Hon Hai Receives iPhone Contract?

TheBobcat said:
...I like my iPod, I like my Razr phone (until May 07 :D ) and I really have no gripes having two devices...
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Funny, because I'm in this same boat. I, too, have an iPod and a Razr until October of '07. However, I do take exception to having two different devices. Here's why:

(A) I take public transportation (train) so I have to carry everything with me. Razr - front/left pocket, iPod front/right, wallet rear/right. Where do the keys go? Certainly not rear/left (ouch!) not with the Razr, I've got it for a whole year more and I've had it for one already - don't need it scratched. Certainly not with the iPod. Then what if I'm trying to bring something else with me? An annoying situation until the colder months when I have coat pockets.

(B) I do occasionally get phone calls while listening to my iPod. I'd love the music to stop, be able to talk and have it start right back up without the 50 steps it takes to do those things now.

(C) Can you say sync? Photos, music, contacts... all in one. BINGO.

I want me an iPhone!

... in October...
 
unification absurdity

Which do you think is harder to unify TV-computer or mobilephone-mp3 player? Why do people insist-wishing on having these things be in one device?

I see all these widget-phones and PDAs out there that barely function as a phone.

This is what Apple should do (and I think they are doing it), don't listen to that engineer down the hall that wears oversize t-shirt and acidwash tapper jean. He shall not have any say on the design and style of a product.

I'm getting a vibe that a lof of us in here just don't care about style, beauty and form-function of a electronic device. We seem to care more about putting as much S^&&ts into a device making it ugly and useless.

While we are digressing into the abyss, lets ask Apple to include the ability to download horrid home videos from YouTube into the iPhone so we giggle silly like a disturb person on the street talking to pigeons.

Cinch
 
Rojo said:
It would indeed be cool to have a model like that available for people.
Although I'm hoping, if that's the case, that there's also a smaller model available that's primarily a phone. For me, I just want a small phone that's not much bigger than my Razr or Nano -- but with some cool, unique features that only Apple could do.
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Why not at this point have the connection capability. Like, it wont be a full screen video player, just another phone that captures video. Then you dump it on YouTube thanks to google, sans a computer. From phone to web in 15 seconds would be a killer feature. Social networking being so huge right now, why not bring the phone back into that realm.
 
Cinch said:
I'm getting a vibe that a lof of us in here just don't care about style, beauty and form-function of a electronic device. We seem to care more about putting as much S^&&ts into a device making it ugly and useless.
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It is perfectly possible to make a device that is fully functional AND is aesthtically pleasing. Look at apple's laptops, they have cameras, remote controls etc. Are they clunky looking?

If they can do their thing with a phone I'm all for it. And it won't sell unless it has a camera and it plays tunes, regardless of looks or neatness of the UI.
 
emotion said:
It is perfectly possible to make a device that is fully functional AND is aesthtically pleasing.
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I dont' think Apple has a choice. If they don't emphasize style, they would be just another electronic hardware maker who is competing with Samsung, Sandisk, Microsoft, Nokia and Dell.

Cinch
 
Cinch said:
I dont' think Apple has a choice. If they don't emphasize style, they would be just another electronic hardware maker who is competing with Samsung, Sandisk, Microsoft, Nokia and Dell.
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Well they don't have a choice because they are Apple and are known for their industrial design.

Your point (as I read it) was that they should hold off on the functions and features in case that compromises the aesthetics. I'm just saying you can have both.
 
Man what is up with phones and megapixels? You can have a 100 megapixel phone but the pictures will still look like crap. It's the lens that matters, and until they can figure out how to improve that, you're only going to get larger crappy pictures.
 
slffl said:
Man what is up with phones and megapixels? You can have a 100 megapixel phone but the pictures will still look like crap. It's the lens that matters, and until they can figure out how to improve that, you're only going to get larger crappy pictures.
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+1

Some sense!
 
emotion said:
Your point (as I read it) was that they should hold off on the functions and features in case that compromises the aesthetics. I'm just saying you can have both.
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Yes, a beautiful phone that does what a phone do and better than anything out there.

slffl said:
Man what is up with phones and megapixels? You can have a 100 megapixel phone but the pictures will still look like crap. It's the lens that matters, and until they can figure out how to improve that, you're only going to get larger crappy pictures.
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No kiddin! Lets leave photography to a delicated camera with good optics. Although, I do like it when chics come up to you in clubs and ask for a picture with them!
 
