Apple Said to Consider Becoming a Mobile Carrier by Leasing Network Capacity in U.S. and Europe

Denmac1 said:
Agree. They are beginning to spread themselves too thin. I believe their focus is being lost. Tim is letting the inmates run the asylum. Many people don't like ATT, but I've had excellent service and coverage since I bought iPhone back in 2007. Why would I change? I don't believe that there will be a huge difference in pricing.
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Well it's just a rumor at this point but I don't see the business reason for this unless it has something to do with the car project. As far as losing focus, the hard part for Cook is Apple is a $200B business yet Wall Street is still expecting massive growth. This past quarter Apple reported their best 3rd quarter ever and the stock was hammered the next day. How does Apple achieve that growth without expanding into new products/markets? The problem is Steve built Apple 2.0 with startup mentality/culture; very lean, small teams. Apple has gotten too big for that and in some cases is paying the price now. Honestly Apple should have a senior executive overseeing all of their cloud efforts. To me it's madness that they don't. And there have been rumors of frustration inside the company because of engineers being pulled onto the car project. I believe Google has more employees than Apple corporate. That's nuts.
 
Apple having it's own network connection....:apple:TV with the deals they're making with different channels and their Music service come to mind as great candidates for it.

The way Comcast and others fight cord cutters is by jacking up the prices of internet alone without cable. Provide network connection to deliver your media and you solve that nuisance.
 
And I'm sure they'll completely break their pattern and produce a service that's reliable.

</sarcasm>
 
agsystems said:
Would you try Walmart to provide you with phone service? Millions do - its called Straight talk and is provided by AT&T - nothing different here.
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I'm not american, I'm not a stupid consumer being screwed, I'm from France where we now have a choice of carrier with unlimited plans for cheap and almost no data throttling.
 
Rogifan said:
Google and Facebook are actually up today. Microsoft and Amazon are basically flat. Apple is certainly getting hammered more than its peers.
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Apple are being hammered due to their watch sales I thought? The sales numbers fell short if what they told the city they would be, and hence investors hammer them.
 
Rogifan said:
Well it's just a rumor at this point but I don't see the business reason for this unless it has something to do with the car project. As far as losing focus, the hard part for Cook is Apple is a $200B business yet Wall Street is still expecting massive growth. This past quarter Apple reported their best 3rd quarter ever and the stock was hammered the next day. How does Apple achieve that growth without expanding into new products/markets? The problem is Steve built Apple 2.0 with startup mentality/culture; very lean, small teams. Apple has gotten too big for that and in some cases is paying the price now. Honestly Apple should have a senior executive overseeing all of their cloud efforts. To me it's madness that they don't. And there have been rumors of frustration inside the company because of engineers being pulled onto the car project. I believe Google has more employees than Apple corporate. That's nuts.
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Yes, this is Mac Rumors. I believe the days of big growth are over for Apple. It seems to be more about profits and margins instead of innovation. However, what new products or categories can Apple go to without diversifying too much? It would appear to me that they still need to maintain somewhat of a vertical integration to keep their focus.
Perhaps they need to spin services off as a separate division and as you stated have more of a senior team to run it. I believe that Jeff, Eddy and Phil are on overload, hence no 'new/great' products coming down the pike. The car project is a whole other story and should also be a separate division, partnering with someone like Magna, that understands car manufacturing. I think too many people just don't get that Apple has never owned or ran their own manufacturing units. Correct me if I'm in error.
 
Crosscreek said:
When you try to be everything the products and service will eventually suffer.
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On the contrary, Apple has proved to be very efficient at Vertical Integration. Having control over Hardware, software as well as Supply chain has resulted in some excellent products. If there is one company I would have to choose to get this done, it would be Apple.
 
As long as it's not just another Google Fi, this will be interesting.

If they can combine AT&T and Verizon service and offer it at a decent price, I'll dump AT&T tomorrow and move all my lines over.

