Apple iPhone Integration and a Media Device? (Patents)

[(L)]

How's the iPod doing over there? I know that there were a lot of other portable music players available there before it...

I'm actually just wondering, because I remember hearing the reports of Sony being extremely upset with the iPod/iTunes success over their Walkman/Sony Connect music service in their own country.

Meh. iPod's doing so-so I guess. Really, I don't know. Remember, with the language complication and all the differences in UI expectations, even computers seem drastically more complex to Japanese users, while probably being easier in some ways as well.

Sony is pretty big in Japan, but the iPod is getting more attention, possibly because Sony's purple bubbly thing doesn't even appeal enough to slap on the front pages of the majority of the ads, unlike the iPod. However, iRiver, Sony, and Apple seem to be the ones that appeal the most. I guess the painful kicker is that there are a bunch of options available to you every time you walk through a commercial area, and the majority probably don't care enough to look deeply, like is 4GB flash Nano good or 512MB flash Panasonic thing good...they just pick something up, load whatever crud they like to pump into their skulls, and annoy the fellow passengers on the train. Anybody with any serious interest, I am confident, will eventually get iPods, but the vast majority of people just want to be subjected to aural torture in the form of bad music at high SPLs playing from tiny music players at 128 kbps. This particular type of person rarely wishes to ask for the best, since color or subjective preference for some unknown reason. Just throw any third rate player in and thats good enough.

 

[50548]

I am happy to have a simple, bare-bones Siemens A60 with me...just a color screen, SMS, GPRS/WAP capability (never used) and agenda for names and phones...that's what people need, along with good network coverage...

I am tired of listening to this "all-you-can-cram" crap...people don't have time to learn how to use new, complicated gadgets...I couldn't care less about Java games, complex sync operations with computers and the like...and at least 3/4 of the mobile consumers wouldn't either...

Apple, I truly hope you DON'T launch yet another mobile phone in this babel tower of markets...it's a stillborn and stupid idea.

 

[whooleytoo]

I am tired of listening to this "all-you-can-cram" crap...people don't have time to learn how to use new, complicated gadgets...I couldn't care less about Java games, complex sync operations with computers and the like...and at least 3/4 of the mobile consumers wouldn't either...

Apple, I truly hope you DON'T launch yet another mobile phone in this babel tower of markets...it's a stillborn and stupid idea.

So, just because you don't want the other features, no one else should need them, or ask for them, or ever get a phone with them? Strange..

 

[skeep5]

hmm

for what its worth, i know apple's phone would be better than any other out there. it wouldn't suck.

 

[50548]

So, just because you don't want the other features, no one else should need them, or ask for them, or ever get a phone with them? Strange..

No, my point is: everyone else has these features and sells them for nothing...Apple should NOT enter this loss-making market, because it has no room for high margins or great innovation...at most, it will a monstrosity with easier iTunes access and click wheel...I prefer to stick to my iPod, thanks...cell phones should be simple, and Apple IS about simplicity...too bad the mobile market doesn't follow the same orientation.

 

[whooleytoo]

No, my point is: everyone else has these features and sells them for nothing...Apple should NOT enter this loss-making market, because it has no room for high margins or great innovation...at most, it will a monstrosity with easier iTunes access and click wheel...I prefer to stick to my iPod, thanks...cell phones should be simple, and Apple IS about simplicity...too bad the mobile market doesn't follow the same orientation.

But it sounds to me you're frustrated with (or just not interested in) these devices because of their complexity. One of Apple's key strengths has been providing simple, minimalist interfaces. I think Apple's design skills (both hardware & UI) are ideally suited to improving on current devices.

 

[lord_flash]

Is it me or does this seem highliy unlikely. It's an old patent; Apple may well have flirted with the idea of making their own mobile but perhaps this is an area best left to those already there. That said, I suppose there's no technical reason why a phone couldn't have a number of keys which clicked down (for texting, calling) but had touch sensitive surfaces so could also form the thumb wheel of the iPod. then the 2, 4, 6 & 8 keys could act as the click-wheel play, skip etc. buttons?

