Apple Confirms Emergency SOS via Satellite Launching on iPhone Later This Month

[orbital~debris]

It's mentioned that all iPhone 14 hardware (unless purchased in China or its SAR areas) will work with the feature in this MacRumors article.

What You Need to Know About Apple's Emergency Satellite Feature for iPhone 14

With the iPhone 14 models, Apple is introducing a new Emergency SOS via satellite feature that is designed to allow emergency messages to be sent...

www.macrumors.com

Thank you for posting this link! That's generally good news, although disappointing for purchasers in China.

 

[antiprotest]

Remember this is a paid subscription service after the free trial. So after a while most people will not have this working on their phones. It's for those people who think they actually need it and willingly to pay for it on a regular basis.

I think it's free for 2 years though? If so that's not bad.

 

[Crowbot]

It'll be too bad if they decide to charge for this ultimately. This feels like the kind of thing that should just be factored into the cost of the device and its expected lifetime.

Unless you're the type of person who is regularly venturing out into remote areas, I doubt most people will want to pay for something that is very easily perceived as "never gonna need that". While it's a new flashy feature, people might, but it's going to be free for 2 years, by which time it'll be "old news". And if in those 2 years you never needed it, the odds that you'll decide to pay for it are even lower.

Except you never know when you might suddenly need it. You might spend 99% of the time in the big city, but once a year or even less often you head out on a road trip, passing through some areas with no coverage. You might not even think of it at the time. And suddenly you have a breakdown and that's when you really need the service... and you didn't think to subscribe to it since it didn't even cross your mind. Are you now doomed?

There could be some VERY bad PR from that. "Man dies in ditch, couldn't send for help despite having new iPhone 17 because he didn't pay for sat emergency service before leaving home."

Apple could make the service available on a per-use basis. I'd certainly pay a $25 "fine" to use it in an emergency. Or $100.

 

[Tokenfreak]

Can you do this on the Apple Watch Ultra yet? If so how?

 

[diego.caraballo]

Apple could make the service available on a per-use basis. I'd certainly pay a $25 "fine" to use it in an emergency. Or $100.

You one time emergency message is ready to send…however it will sent faster and to better rescue services if you subscribe to Apple One.

Do you want to subscribe now?

 

[barkomatic]

Remember this is a paid subscription service after the free trial. So after a while most people will not have this working on their phones. It's for those people who think they actually need it and willingly to pay for it on a regular basis.

I think it's free for 2 years though? If so that's not bad.

I think what may happen is that the service that was announced will remain free. Then, as Apple's money improves the network, new services like texting and calling might be added--and it will be those additional services that would require a subscription.

 

[Kottu]

Ban everyone who misuses this feature from using an iPhone

 

[bmustaf]

I thought that phones, satellites radios (SiriusXM etc) and GPS gadgets are capable of receiving data from satellites but are unable to send anything back because they would need a huge dish and lots of power to send. Similar to how an adult can throw a ball from far away to a small child, but the child doesn’t have the strength to throw it all the way back to the adult. How does this work?

RF comms are much more nuanced than this. For high bit rate data, etc, this is a bit closer to reality, but for very low bit rate in this spectrum (like, incredibly low, we are talking 192 byte messages) in very specific time windows, a very faint signal from a low density of user terminals can be sent from a modest antenna.

The technology that underlies this and other services like it (SPOT which itself runs on Globalstar, InReach which is on Iridium, etc) run on a "kind of" two way protocol/method called Short Burst Data, which is really just asynchronous back and forth of really, really slow, incredibly error corrected, and very simple (in a good way, less to go wrong) data.

To extend the not-so-specific analogies: imagine yelling but speaking quickly in a canyon to someone at the end. They'll never understand you even if they hear you. Now imagine speaking slowly and articulating and pausing in between words or even slightly between syllables so they can wait for the echos to die off before your next word (multi-path distortion correction) and so they can think about what you might be saying (error correction). Thus, very, very slow. There's way more going on, but that's the basics.