SIM Card Phone

It would be in Apple's best interest to market an unlocked SIM card phone. This would allow the iPhone to be as full featured as Apple wants to make it. All US phones are crippled in order for the service providers to collect fees for the use of almost all the features. For example, Bluetooth on Verizon is only useful for hands free, syncing with the computer is not possible or difficult at best. An unlocked iPhone could combine the features of the iPod, PDA and digital camera to the fullest extent. Then, price and subsidies would not be an issue.
 
Clive At Five said:
OMG, Apple would kill any chance of market penetration with a $500+ phone. Even $300 is pushing it. I would personally consider a phone at $200 if it had the right features.

-Clive
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that's what people said about the ipod.

i don't think it's that bad a deal. an ipod is going to set you back $150-$350, a smartphone with two-year contract is going to set you back $100-$300 with contract or $300-$600 without a contract.

personally i'd like to see that two phones rumor pan out. a simple, sleek, elegant nano-esque phone that pretty much just makes calls/receives calls and that's about it. then the smart phone which is everything else.
 
OCOTILLO said:
It would be in Apple's best interest to market an unlocked SIM card phone. This would allow the iPhone to be as full featured as Apple wants to make it. All US phones are crippled in order for the service providers to collect fees for the use of almost all the features. For example, Bluetooth on Verizon is only useful for hands free, syncing with the computer is not possible or difficult at best. An unlocked iPhone could combine the features of the iPod, PDA and digital camera to the fullest extent. Then, price and subsidies would not be an issue.
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Price would be huge issue. Most phones are heavily subsidised by the network. No-one will buy an ipod phone unless this subsidisation occurs. Apple have to think of the mass market here. ie. k800i for free or iphone for 300 quid.

I might be wrong, Apple might have got a massive disccount on these devices and can sell them very cheaply, I doubt it though.
 
emotion said:
Price would be huge issue. Most phones are heavily subsidised by the network. No-one will buy an ipod phone unless this subsidisation occurs. Apple have to think of the mass market here. ie. k800i for free or iphone for 300 quid.

I might be wrong, Apple might have got a massive disccount on these devices and can sell them very cheaply, I doubt it though.
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SIM card phones are sold worldwide. A SIM card iPhone would have a worldwide customer base. Remember, Apple is not just a supplier to the US market. The unlocked phone is the phone of the future.
 
ok, there seems to be another huge issue with a combo full-screen video ipod iphone. at this point (and for a while still) the ipod scratches really easily. thus it comes with a sheath to protect it. because i don't have to get at my ipod every couple seconds when i'm walking around town, that's ok. a bit of a drag, but ok, i'd rather have a screen i can bare to watch video on.

my phone on the other hand i have to get at all the time. it could never be in a little protective sleeve, because that would be a massive pain. i have a SLVR, and whatever you have to say about the functionality, that thing takes a beating. i drop it, toss it around, whatever. and i would say that a lot of normal guys have phones that also take a beating. ok now, I DON'T WANT MY VIDEO IPOD TO TAKE A BEATING. i don't want scratches or dings, which no matter what, my phone will get. life is fast and i can't baby a cell phone all day.

i don't doubt they could do it. i just think it would come with a mountain of issues. and if they think that nano scratch backlash was bad.
 
OCOTILLO said:
SIM card phones are sold worldwide. A SIM card iPhone would have a worldwide customer base. Remember, Apple is not just a supplier to the US market. The unlocked phone is the phone of the future.
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I still maintain the masses will not go with an unsubsidised phone. I wouldn't.

We'll see, not long to go now.
 
EDIT: My apologies if it takes long to load.

Because I like the idea of a full-featured phone, and because I've had some time on my hands (well... I guess that's what you'd call procrastinating from writing papers, right?), here's my conception of what a full-featured "all-in-one" might look like. Yes, it's not the best photoshop work, but it gets the idea across, yes?

