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Apple vs. Wireless Carriers?

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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According to Businessweek, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Cingular are planning on providing music downloading services to their wireless customers later this year.

This is in direct competition to Apple's current iTunes service. The article notes that the wireless cell phone audience tops 1.4 billion customers worldwide, making it an huge market.

As a result of this, Apple has seen resistance to acceptance of iTunes enabled phones from Wireless carriers. The widely publicized Motorola iTunes phone has seen unexpected delays -- likely related to the same issues. Even so, according to the Businessweek article, Motorola does expect availability of the service (and iTunes phone) on at least one mobile phone network this summer.
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2005/04/19/apple-vs-wireless-carriers/
If Apple spreads iTunes around then it won't loose its popularity. If it doesn't then iTunes will no longer be a standard and something else will.
 
Gorbag said:
Is this yet another case of Motorola holding Apple back, i wonder???
Click to expand...

no. it looks like it's wireless carries not wanting to be cut out of the $$.

arn
 
Gorbag said:
Is this yet another case of Motorola holding Apple back, i wonder???
Click to expand...

I don't think so, it mainly has to do with the iTunes service that Apple and Motorola want to roll out. The carriers won't be getting as large of a cut with the iTunes service than with their own solutions. And, the Apple/Motorola solution enables you to transfer music from your computer, which is against the carriers own ways right now. To them, if you can't transfer music, then you'll have to pay for everything, which makes them more money in the end. However, for Apple/Motorola, Apple's already making music from the iTMS, and this just broadens their horizons.
-Chase
 
This is definitely a huge area in which Apple needs to be very involved. It should not be hard to do a Shuffle-Cell Phone. But Apple probably doesn't need to get out of it's core competence and go into cell phone manufacturing. It needs to partner. Such a partnership should be very advantageous to whichever company (ies) Apple partners with.
 
like most folks with an ipod, i don't want the music on my phone and that kind of thing doesn't interest me. while i don't want apple to lose out on this kind of thing, i'm not convinced it is where the digital music delivery is really going to be happening on any significant level.
 
The funny thing is that on a mobile phone they will charge $1.99 or more per song. Rigtones on Verizon Wireless are $1.99, I can only imagine what a real song will cost.

As for Verizon they basically crippled the Bluetooth features of the Motorola v710 so that people could not transfer ringtones to thier computers, as with everything related to cell phone multimedia...it will be a ripoff.
 
stupid wireless carriers and greed, i doubt that this is Moto's fault, its the carriers not wanting to lose money on a project that they dont realize wont work.....sure there are billions of people with cell phones, but how many actually download ringtones, graphics, and now songs? i know i would never download a song to my phone, and im sure new phones will be needed for this service too, thus further limiting the audience
 
Hiroshige said:
This is definitely a huge area in which Apple needs to be very involved. It should not be hard to do a Shuffle-Cell Phone. But Apple probably doesn't need to get out of it's core competence and go into cell phone manufacturing. It needs to partner. Such a partnership should be very advantageous to whichever company (ies) Apple partners with.
Click to expand...

See I think Apple will need to partner with a carrier and then make an iPhone, meaning it seems like it is the carriers holding Apple back and not the phone companies.
 
So screw the subsidy ...

and sell the phone (GSM version that is) without carrier subsidies in electronics stores (as Sony will do with their Walkman phone) ... all I can say is that carriers are one greedy bunch are they not satisfied with the HEFTY data charges incurred with downloads of songs 3-6 Mb each, they even want a cut of someone else's business... let them start their own business but don't exclude others .... can someone say:
A N T I T R U S T !!!​
 
Macrumors said:
Even so, according to the Businessweek article, Motorola does expect availability of the service (and iTunes phone) on at least one mobile phone network this summer.
Click to expand...
So if Sprint, Verizon, and Cingular are not on board, are we assume that T-Mobile will be carrying the iTunes phone? They were the first, I believe, to support SE's superior compatibility with iSync. Sounds good to me.
 
going back in time...

I recently dropped my wireless to go back to landline. I just don't like the way the carriers are dragging their feet with connection speed. I had actually planned on dropping my cable and using dsl or dial instead, but dealing with the phone company's customer service kinda put the kabash on that for a while.
Greed is blatant and these companies don't even care if they lose customers to competition. 1.99 a ringtone... :eek:
 
Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Cingular are planning on providing music downloading services to their wireless customers later this year.

Talk about being behind the 8 ball!
 
I'm a gadget freak--I've owned more PDAs and computers than I can remember but I hate phones. I hate cell phones. (I guess it has something to do with the fact that I have no one to talk to.)

The public has created these greedy beasts and now we all are going to pay for it. $30/month for a cell phone, on top of the land line that most of us still have. This is just the beginning. Cell phones are going to become our digital wallets. It will be a cell phone with bluetooth that is used to electronically pay for our groceries or a soda out of a vending machine. These guys want it all and they have the installed base to get it.

One of these carriers is going to be the next Microsoft.

Downloading songs to a cell phone? Sounds just about as crazy as a $500 hard drive based MP3 player did a few years back.
 
pounce said:
like most folks with an ipod, i don't want the music on my phone and that kind of thing doesn't interest me. while i don't want apple to lose out on this kind of thing, i'm not convinced it is where the digital music delivery is really going to be happening on any significant level.
Click to expand...

The worst thing is, they really believe they'll have a success on their hands while still being able to lock down their customers.

iTMS + iPod is a success because the price is right and the DRM doesn't crap on its users.

See the "ringtones cost 1.99$ and can't even be transfered to/from computers" comment above/below.
 
denm316 said:
The funny thing is that on a mobile phone they will charge $1.99 or more per song. Rigtones on Verizon Wireless are $1.99, I can only imagine what a real song will cost.

As for Verizon they basically crippled the Bluetooth features of the Motorola v710 so that people could not transfer ringtones to thier computers, as with everything related to cell phone multimedia...it will be a ripoff.
Click to expand...

Amen Brother. Apple has nothing to worry about-- the carriers will totally screw this up. I have a Verizon Treo 600. I like it very much b/c I would carry a phone and palm anyway. However, I dont use ANY of the wireless features becuase they are low quality, they dont work 50% of the time, and they are ridiculously expensive. Unlimited wireless is $50 a month and is much slower than a 56K modem, even in Manhattan. (There is no wifi-- which I'm sure was dictated by the carriers). The email forwarding client is a buggy joke that destroys emails at will. If they do try to sell songs, they'll be $8.50 a piece, they'll take 2 hours to download, there will be additonal bandwidth costs, and the songs wont work on anything but the phone. Itunes will always be preferable.
 
now that is some BAD news :mad: i was really looking forward to cingular carrying the phone, but thats some big time BS, i think apple should make its own carrier some how connected to the itunes store.
 
What Kind of FOOLS?

What kind of Fools are these guys?
NOBODY will be buying songs for 1.99 when they can get a superior experience on a IPOD. They'll just roll out these expensive services and fold after a year or two, just demonstrating that Apple's already got this thing rolled up.

What ever happened to my PDA Phone?
How many people are taking photo's and transmitting them to other callers, once you get killed by the price of these transfers, it's a feature that stops getting used.
 
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