Apple iPhone by Motorola?

[toughboy]

Originally Posted by retromac

How about steve jobs ringtone saying:

"oh yeah, and one more thing."

that would be cool

MAN THAT WOULD BE A GREAT SMS ALERT... WHY DIDNT I THINK THAT BEFORE????

[retromac]

Wouldn't it be great if the iphone came with bluetooth earphones?

totally cordless, maybe just a neck wrap...like the street style sony makes

MDRG57G

has any company ever tried to make this??

[Mainyehc]

Originally Posted by ProjektJ

sony ericsson is the only phone manufacturer with decent ui's

apple could change all of that

No, Mitsubishi Electronic's Trium brand had two great phones, the Trium Mars and the Trium 110, with possibly the best interface I've ever seen in a mobile phone. I can assure you that the menus were as straightforward as those of the iPod. Options are always triggered in the same way (sometimes having a choice between two methods, but that really isn't that confusing), as opposed to the most recent Siemens interface, which navigation is a little similar, but hideous at the same time.

I don't like most of Nokia's interfaces either, they're very unintuitive (IMO, who will guess that the same button is used to start and stop a conversation? It's not like the Play/Pause concept, heck, people are already used to the red and green buttons, so why try to change that?). And what about acessing the phone book with the down arrow and the last dialed numbers with the up arrow?

In a trium, you access the phone book with the left arrow, and the main menu with the right arrow, but those functions are clearly labeled on the round cross-pad itself (which is very smooth and a pleasure to use, almost as nice as a clickwheel. It makes you feel in full control of the device; I like that). Up and down arrows move your selection in list menus just like the iPod's. Then, left and right can be used to enter and leave menus (respectively) or choose items and cancel operations, etc... It only has two function buttons (labeled on the GUI), which act as custumizable shortcuts on the main menu, and are generally assigned to OK and Cancel in other menus (and here lies the only confusing feature: Ok is in the left and Cancel is in the right, opposed to the way the crosspad works, but you only have to use the function buttons when you have to make some kind of input, like writing a SMS, since the left and right buttons only let you browse through the input fields). T9 input is also very nicely designed, and the phone has some cool features, although some further customization would be welcome.

So, as a whole, it was a nice phone (unfornutaley my batteries are dead, so now I'm using it as an alarm clock ), so nice that I've sworn I'll buy the next Trium phone that Mitsubishi releases (I wouldn't mind having an Apple iPhone, but I could live without the music playback, my 3G iPod already fits that purpose very well, thanks).

[one3]

Flip phone concept ...

[jimbo2]

I blogged about this yesterday, here's a link:


http://www.wrightthisway.com/Articles/000147.html

Basically, I think this 'could' be done by Apple, but unless they're willing to get behind a new phone platform and think they can grab sufficient market share, it's never going to happen.

[one3]

one last one:

[alanbuilds]

Originally Posted by one3

Here is a quick concept drawing of an iPhone ...

Great mockup! Go work for apple (You have my recommendation)! I think that this is incredibly cool & would sell like . . . like . . . ipods!
( I think perhaps the other responders are being a bit unavoidably hyper-critical in a helpful/brainstorming kind of way . . .)
[And, of course, I realize that just drawing some buttons on a ipod can't fit cellphone functionality into an already-stuffed-like-99-clowns-in-a-MiniCooper-full iPod case; BUT IT STILL LOOKS WAY COOL!!]
Thanks for the eye-candy!

[alanbuilds]

Originally Posted by one3

one last one:

Sorry, a birth-control pill dispenser/phone/iPod seems to be carrying multi-functionality a bit too far . . !

[22350]

Don't ask where i got this.




i also want to point out that apple just pulled a patent on a connection for a swivel screen that say "especially good for handheld devices" in the description.

[lalcan]

22350: That looks quite nice, the pic´s name is "newton2", right? and afaik that logo in the screen is the Newton´s logo, right?

i didn´t think Steve would allow a 2nd Newton, but then again, Hell has frozen already, so why not?

Any iTunes compatible device will come with a HD, so it needs a nice GUI, why not Newton´s GUI? it has already support for bluetooth, Wifi, etc.

I don´t like small keyboards, but perhaps someone who has used one of those Sony Clie´s could comment on it's usefulness.

Mmm got me thinking... But i'll have to say it looks real to me.