I'm thinking that mode-switching would be done with a touch-sensitive bezel (I couldn't decide which side I liked best, and it shouldn't show, after all, so you won't see it on the image.), or the touch-sensitive screen.

I've gone and 'shopped it at a 1:1 ratio, so you can get an idea for what size (I think) the keys could still work at for the slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Without further ado, here you go:
productshotlx0.png
 
Macnoviz said:
I think the iPhone is still some time away, it will probably be a no show at MWSF. But the first half of 2007 will certainly be very interesting
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I wonder if the iPhone announcement is too big for January's MacWorld show? Perhaps it needs its own Apple event?
 
but will it be 3g (well 2.5ish here) but anyway....must have good data speeds, I want an iphone that I can tether the macbook pro to and surf at a decent speed.

(yes i have hotspot access and such, but in a remote location this is a great feature I use with my cu500)
 
Cinch said:
This is what Apple should do (and I think they are doing it), don't listen to that engineer down the hall that wears oversize t-shirt and acidwash tapper jean. He shall not have any say on the design and style of a product.
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Cinch, I am there with you. I have been on both sides of the fence, and the worst thing you can have from a business perspective, is engineers trying to define business goals. Can you say the web-bubble? It was a direct result of tech people building a business without business concepts. Of course, there is always the exception, but in general it doesn't work very well.

Ease of use is often in simplicity. And too many functions contradict simplicity. Can you combine some functions, of course you can. But as soon as functions win over functionality, you lost the consumer. It's nice to build a machine that can do everything from a technical perspective, but for business it's better to have a machine that does a few things, but what it does, it does exceptional well.
 
The iPhone is gonna bomb hard

Apple has no incentive to not make this product suck, just like their last few phone integrations. First off, it will only be offered on Cingular - which sucks because everyone admits, even cingular fans, that Verizon has better coverage, quality and speed than the gsm network but Apple has to use gsm because its more international and thus they can dump the product on a european country when they realize they only sold 12,000 units instead of 12,000,000 units.

Plus the whole itunes store concept wont work on a cell phone because you need a connection for it, which there is none on any subway in the country currently and that is where most people are standing around doing nothing and willing to search on their phone for music (try doing that when youre driving or jogging?). Not to mention the price of the phone which will undoubtedly cost more than an iPod and the surcharge on each track you download (because even if cingular doesn't want a cut and thus the price stays at .99 cents a track, you still need to buy an internet plan per month of around 20 bucks, so if you buy 20 tracks one month via your phone, you essentially paid 2 dollars per track instead of 99 cents).

Im a huge apple fan and everything I use is Apple - but this phone is going nowehere, admit it.
 
My opinion is that we are going to see a split in the iPod line.

1. The iPod nano is going to incorporate the phone technology (and presumably iChat) and be released as a the new iPhone. Because of its size its ideal for the phone.

I know some people want PDA's but other people don't. They are too bulky and for a PDA nothing makes sense then a physical QWERTY keyboard. I've had a iPaq HP4150 and stopped using it because it was a pain to carry my mobile phone, ipod and PDA.

2. The iPod Video will converge into the true Video iPod as expected with the full larger screen. This might in the future turn into a PDA with stylus and visual keyboard.

This is in my opinion the logical and simplistic step available for Apple - they will need to seperate the lines - the Video and the Phone.

I would not mind having a simple ipod nano with a phone built-in and carry a true video ipod. When you think about it that is what you are ALREADY doing (think marketing) you are carrying your conventional phone and ipod everywhere anyway.

Thats my 2 cents
 
ironjaw said:
My opinion is that we are going to see a split in the iPod line.

[...]

This is in my opinion the logical and simplistic step available for Apple - they will need to sep[a]rate the lines - the Video and the Phone.
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So you're saying that iPod, the music player, will take backseat feature to the phone and video player? I don't think so. People who want a smaller capacity iPod, (i.e. Nano) would be forced to buy a phone. Not going to happen.

The PhonePod will supplement the iPod line.

-Clive
 
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