Right because who needs competition, it does nothing in the marketplace.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Report: Apple Has 'Secret Team' Working on Satellites to Beam Data Directly to iPhones
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Great, because the only way to burn cash faster than bootstrapping a brand new car is to get into space. Tim should be fired, yesterday.
Yeah because all you need is Apple Satellite for a flat fee of $199 a month. No overages!!
What makes you think that?
I've worked in the satellite communication industry for ten years. Communication satellites aren't __that__ expensive anymore; I think the price range currently is somewhere between 100 and 200 million a piece, they're no longer in the billion dollar price range. With Apple's budget, that's peanuts.
However, you don't need to own satellites for that kind of business. You can just rent bandwidth on satellites with footprints over the area where you want to operate (which is what even the big players in the gas and oil industry are doing). Or you just use the already available Iridium or Thuraya satellite networks that were actually designed to work with mobile phones.
There's a lot of stuff that you can do with a satellite link, and there's a lot of stuff where the use of satellites doesn't make sense and where you're better off using other technologies (the round-trip time over satellite links alone is a nightmare; with geostationery satellites, you have an absolute minimum of 600ms latency to consider).
Since nobody knows what they're actually trying to achieve, further discussions are moot at this point.
That's all we need. More bits of junk floating around in space. Aren't there objections to Amazon remarkably similar plan?
What goes up must come down (eventually). We have no control over this stuff. Just wait until the inevitable happens and some of this c r a p hits a manned vehicle...
What goes up must come down (eventually). We have no control over this stuff. Just wait until the inevitable happens and some of this c r a p hits a manned vehicle...
That would not work. They'd lose a gazillion customers and have to become a carrier. That would leave Apple open wo a whole of pain that they could do without.
new Apple Wireless that operates similarly to SATCOM phones used for isolated areas....pretty much taking that technology that's been around for decades and making it modernized.
I personally like that idea of my iPhone relying on SAT signals and not a traditional tower/cellular provider.
The only barrier I foresee would be the consumer cost; but if its less than your Verizons/AT&Ts, sign me up. 90% of the consumers today simply care about price.
I personally like that idea of my iPhone relying on SAT signals and not a traditional tower/cellular provider.
The only barrier I foresee would be the consumer cost; but if its less than your Verizons/AT&Ts, sign me up. 90% of the consumers today simply care about price.
1. Instead of constantly copying Elon Musk (electric cars, autonomous vehicles, now this) maybe just give him $100.000.000.000 and make a CEO?
2. Write such an article, not to mention SpaceX, which is already the largest satellite operator in the world, and by the end of 2020 will have almost 2000 satellites around the Earth... Not bad, really not bad /s
Apple, just like with EV and FSD, started this fun too late. The competition that is already building competition for SpaceX Starlink is far behind them, Apple can't impose such an iterative approach as Musk companies.
2. Write such an article, not to mention SpaceX, which is already the largest satellite operator in the world, and by the end of 2020 will have almost 2000 satellites around the Earth... Not bad, really not bad /s
Apple, just like with EV and FSD, started this fun too late. The competition that is already building competition for SpaceX Starlink is far behind them, Apple can't impose such an iterative approach as Musk companies.
If Apple satellite is the only option without other competitors sending data, I’ll pass. I’m fine with using the current cellular service.
Apple has a dedicated research team looking into new ways to beam data like internet connectivity directly to iPhones and other devices, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
....
According to the report, Apple's main aim is to beam data to a user's iPhone, potentially reducing the dependence on wireless carriers, [/quote] Errr. That isn't anywhere in the Bloomberg article at all.
"... striving to find new ways to beam data such as internet connectivity directly to its devices, according to people familiar with the work. ..."
That is a pretty big leap from their devices into iPhone. It is an easy leap if view Apple almost exclusively as a iPhone company but Apple makes several different kinds of devices that are bigger and less mobile than the iPhone. Furthermore, maybe it would be a good thing for Apple not to be so skewed on one single device type on revenues.