[Xapplimatic]

I think if you combine the patent that shows a wireless antenna equipped "ipod" with the idea Apple and Motorola want to make a phone with iTunes, you could extrapolate that Apple and Motorola are potentially making something muh more than that... a phone with a hard drive (similar in idea to Treo?), with BlueTooth.. Takes an iPod, adds wireless and voice communications.. Apple doesn't want to enter the telecom market I'm sure, but they would probably be happy to let Motorola do it for them...

Oops, hope I didn't let the cat out of the bag too early!

[panda]

iphone makes sense.

why:
-the mobile phone will emerge as the next (only) competitor to the ipod.

this is because music will become more accessible over phones. plus, the phone is an indispensible part of life that is always carried around (ipod less so). and also beacuse of pocket size.

it all has to do with something related to how coke sees its market share. coke sees its sales in relation to all liquids consumed. they call it -share of throat-. in other words what is coke's share of all the beverages drunk?

ipod is fighting for -share of pocket-. in other words, how much can fit into a person's pockets: phone, cigarettes, lighter, wallet, credit cards, change, keys, ipod...

the beauty of the iphone with incorporated ipod, is that there is only one device to fit in the pocket, not two separate ones taking up lots of room.

to improve portability and usefulness, as well as 24/7 accessibility, it makes sense to optimize devices to the limited carry-space on one's persona; so portable devices merge. hence ipod's new photo capabilities, or pda phones. this necessity is underscored by the fact that phones with built-in cameras, outsell stand-alone cameras.

as has been pointed out in earlier posts, the task is daunting, due to the serious phone competition already out there.

but apple has to start somewhere.

[iMeowbot]

Originally Posted by aswitcher

I am sure that there was some annoucement this year by Motorola that they were supporting AAC on there 2005 mobile phone releases...

joint press release

Exactly. A future joint Moto/Apple phone is fact, not rumor. I guess that it might be mildly interesting to speculate how prominent the cobranding will be, but it's essentially a done deal.

[mpw]

Sony's Clie PEG-NZ90 from a couple of years ago was a fantastic PDA it had just about everything but phone functions. I remember thinking at the time that if you took a SE T600 mobile phone dump the battery and LCD the rest of the phone would easily fit in the slot of this PDA left for optional WiFi.

If Apple, either alone or more likely with a partner, could create something a similar spec. I'd be happy to part with £500 for it and I bet they could do a better job of design and marketing.

[mda01aqt]

please NO! motorola are such a crap phone company. their iTap predictive text software is the crappest and slowest in the whole industry!!! (exaggeration- as ive only used nokia and sony phones before my moto).

if apple were thinking of asking a company to make a phone for them, please can they approach anyone apart from motorola- chose samsung, nokia, sonyericcson, seimens.......anyone but motorola!!!

[beatle888]

Originally Posted by The Tuck

Just imagine! AIM audio chats to Macs and PCs from your phone. Plug in an iSight, and have a lower-resolution video chat than on iChat, but still a video chat!!

im sorry but thats just nerd talk. next thing you'll want is an endless power supply and we can all wear solar panels on our heads to constantly keep our iSight and iPhone charged. who wants to carry all that around with them? and seriously whats the point, all we need is people driving in their cars with an iSight plugged into their cell phone having a video chat while driving....i know i know a bit over the top but still...how much hardware do you want to carry around? and why wouldnt they just build the camera into the phone?

sorry, i got sick off of last nights dinner and the restaurant wont refund the money, their telling us it must be the flue. im just grumpy.

[Mord]

i'd buy one if it's less than £150

[aswitcher]

Originally Posted by beatle888

im sorry but thats just nerd talk. next thing you'll want is an endless power supply and we can all wear solar panels on our heads to constantly keep our iSight and iPhone charged. who wants to carry all that around with them? and seriously whats the point, all we need is people driving in their cars with an iSight plugged into their cell phone having a video chat while driving....i know i know a bit over the top but still...how much hardware do you want to carry around? and why wouldnt they just build the camera into the phone?

Grumpy, we already have Instant Messaging and Video Chats on mobile phones with 3G (and 4G), so video chats to the internet ARE doable right now and I imagine will be implemented soon as the mobile phone carriers battles for customers rage into as many new markets and services as they can find.