Honestly though, I'm nore sure Apple's miniturisation skills are even remotely close to that of SonyErricson/Nokia etc. It's one thing to shoehorn a load of standard components into a box (MacMini), it's quite another to come up with a new form factor entirely.

 

[whooleytoo]

Honestly though, I'm nore sure Apple's miniturisation skills are even remotely close to that of SonyErricson/Nokia etc. It's one thing to shoehorn a load of standard components into a box (MacMini), it's quite another to come up with a new form factor entirely.

Well.. the nano is a hell of a lot smaller than my Nokia phone, so there's a lot of room there for 'growth', without the phone becoming unwieldy.

 

[Sabenth]

without stating the obvious apple has dabbled with phones pdas before i ever came intrested in macs but what amuses me is the fact that the whole concept of an ipod phone amuses me there are phones like the nokia n91 out on the market that have a hard drive a mp3 play ablity theres all the sony phones why come into a market that at present is chock full of phones along these lines already...

Not to mention apple cant really keep much of a computer market let alone a phone market they have managed to get the mp3 market down to 2 things the design of the ipod and the fact it more or less uses itunes as the music player and they allowed moto to use it and it isnt exsactly fantastic is it ...

I am all for phones to have as many gaget based bits and bop as a user can handel i just dont see the point to apple having a mobile ...

 

[mongoos150]

the picture is the really really old mock up of a sony ericsson (iirc) definately a fake. Just a youtube link to this picture

It wouldn't say "the iPhone" - it would say "Say hello to iPhone."

 

[jobberwacky]

To really know, you'd have to look at the claims. You'd be amazed how many trivial patents are issued. Most of the talk centers on the discussion (such as the Spotlight patent thread), but the only things protected are the claims.

The rest of the text in the patent can serve to show where a company plans to apply the innovation, though.

This application should never be granted in Europe. There are still (& luckily) no European patents on software according to the regulations. Yes, the application mentions hardware devices and storage media, but the claims are nevertheless exclusively about solving a (rather trivial) programming (=algorithmic) issue.

The problem is that the European Patent Office has been granting patents (also in the area lof life sciences) which are against the regulations. Nevertheless, if the patent is challenged, it could probably not be easily defended in Europe and would presumably have a domino effect on other wrongfully granted EU patents.

 

[iMeowbot]

This application should never be granted in Europe.

There is some confusion in the original story. This is a recently granted US patent, not an application in Europe. It is in the EU database as a foreign patent.

 

[4np]

Unless it has... a Hello Kitty logo on it.

ROTFLMAO!!!

 

[4np]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Idzum1SI8U&feature=Recent&page=1&t=t&f=b


fake?

looks like a photoshopped sony ericsson phone...

 

[4np]

Please, guys...let's put this rumor to rest...an Apple iPhone is probably the thing Apple is LEAST interested in...the market IS saturated, margins are low as hell...

Besides, Apple has stated that it has little to add in terms of features/offers...

A mobile phone with iTunes and click wheel? Possible...but foolish anyway.

Please file this under "loss-making projects", will ya?

Yes, but just like the iPod, it's a way to obtain market share.... A phone, and nowadays an mp3 player, is a must-have for most people and if most people tend to use your mp3 player or your phone they might stick/switch to your computers and other products as well

 

[CarlosG]

Don't know if anyone has put two and two together in this way already, but what about a phone that natively connects through VoIP.
Think iPod. Apple saw that there was a market for a portable MP3 player, et voila.
VoIP is taking off due to cheap/free worldwide phone calls. Why not have a phone that acts like a standard house phone, but connects through VoIP? I know I'd buy one.
Just a thought...

 

[4np]

is this not the iPod video?

Well, when i look at the pattent images below I see a handheld device with a touchscreen of around the same size of the device itself. This makes me think of the rumoured will-it-be-released-or-not video iPod. Ofcourse it will look like a phone on the pattent to confuse competitors; but can this perhaps mean that the (hopefully) soon-to-be-release video iPod might include mobile phone functionality?