 

[WWPD]

Does it play Message in a Bottle by The Police?

 

[JosephAW]

Knowing Apple users they will try to test out this feature and will overwhelm the satellite network and crash it. Then Apple will disable this feature in an automatic update you can't refuse and then reinstate it with a per incident prepaid fee.

 

[SAIRUS]

Strangely a small tracker attached to a bird can send data to satellites without any dish.

HOME PAGE - The Migratory Connectivity Project

Advancing the conservation and understanding of animals throughout their full life cycle by promoting the science of migratory connectivity

migratoryconnectivityproject.org

Birds seriously need to start pulling their weight in the circle of life. /s

 

[kierennyc]

99.9% will never use or need this

Correct, but this is the precursor to having satellite connected phones that we can use to contact anyone, anywhere. Think bigger.

 

[sw1tcher]

99.9% will never use or need this

Yes but the remaining 0.01% will always thank Apple for this feature.

What happened to the remaining 0.09%?

 

[Skyscraperfan]

Why doesn't Apple build its own satellite network? Isn't it annoying for Apple that they do not own any money from phone and data plans?

 

[I7guy]

Can’t wait to hear the stories on the lives this will save for real.

I think this feature will be a feature we hope never have to use but are grateful it’s there if we are in are situation like that.

The flip side is those complaining they couldn't use the feature for some reason - even with all of the caveats that are probably going to be in place prior to activation.

 

[GuruZac]

Awesome feature and another feature I look forward to having next year. I spend time out in the mountains hiking and mountain biking and areas with little to no service so this would be a nice to have feature.

 

[citysnaps]

99.9% will never use or need this

Along with a thousand songs in your pocket. Or a non-mechanical mobile phone keyboard.

 

[GuruZac]

99.9% will never use or need this

But it's part of the phone, it's not an extra service or adds additional costs to the end user. It's a feature with tremendous potential.

 

[Sasparilla]

There is a bit of irony that Globalstar came from Qualcomm. Nice to see its moving along. Globalstar has gone through bankruptcy once so hopefully they're a steady partner.

Regarding power needs they are low earth orbit satellites so the power needed would be much lower - still pretty amazing a iPhone could message through one though. Guessing this is the 1st stage of this, eventually moving on towards non emergency messaging years down the line (for a fee of course, lol).

 

[citysnaps]

Apple also announced that it is investing $450 million from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund towards the development of critical infrastructure supporting Emergency SOS via Satellite, with a majority of the funding going to Apple's satellite partner Globalstar.

I think just as important is Apple funding 95% of the costs of Globalstar's next generation satellites.

 

[Wildkraut]

Great, finally people can try jumping down the canyon for testing.

 

[anthogag]

What happens if a person just tries to use it to send a message? Is it like phoning 911 to order a pizza?

 

[bwillwall]

99.9% will never use or need this

The thing that did get my interest is updating find my outside of a cell signal. I don't USUALLY not have a signal, but as someone who lives in a rural area it can happen.

 

[roar08]

99.9% will never use or need this

We should hope nobody needs it.

 

[sw1tcher]

Isn't it annoying for Apple that they do not own any money from phone and data plans?

The service side of the business is too low margin which is not Apple's style.

Average Profit Margin for Telecommunications Agency: Overview

Get an overview of the telecommunications sector, and learn the average net profit margins for companies in this highly competitive industry.

www.investopedia.com

The average trailing twelve months' net profit margin for companies in the telecommunications sector, as of Q2 2022, is approximately 12.5%, according to CSIMarket.com figures. Net margins typically average about half of a company's operating profit margins. Gross profit margins for the sector can run as high as 70% to 80%, but extremely high overhead expenses erode much of that initial profit balance.


I guess Apple could always increase their margins by showing ads on your iPhone. They seem to love ads latetly.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90325975/this-startup-lets-users-watch-ads-to-get-free-mobile-service