Apple Mobile Me MVNO?

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

Engadget publishes pictures (http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/31/apples-mobile-me-to-be-an-mvno/) which were sent in anonymously. The same photos were sent to a number of sites including MacRumors.

According to Engadget the following is written on the blurry shots of what appears to be an Apple branded SIM card:

xx/50 Test Unit [digits written in sharpie]
Apple Computer
Internal Test MM1.3.a

[berkleeboy210]

that looks like an itunes store card to me.

[yellow]

That looks blurry to me.

[mugwump]

Apple is really missing the mobile computing world.

In developing countries this is the OS of choice, using small devices with resolutions greater than the original Mac.

With my Treo I have email, internet, MS word and Excel, and most other daily apps.

But Palm is moving away from Mac support, leaving it up to third party products that have spotty Mac support.

Wither Apple?

[Stella]

Whats the point of Apple becoming a cell phone network provider?

It'll have little uptake ( world wide ) because Apple will restrict it to the states, and it probably won't be cheap, either.

I really hope this is a fake.

[awinn233]

Looks fake to me.

[mugwump]

Cellphone network provider? What does this mean?

Virgin does it, by simply renting out the Sprint Network in the US.

Apple runs an entire consumer marketplace, from stores to internet music paradigms, to online subscriptions services, to 24 hour corporate support products. They are making billions and almost half the revenues of Microsoft.

They can't handle mobile OS customers also?

[Josh396]

I'm another one that thinks it looks fake.

[longofest]

So I've done some digging for those who didn't look at the original stories. Here is the scoop.

The phone is a Samsung SGH x497 merely with what appears to be an Apple branded SIM in it. Apple would simply be using Cingular's network to provide their Mobile Me service. This is not the iPhone.

[1984]

It's an Apple gift card someone cut up to make it look like a SIM.

[askthedust]

Truly mobile computing may be the ticket here. a .mac subscription that can be accessed without wires connecting your tower at home with you on the road.

[yellow]

Look for the iDrive at a Kia dealer near you..

[Superdrive]

that looks like an itunes store card to me.

Yahtzee! There is the solution right there. That is the only place Apple uses color any more. Other products are black and white. And besides do you think Apple would have anything to do with a protruding antenna?

[chasemac]

Photoshop anyone?

[alywa]

I'd believe it more if it was shot in an elevator.

[Nermal]

It's an Apple gift card someone cut up to make it look like a SIM.

That was my immediate thought too.

[syklee26]

Look for the iDrive at a Kia dealer near you..


[AP] Today, after Kia's announcement of new iDrive, BMW announced that it will bring a suit against Kia for trademark infringement. More news will be coming up soon.

[nagromme]

I'd believe it more if it was shot in an elevator.
Agreed :D

Cut up an iTunes card, stick it in a phone, put it on the floor of an elevator, and focus on Mars before taking the shot. A smoke machine is also recommended.

WHY would anyone send out a TEST phone for a MVNO, using an existing phone with the existing Cingular network? Yeah, THAT sounds like Apple secrecy.

Occam's Razor says.... fake!

[Bob Knob]

Look for the iDrive at a Kia dealer near you..

That car is so obviously fake, the picture is nowhere near blurry enough for that to be real.

[the_ki]

"So you agree to this NDA."

Yes.

"You are one of only fifty beta-testers for our new MVNO."

Got it.

"Our CEO is very serious about secrecy and security."

So I've heard.

"So you will do nothing to compromise this secret."

Mum's the word.

"Good. Now here's your bright neon green SIM card emblazoned with our logo."

Of course. No one will notice that.

:rolleyes:

[tiiim]

its always funny how this breaking new stories are always blurry pics. The guy took 2 shots and both were blurry!!!! What are the chances.:confused:

[Thanatoast]

Truly mobile computing may be the ticket here. a .mac subscription that can be accessed without wires connecting your tower at home with you on the road.
Pipe dream? Yes. But good idea? I think so. Mobile internet for your macbook, everywhere you get cell service? At EVDO speed? Sign me up.

[nagromme]

It's the excited shaking that causes the blur. We're lucky they even found the shutter button :)

[p0intblank]

Chances are very good that this is... FAKE! :o

[User X]

*********!!!

[MacAficionado]

Stoooooooooooooopiiiiiiiiiiid!!!