But if they just combine TMo and Sprint again... No thanks
 
Apple will do this the dumbest way they can, most likely. Make it so insanely expensive, with so little coverage (due to AT&T and Verizon having everything) that nobody wants it. Probably won't be advertised at all, probably won't have any competitive features, just, blah. Now, if Apple got the coverage right, the price right, and offered something like free 200GB iCloud plan (at least), Apple Music membership added in, and all Apple Services not counting against data plan, that'd be great.

How would Apple handle other phones? I'm sure it would be iPhone only. That would be a shame, because for sure Apple would go nowhere as a carrier. I know tons of people who are extreme anti-iPhone. Those people would be the people who would keep Apple out of the spectrum.

I don't want to see Verizon or AT&T die, because there'd be no competition. And without competition, companies (Apple and Google would supposedly rise) would become sloppy, and would charge the hell out of customers because the customers would have no other options. Verizon and AT&T have little competition as it is now because Sprint and T-Mobile can't (or won't) get going on improving coverage, so that's why they're so expensive.

So anyway, I believe Apple has to step out of their comfort zone and bring support to most/all brands of phones. From there, they need to just make really good offers and features that are Apple-Product-Related. But they can't go overboard with Apple-Product-exclusive features because it will scare away anti-Apple-product consumers lol. Sort of a tricky situation.
 
macnewbie91 said:
I feel like Apple would simplify the experience for the users of their cellular phone service, as that's one of the business strategies the company uses.

If Apple offered everyone unlimited talk, text, wi-fi calling and texting, unlimited streaming of Apple Music, and 10 GB a month for an individual user for $100 a month with only sales taxes not included, then that would be okay.

The other plan could consist of all of the same services, but with 50 GB, and up to five lines, for $400 a month (before sales tax), since those who have multiple lines should receive a discount.
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Please do not give them any ideas as far as that price point. ;)

If they offered a plan for half that price and kept Apple Music, Message optional then I might jump. But gone are my days of paying anything above $65 for monthly phone service and I'd like to cut that down.
 
Part of me would love Apple to offer their own network to provide an all inclusive service. The other part of me is happy on three as I have a good package and get unlimited data.

Would need something very special to make me switch. More so than their offer to tempt away digital music streaming customers.
 
macnewbie91 said:
I feel like Apple would simplify the experience for the users of their cellular phone service, as that's one of the business strategies the company uses.

If Apple offered everyone unlimited talk, text, wi-fi calling and texting, unlimited streaming of Apple Music, and 10 GB a month for an individual user for $100 a month with only sales taxes not included, then that would be okay.
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I can get that with spotify premium for about $35 right now... including all taxes.
 
squeeks said:
Because MobileMe, Apple maps, and Apple Music are just so successful...stick with Hardware and operating systems, Apple.
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Maybe you should better stick with staying away. MobileMe? There is no mobile me since ages.
Apple maps? Works great, especially when you have a clue about how difficult it is to make a map service successful in such a short time.
And apple music is just great, so gtfoh and troll elsewhere.
 
trifid said:
Apple is known for charging high premiums, so I'm not sure how competitive they would be BUT, more options: more competition. Bring it on.
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Value is measured in more than just low prices. Apple showed that in the portable music player world, in the PC world and in the smartphone world.

I would have no problem whatsoever paying VZW the nearly $200 per month they get from me if I felt like they were providing a product worth the money.
 
Andres Cantu said:
Looks like this (along with Google's Project Fi) was probably what John Legere was referring to when he said the wireless industry would be very different in the future (not just the top four carriers anymore).
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This is my exact thought with where this could potentially go. Companies such as Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, & Sprint become the infrastructure charging other companies for the privilege of using their systems. It would be possible to have a phone that operates on every signal and chooses which ever signal is best at that moment. The existing carriers can focus on building better and more reliable infrastructure to capture a larger share of business while MVNOs cater to plans and services that customers want.
 
trifid said:
Apple is known for charging high premiums, so I'm not sure how competitive they would be BUT, more options: more competition. Bring it on.
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exactly!! Who thinks Apple is going to get into this and give them unlimited service, faster connections AND save them money.

Of course not. Then again, people will probably pay a 'premium' for the service and convince themselves it's worth it.
 
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