The major problem with the iPhone is that these satellites ( even the "low" flying ones ) are going to be 300-800 miles ( 500-1,000km ) away. Transmit to them how at high Internet bandwidth with your ultimately thin iPhone ?
Perhaps something like the return of AirPort ( SatPort ) that sits in a house plugged into the wall with a external peripheral that points to the sky?
More precise tracking than GPS ... so what can do better home made in your basement guided weapons ? And how about those FCC health limits of power less than an inch from your body?
Apple already is deploying UWB in the phones. Extremely fined grained location doesn't need to be "beamed down" from a satellite at all.
there are three creditable networks going up.
Proposed networks here.
Satellite constellation - Wikipedia
OneWeb , Starlink , and Kuiper/Amazon ( the last no test cubestats in orbit but bankrolled with serious money )
One move for Apple would be to make something that could work for all three. Not betting on any one service ( just like didn't bet on any one cellular service for the phone). Create a "sat-port" ( maybe with solar accessory) and deploy Internet content out over the planet (more customers more growth).
These massive multiple 1,000 sat constellations ... there is a cap on the reasonable number of these that can fly. At some point there is going to be way too much junk ( and there is hand waving explanations of how these mega operators are going to avoid junk but they are all likely self serving... yet another 49er environmental boondoggle drivers here also. ) . The real missing piece is how to increase competition between the small handfull of operators. If Apple can crack that then that may pay off from them.
Becoming yet another operator clogging up the sky with junk ... not so much.
Until Apple themselves decide to cut off internet access to people because its use violates the company's guidelines and local laws. Apple will then issue a statement like
"We created the Apple iSatellite to be a safe and trusted point of connectivity. We have learned that it has been used in ways that endanger law enforcement and residents in Hong Kong. Many concerned customers in Hong Kong have contacted us about this and we immediately began investigating it. Use of the iSatellite allows protesters to obtain police locations and we have verified with the Hong Kong Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau that the iSatellite has been used to target and ambush police, threaten public safety, and criminals have used it to victimize residents in areas where they know there is no law enforcement. Use of the iSatellite in such manner violates our guidelines and local laws, and we have removed access to it."
Because something similar has happened before. See https://www.macrumors.com/2019/10/10/apple-pulls-hkmap-from-app-store-china-criticism/
This is a typical Mark Gurman story: a kernel of truth, but a narrative spun around it based on little actual knowledge.
We already have ways to "beam data directly to iPhones", name cellular and wireless networking (not to mention Bluetooth and NFC). Doing so via satellite will compete poorly with any of those, because the latency will inevitably be much higher. It's not physically possible to make satellite Internet anywhere near as smooth as, say, LTE.
So that can't be the story at all. Apple almost certainly has engineers researching satellite technology, and they might be using it to help in scenarios where other network coverage is poor, slow, censored, or otherwise problematic. So they might be using it to assist.
So, a fallback? Could be. But a primary way to "beam data"? No. The user experience would be garbage.
We already have ways to "beam data directly to iPhones", name cellular and wireless networking (not to mention Bluetooth and NFC). Doing so via satellite will compete poorly with any of those, because the latency will inevitably be much higher. It's not physically possible to make satellite Internet anywhere near as smooth as, say, LTE.
So that can't be the story at all. Apple almost certainly has engineers researching satellite technology, and they might be using it to help in scenarios where other network coverage is poor, slow, censored, or otherwise problematic. So they might be using it to assist.
So, a fallback? Could be. But a primary way to "beam data"? No. The user experience would be garbage.
I'm not sure how the speeds could be faster. You still have to the round-trip latency issues as all Satellite ISP's deal with. You still need a ground station that serves as the up-link and down-link between you and the satellite.
It's an interesting idea, but data going back and forth 22K miles (one direction) still takes time.
Bandwidth could also be a problem, but can be fixed by launching even satellites.
Latency, however, is not fixable. It'll be hundreds of milliseconds.