That's so fake!

[Dasmo]

why does everyone say this is fake? it's not like people would take the time to make something fake like this. they haven't ever done that in the past ever.

[Cougarcat]

why does everyone say this is fake? it's not like people would take the time to make something fake like this. they haven't ever done that in the past ever.

iHome, iWalk...

[ITASOR]

Ok guiez this is teh trooth. I sweyr.

Count me in as beta tester number two. I took this picture with my iSight, I was too lazy to get the 5MP Camera, sorry for the inconvenience. I only use that camera when not taking pictures of super secret apple beta products.

Anyway, here it is.

http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/4858/picture40hi.png

EDIT: Oops, my bright green sim card is falling out of my phone in that picture...d'oh. Maybe I'll get a better picture later.

[meinertzhagen]

you crazy if you think this is real...
apple doesn't make ugly stuff like that anyway

[djsteele]

Cellphone network provider? What does this mean?

Virgin does it, by simply renting out the Sprint Network in the US.


When's the last time you heard someone say, "Check out my new Virgin mobile phone?" My guess is never... That aside, Virgin is all marketing and not very good marketing at that. Apple on the other hand has both "brains and brawn" (great hardware and better marketing). I wouldn't be surprised to see an Apple phone in the future, but... well, actually I'd be very surprised to see that.

These Apple phone rumors are really just "Can I please have an iPod/Newton?" rumors in disguise. And as someone else noted, what Apple phone would ever have a protruding antenna? Seriously, that's just wrong. Can you imagine an iPod with a protruding antenna? Didn't think so.

[thejadedmonkey]

Now, if the antenna is teh sex....

[arn]

why does everyone say this is fake? it's not like people would take the time to make something fake like this. they haven't ever done that in the past ever.

http://guides.macrumors.com/Gallery_of_Apple_Mockups_and_Fake_Products

[Misplaced Mage]

Fake. Not because I think it's inconceivable Apple would become an MVNO, but because there's no reason a SIM for a test account would need to have an Apple logo on it! The magic's in the account programming and the data stored on the card, not the artwork. :rolleyes:

[Peel]

Actually, I'm happy to see the blurry photo. I was feeling kind of left out at this year's MWSF since no one steped up with photos their cousin took when he was left alone in a service elevator with the newest Apple products.

So we get our "Find the Fake" hunt a little late this year. At least we get to play the game :rolleyes:

[Dasmo]

iHome, iWalk...

cynicism, sarcasm…

[gammamonk]

what a weak attempt.

[Leoff]

Ask yourself this: How many cell phone users know about their SIM card? How many cell phone users open up their cell phone enough to look at the SIM card? Why in the hell would Apple label an internal piece like that?

Unless Apple starts slapping their logo on individual memory sticks, this is fake.

[BRLawyer]

Of course it is a fake...but a success anyway, as scissors and an iTunes Gift Card already gave birth to more than 30 comments on MR...:rolleyes:

Nothing to see here, people...move along!

[yellow]

You should have seen how many people put it in as a submission.

[sartinsauce]

I was wandering through flickr.com this morning and found these images.

I would be into an apple phone/wireless feature package. I'm currently in the market for a new provider/phone anyway. However, I have Verizon right now and their customer service is awful.

Anyway, here's a link to the page I found. Think this is a fake, but wanted to hear what yawl had to say...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flickrelmo/

[boombashi]

Of course this is fake. The idiot doesn't know the difference between gaussian blur and lens blur. If you are going to try to pretend that it's real, at use the lens blur filter or motion blur, idiot. Go to photography and Photoshop school son, and stop acting like an iFool.

[Misplaced Mage]

I was wandering through flickr.com this morning and found these images.

I would be into an apple phone/wireless feature package. I'm currently in the market for a new provider/phone anyway. However, I have Verizon right now and their customer service is awful.

