the same software as the last one, thanks to them all running microsoft dos, and later windows, out of the box.

hell, one can run much of the old dos software on a modern windows machine. I think i have seen shops use dos based inventory control packages thats not been replaced since they opened for business.

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

True, I was being simple with the story of how PCs opened up. The truth of the matter is as you pointed out. It dealt with court cases, and Microsoft's open agreement with IBM that let them put their OS in nearly anything.

But anyway that's what I think is going happen with the smartphone market eventually. That a more open (not necessarily open as in code like Linux) but open as in plentiful is going outnumber companes who insist on having only one model or be tied to one manufacturer/carrier. Who that competitor is, I don't know. Though right now out of the existing operating systems I'm thinking it'll be Android (But even then Android is still premature at the moment and Google seems to be slow).

Re: A Shift to Multiple Carriers Looks Like Apple's Smartest Next Move
 

I don't agree.

I think Google is providing a "least common denominator"/"reference platform" for Android, and then leaving the bells and whistles to the specific vendors. That's what's going on with both the Samsung and HTC Hero, it seems like.

And, that Google "vanilla Andriod" doesn't seem immature to me. It doesn't have a lot of frills, but it has what it needs. And it does expand over time. The immature phase were those first 3 months when we found out every key stroke was being sent to a root shell, under the hood... and things like that.

What seems immature in the Android arena is: the app ecosystem is still growing from its initial offerings into a more rich environment, and the add-on vendors (HTC, Samsung, Motorola) are still emerging. But neither of those is Android itself. I could, frankly, be quite happy with my G1, running Vanilla Android, for quite some time. Its limitations aren't due to lack of maturity, but lack of common goals (I want tethering, T-Mobile doesn't want me to have tethering; that kind of thing).