[beatle888]

Originally Posted by aswitcher

Grumpy, we already have Instant Messaging and Video Chats on mobile phones with 3G (and 4G), so video chats to the internet ARE doable right now and I imagine will be implemented soon as the mobile phone carriers battles for customers rage into as many new markets and services as they can find.

ok, but at least build the camera into the phone instead of having to PLUG AN ISIGHT INTO IT....god can you imagine the nerd factor? mac users are too for that....arent we

[aswitcher]

Originally Posted by beatle888

ok, but at least build the camera into the phone instead of having to PLUG AN ISIGHT INTO IT....god can you imagine the nerd factor? mac users are too for that....arent we

No, Apple will always do it in new a cool ways. Moto already have this stuff figured I am sure.

[FelixDerKater]

A small clickwheel to replace the normal multi-directional buttons would be nice. Couple that with a well-spaced keypad.

[Arcdesigns]

Well I hope we get conformation before I buy the soon to be released Sony Ericsson s710a.

If the Apple/MOTO phone is at a par with the Sony but designed with Mac users in mind sign me up.

[wibbler]

I am not sure of the validity of the claims that Apple is making a phone but they sure should do.

Why? Because if they don't the iPod is dead.

Right. Because like so many have said here, our pockets are only so big and we don't like them too full. I don't have a pda for two reasons, 1. Apple don't make one 2. I already have my pockets full with almost a PDA-phone and my iPod!

So why not combine phone with pda with ipod? Anyone who travels will tell you, the more you can combine, minaturise and compact this (must-have-if-travelling-or-commuting) gadget stuff, the better.

And as everyone else is popping digital music players into their handsets then it makes real commercial sense for APPLE to mix the iPod with PDA and phone. Or maybe have two models, phone+ipod and iPod+phone+full featured pda? It will of course be a G3 handset as GMS is ancient technology now.

And as for saying "why would Apple take the commercial risk?" perhaps you should be reversing that and saying "why would apple risk not releasing a phone and seeing the iPod dwindle because it is a single-function gadget in an era of multifunction gadgets?"

And one thing to you Americans still think the world (technological and political) revolves around you. It doesn't.

Europe and the Far East are WAY in front of you guys with cell phones. We have more handsets per capita, make more calls, have better coverage (I crossed the US on a Harley and found that most of the USA is cut off from even GSM networks) , we send more SMS's by a big margin, and are much more handset savvy than you guys simple because we've had them for longer. In the UK many 11 year old kids have mobile (cell) phones, and that isn't just rich kids, that's MOST kids.

SO GO ON APPLE, DO IT!

[Mtn Tamale]

Actually, I agree and see this as completely probable, add in voice/maybe video h.264 iChat service either over cell networks or over Wifi networks, and replace your idea of a hard drive in there, with flash memory and we have a winner.

There won't be harddrives in phones because they are not durable enough for constant carry, regular dropping wear and tear.

Originally Posted by Xapplimatic

I think if you combine the patent that shows a wireless antenna equipped "ipod" with the idea Apple and Motorola want to make a phone with iTunes, you could extrapolate that Apple and Motorola are potentially making something muh more than that... a phone with a hard drive (similar in idea to Treo?), with BlueTooth.. Takes an iPod, adds wireless and voice communications.. Apple doesn't want to enter the telecom market I'm sure, but they would probably be happy to let Motorola do it for them...

Oops, hope I didn't let the cat out of the bag too early!

[Toe]

Coming in late to this thread so...

For those who don't think a potentially expensive iPhone can compete with the free phones you can get with service contracts... I never in a billion years could have imagined that ANYONE would pay $400 or more for a glorified Walkman. Not a chance, so I thought. Just because you wouldn't pay for it doesn't mean that there isn't a whole different market segment. If that weren't the case, there wouldn't be Treo's and Razrs and P900s and all those other $500+ phones. Somebody must be buying them....

For those who say Motorola phones suck horribly, my understanding is that that is 100% true... except for their new Razr, which is supposed to be awesome. I guess they're turning a corner....

For those who think phones aren't a good market to get into, I couldn't disagree more. I LOVE my 12" PowerBook in most ways, but I HATE how enormous it is. The computer as it is currently conceived is absolutely obsolete. What people want (at least my demographic wants it!) is a fully functioning super-computer the size of a small flip-phone or wristwatch. (With a 30" monitor, of course.) Cellphones are the computers of the future. They're just wating for better input methods (than micro-keyboards or pressing numbers repeatedly) and direct-to-eye-output... ie, a display onto glasses or projecting directly into the eye.