Tom Cook, Chief Operating Officer of a little Cupertino company named Apple, spoke at the Goldman Sachs Investment Symposium, mercilessly teasing the faithful with the following bombs:
Apple is not “married to any [single carrier exclusive] business model”. It’s apparently all about the “best phones in the world”, baby, and if unlocked, CDMA, and/or pre-paid proved, in the future, to provide the greatest sense of childlike wonder (or complies with future Congressional mandates), Apple could (possibly, maybe) go with that flow.
Apple believes the global unlocking epidemic is a good sign of the iPhone’s potential, and that there will always be a percentage of unlocks in the wild because of the high demand.
That the upcoming iPhone SDK would allow developers to “only be limited by [their] imagination.” (And whatever restrictions Apple imposes on accessing the metal and distributing via iTunes, ‘natch).
To the delight of Wall Street, Cook also continued to hold firm on the 10 million iPhone march through the end of 2008.
Is Cook telling us Apple will make good on their promised smart phone utopia? Or Is he just cranking on his own mini Reality Distortion Field? Hit the comments and let us know what you think!
Mark your calendars for March 6, 10:00 am PST. Apple will be holding a special event for members of the media, outlining the company’s iPhone development roadmap, as well a possible SDK release for developers. Apple began sending out invitations to the press early this morning, except for me of course. Steve Jobs has never forgiven me for photoshopping his head on Napoleon’s bust. And I was so looking forward to the free crab cake.
Representative Ed Mackey (D-Mass) wants to make Apple & ATT (and all other US providers) cry. How? By copying the French. Well, technically, by adopting a law similar to France’s which mandates that cell companies “shall offer to consumers the opportunity to purchase subsidy-free wireless customer equipment.”
Under this proposal, Apple & ATT would likely be forced to offer an unlocked (and unsubsidized) version of the iPhone. (Bidding to start at US$999?)
Potentially worse for the telcos, it would mandate a level of clarity, detail, and (gasp!) understandability for rate plans, including itemization and disclosure of taxes and early termination fees.
It’s coming, the SDK is really really coming. Thank the lord. Apple has sent out invitations to an event titled “iPhone Software Road Map.” That may or may not mean they’re actually releasing the SDK, but it doesn’t sound like we’ll be getting a slew of new apps next week.
Yes, it technically is late for the February release, but it’s a relief to not be so in the dark anymore. Also interesting:
Apple also said to expect details on “some exciting new enterprise features,” which at first blush sounds to me like a method of getting the iPhone to work more closely with corporate e-mail software - CNET
Well the news about 1.1.4 is that there’s no news — the apps are the same, the features are the same. The good news is the popular ZiPhone / iJailBreak method of jailbreaking works just fine — for Jailbreaking. Unlocking is apparently still a no-go, but just you wait, it will be.
We’re also hearing reports that the Bluetooth-dropped call issue has been fixed, along with the SMS order bug. Huzzah!
If you’re a dirty, dirty iPhone Jailbreaker or iPhone Unlocker, move right along because I’m sure it’s going to take awhile for this to shake out. If you’re a mere mortal, though, go on and open up iTunes and apply the update to version 1.1.4. What’s on it? “Bug fixes.” That’s all we know for sure just now.
Hopefully one of the bug fixes is getting rid of the dropped calls (especially with Bluetooth) that folks have been reporting (hat tip to Merlyn3D for reminding me that this issue persists).
Hopefully it also contains some behind-the-scenes updates to get every little thing ready for the SDK. Good thing this year is a leap year - it gives Apple one more day to get that SDK out. Or maybe it really will be late. I guess we’ll know for sure before the week is out.
Thanks for the heads-up, Chadman!
Update: Installed and I’m still impressed with iTunes’ backup and restoration ability - everything was exactly as I left it, from the pin I was looking at on Google Maps to Web Clip icons on my homescreen. Poking around, it sure doesn’t look like there are any new features. Chadman mentions that it’s a full 162.1mb download, that sounds like a “bug fix and framework for the SDK” to me…
Erica Sadun has done it again, creating a great app for the iPhone called “findme.” What it does is constantly track your iPhone’s location and sends it via SMS to Twitter. The idea is that if your iPhone is stolen or you want to enable your stalkers to keep track of you constantly, you can set this up and you’ll automatically have a private Twitter page that shows the iPhone’s approximate longitude and latitude.
It takes a bit of know-how to get it running (it’s command line. If “curl” and “daemon” mean nothing do you, you might want to move along). If nothing else, it shows that I wasn’t kidding when I said yesterday that developers will always find a way to do cool stuff with native apps.
I’m hearing from one source that its going to be late. I’m not yet hearing any reasons why, and it’s sounding like the official release date could slide by anywhere from one to three weeks. [...] However I’m also hearing that the situation is fluid, and a lot of last-minute decisions are close to being made about what precisely will or will not be disclosed next week, if anything. There are, apparently, a lot of moving parts to something this complex.
A lot of “moving parts,” eh, ya think? It would be a major bummer if the SDK is delayed, but it wouldn’t be too shocking - the sand is quickly running out of February’s hourglass. Fairly soon, though, we’re going to have some information about the SDK and I have to admit that my expectations are rising the more I think about it.
This is related (again) to Mike and my discussion in our iPhone Podcast last week. As I see it, there are four ways that the SDK announcement (whenever it comes) can shake out. Read on for some thoughts on what we might see and what I hope to see.
A couple of great iPhone apps (for Jailbroken iPhones) came out in the past couple of days. The first is AppFlow, which lets you browse your applications (but not your Web Links, they’re a little different) via the sweet coverflow interface. - ericasadun.com » Introducing AppFlow [via tuaw]
The next one is Touchpad, which turns the iPhone into a trackpad for your computer. It’s a neat idea, though the only use I can think of is if you have a laptop with a “nub” mouse that you want to replace from time to time. If nothing else, though, it shows the power of the iPhone:
Cool apps like these are coming out all the time on the sly now, I can’t imagine what it will be like once this stuff can be official. There are, what, 7 days left in February? Apple: time to step up and either deliver or tell us it’s delayed.
Mac Rumors is reporting that the Apple Event, the one we were all hoping would bring the announcement of the SDK and end the omgnoappz saga, happened last night. It was Linkin Park playing a show at an Apple Store. They’re also reporting that the dearth of press invites bodes ill for a full-on press event for the launch of the SDK.
In other words, though we’ve heard that Apple is supposed to still be able to meet their self-imposed February deadline, things are starting to look bleak in terms of their being much more than just the release of the SDK. I hope I’m wrong and that I was wrong in my podcast prediction: that if Apple makes the deadline, we’ll just see an SDK released to developers and the iPhone update that allows for apps will take awhile longer.
(Also: Linkin Park is still around and popular? Hunh. I thought all they did was get stalked.)
The iPhone Blog merged with the Phone different site in May of 2008. Both sites were founded on a premise that comes one from one of Apple's old slogans: Think different. The iPhone Blog: for people who dare to phone different.
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