Anyway, here's a link to the page I found. Think this is a fake, but wanted to hear what yawl had to say...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flickrelmo/
Not happening.
Verizon now has its own set of user interface requirements.
Verizon just started rolling out their VCAST Music Store, which uses Windows Media.
Motorola's CDMA hardware and software is significantly different from its GSM hardware and software, native UI similarities aside.
#1 is why the brand-new V3c RAZR has the same UI as the LG6100 Verizon's been selling for many months, and different from the normal Motorola UI in the V3c sold to Alltel, U.S. Cellular, and others. A battle over whose UI to use for iTunes in a phone Verizon would buy would be short and pointless.

#2 WMA with Janus DRM on iTunes with FairPlay DRM. Riiiiiiight. <Ben Stein> And Apple's incentive to support WMA with ~80% of the legal download market today is? Anyone? Anyone? And Verizon's incentive to permit a direct competitor to its own music store? Anyone? Anyone? </Ben Stein>

#3 Motorola has publicly stated that one of the reasons it took so long to get iTunes running on a phone was integrating its operation into the rest of a GSM phone's operations, and running it on a completely different chipset and OS than the iPods'. Motorola uses Qualcomm chipsets for their CDMA products these days, which is completely different from what they use in their GSM products. That in turn means not only would Motorola have to redo all that work for a CDMA version of iTunes, but have to get yet another vendor involved (Qualcomm) in order to tie everything together correctly. Messy.

Best bet: Apple offers a BREW version of the iTunes app as a separate download from Verizon's Get It Now store, assuming Verizon permits even that much. Personally, I'm not holding my breath unless or until Verizon's music store tanks in a spectacular fashion. Apple as a MVNO is more likely still.

[interlard]

The clue is in the question, people:

"He was a real Shakespeare buff too, this guy. I'm not sure what reader he was using (built in) but he showed us "Julius Caesar" and it looked great and rendering just beautiful... He wouldn't give us any more information regarding carriers but said to be aware of March 15 as a key date."

Now go and read Shakespeare's "Julias Caesar" and look for the significance of March 15.

Congrats to the poster for an excellent & amusing ruse.

"EV-DO, Brute?" ;-)

[munkees]

A person I know family member is part of the Apple team on this project, and it is in test phase currently

[MacQuest]

All I can say is that back in July of 2002 [Apple Expo Paris? Maybe WWDC but i think that was a little earlier in the year], Steve Jobs announced a partnership between Apple, Cingular and Sony.

I know, because it's the whole reason that I chose Cingular as my service provider the following month and have been with them ever since.

Obviously, it looks like Sony has been replaced with Moto since then, but what was he talking about with Cingular?

Although these Engadget pix look pretty "hokey", I'm inclined to believe that Apple will become an MVNO. Their obviously getting into the business of content distribution with music, music videos, television episodes, and more than likely full length feature films.

Why wouldn't they try their hand at being a mobile phone and mobile phone service provider as well? They've already started integrating iTunes into Moto's phones through Cingular [which I think is just a guinea pig program for them anyway], so why wouldn't Apple just blow the doors off of the mobile phone/pda industry with it's own full featured Mac Phone [Blackberry/Treo killer - especially know that the Treo 7 series is using a winBlows OS] with a Mac Mobile content delivery system [Verizon VCast killer]?

Take the gloves off Apple! Due for the mobile phone and provider industry what the iPod and iTunes is doing for the digital music player and music industry... TEACH THEM HOW TO DO IT RIGHT!

[MacQuest]

A person I know family member is part of the Apple team on this project, and it is in test phase currently

Oh! You know that person too!!!

We better not tell anyone else because we wouldn't want to get that person or their family in trouble.

Let's do this:
You post the name and phone number of that person we both know, and I'll tell you if your lying or not.

:D

[munkees]

Oh! You know that person too!!!

We better not tell anyone else because we wouldn't want to get that person or their family in trouble.

Let's do this:
You post the name and phone number of that person we both know, and I'll tell you if your lying or not.

:D
sure names steve job phone 1 800 apple

no this person is a good contact, has two family members at apple one is on that project, my contact told me about wireless phone connection plan off apple before any silly pictures came about.

[awaybbl]

If Apple becomes an MVNO, I'd expect to see Apple try to integrate cell technology into some of its already existing products....


1) a laptop with a pcmcia cellular modem

2) an ability to "tether" a cellular modem via an Apple branded comm manager

and then...

3) a tablet with on-board cellular ability

4) an iPhone/iTunes