And if so, talking about databases, can you then assume that this iPod Video with phone capabilities has wireless (WiFi / VOIP) capabilities as well? Would definately be an extremele cool device

PS. it says N502it on top; this is an existing phone model, namely one from NEC

However, I must say that the icons used on the screen (reception, battery, etc) match those of the NEC N502it (docomo) phone quite closely and the content on the phone looks very much like the obsolete WAP or iMode standard. Also, the NEC image shows iMode as well...

-the NEC N502it-

 

[derfreddy]

The application shows images of a cell phone interface demonstrating the interactions.

 

[whooleytoo]

From Looprumors.com - supposed new feature of Leopard.

"15. Telephony Application. Strong information coming in suggests that Apple is developing a new telephony application into Leopard. Features include on-screen Caller ID, desktop dialing, speakerphone, and voicemail. Users will be able to access numbers from their Address Book, cellphone (iPhone) via Bluetooth, among others. The application is said to be simple, visual, and similar to iChat, if not integrated into iChat"

If true, it would mean Apple has an interest in telephony. Whether or not it extends to an actual handset..

 

[peharri]

Right now the only reason to believe Apple may have a cellphone up its sleeve is that BRLawyer keeps adamantly denying the possibility of such a thing.

That said, it's notable that anyone trying to deduce what Apple's doing via the watching of patents is going to be mislead. Apple has, in the past, frequently patented things it's never used, and also given a misleading context to them. There are a variety of patents covering technologies where the examples were shown as working on tablet computers or PDAs. Apple has yet to release anything of the sort.

As if to add to the confusion, even if we assume Apple is thinking "cellphones", they're engaged in a (poor, but nonetheless real) collaboration with Motorola, and have worked with other cellphone companies in the past. It's not unlikely they'd develop technologies they don't intend to use in their own products.

I've explained elsewhere why I have grave reservations about Apple doing anything with cellphones. Maybe in a couple of years, but now's not the time, and it would be a remarkable change of model for them if they did go down that road even in 2008.

Apple is underutilizing its Bonjour, Airport, and shared iTunes library technologies at the moment. I can see portable wireless devices in the future that would work with that. I can even see a phone line jack on the back of a future Airport with SIP/Bonjour routing in the box, and Apple selling portable wireless devices that interface with that. (an iPhone, that runs over 802.11); but the cellphone market is complicated, and I can't see Apple entering it at this time, especially if the only real motivation for them to do so is to prevent the iPod being obsoleted by a theoretical - but yet to arrive - mobile phone with the same capabilities.

 

[balamw]

There is some confusion in the original story. This is a recently granted US patent, not an application in Europe. It is in the EU database as a foreign patent.

Plus, it is a US design patent, not a utility patent.

Design patents are very different from utility patents.

B

 

[sartinsauce]

the picture is the really really old mock up of a sony ericsson (iirc) definately a fake. Just a youtube link to this picture

I'm pretty sure that one was admitted to by a photoshopper.

Either way, it's OLD, look at the font, that's that Garamound (sic?) they used back in the pre-iPod days.

 

[iMeowbot]

Plus, it is a US design patent, not a utility patent.

The interesting patent (the phone one) is a utility patent.

 

[50548]

From Looprumors.com - supposed new feature of Leopard.

"15. Telephony Application. Strong information coming in suggests that Apple is developing a new telephony application into Leopard. Features include on-screen Caller ID, desktop dialing, speakerphone, and voicemail. Users will be able to access numbers from their Address Book, cellphone (iPhone) via Bluetooth, among others. The application is said to be simple, visual, and similar to iChat, if not integrated into iChat"

If true, it would mean Apple has an interest in telephony. Whether or not it extends to an actual handset..

Hehehe, sorry...but LR is the bastard child of MacOSRumors, both of which are extremely unreliable, to say the least...

 

[boncellis]

Regarding the click wheel integration with a mobile phone, Nokia came out with something similar as a replacement for the numeric keypad. I don't know how it was received, the reviews I read included words like "interesting" and "different" which is often code for unnecessary, or worse, impractical.