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Apple Orders 12 Million iPhones
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Wed Nov 15, 2006 06:04 PM
from the i's-have-it dept.
from the i's-have-it dept.
Waqas writes "Apple has placed an order for 12 million iPhones to be built by a Taiwanese contract manufacturer, according to an analyst citing reports from Asia. The Chinese-language Commercial Times on Wednesday cited Taiwan-based sources within Apple's iPod component supply chain as saying the phone is due to arrive during the first half of next year."
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It's all about the interface (Score:5, Interesting)
For example, about 7 years ago I got a Motorola StarTac. It was the coolest form factor phone at the time, and had a reasonable interface. Each name in my phone directory could have multiple numbers associated with it, with each number having an icon for office, home, cell, etc. When I wanted to call someone, I first selected the name, then the appropriate icon from that person's list. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it worked reasonably well. Now I've got a Motorola RAZR, and they've somehow lost the ability to recognize that a single person can have multiple numbers. If I have office, home, and cell numbers stored for the same person, I get three entries for them, making the full list of names much longer. Not only are phone makers not making steps forward, they're moving backwards.
Given Apple's track record, I'd say they're the most likely candidates to figure out an elegant cell phone interface, and I'm looking forward to the iPhone for that reason alone. If the interface is half decent, I'll be buying one to replace my RAZR.
-JMP
Re:It's all about the interface-My RAZR (Score:4, Interesting)
My beef with the RAZR is its Voice Recognition. While it works, it doesn't understand my preferred terminology. With the V60i, I recorded my own voice tag for selected numbers. That let me refer to a telephone as Name Cell. RAZR only accepts NAME MOBILE. Also for business numbers I used Name Office. The RAZR only understands Name Work.
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Re:It's all about the interface (Score:5, Informative)
In your phone book, choose [menu] -> Setup -> View: Primary Contacts.
Now, every number with a certain associated name will be grouped under that name.
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I wish I had some mod points, I'd reward your excellent post. I really love it when somebody actually offers a solution - without making anyone feel stupid, without jargon - just a simple, straightforward recipe to a fix. Something you almost never find in an online game forum, for example.
I'd been really pissed at my RAZR for not being able to list multiple numbers (and addresses) under one name. You obviously dug a little deeper into the manual than I was willing to go, and you shared the nugge
Re:It's all about the interface (Score:4, Insightful)
Apple know how to build great devices that just work, and if they're working on releasing a phone, well then you can be damned sure they're not going to compromise on making it a good phone just to squeeze iTunes in.
Also, why would they miss an opportunity to sell you a $300 phone that plays music , when they can sell you a $250 phone and a $250 music player
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Yes, I will buy an iPhone, but that's just because I want to be cool. And the Motorola isn't as reli
Re:It's all about the interface (Score:5, Interesting)
I wish they'd make it work better for those of us from the south
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple continue to show other makers how to not overload a music player.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you here, but my iPod has a photo viewer, PIM functionality and games. It's basically like my mobile phone, but without the phone. I don't know of any other MP3 player that is as overloaded with useless features.
Re:It's all about the interface (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:It's all about the interface (Score:4, Informative)
What I meant is that Apple demonstrates that you can resist the urge to overload and clutter the interface, onscreen as well as button count and placement.
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Re:My LG has that multi-number icon deal (Score:4, Funny)
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Clue: SMS text messaging is THE SINGLE BIGGEST thing about cellphones these day, for users and networks.
In 2006 100 million text messages a /day/ in the UK. 25 million a day in Australia, a country of 20 million. Similar in each European country. The worldwide estimate is over 120 BILLION a year.
and now we seee... (Score:5, Insightful)
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The only reason to get a phone from your phone company is they subsidize it so that they can sucker you into those multi-year contracts. Do you save money? Sure, but if Apple REALLY wanted to they could find a way to subsidize their phones as well.
The probably won't. And they won't do it because of people like me. I can honestly say I'd like to have my iPod and phone r
Better them than Microsoft (Score:5, Funny)
Let's just be thankful that they aren't being designed by Microsoft. If they were, you could only talk to other Microsoft phone owners, and every number you called would get blocked after three calls or three days unless you paid extra to get it unlocked...
and it would be BROWN. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Apple is the same way! (Score:5, Informative)
1) a CD
2) a computer (up to 5 with no limits to how many times you play them on there)
3) your iPod which you now can have linked to up to 2 librarys on 2 different computers
Yes you need to strip the DRM to play it on a device that is not supported by fairplay, but if your buying from iTunes then you know this already and its not a issue, as everyone knows iTunes exists to sell the iPod, and your personally ripped tracks stay DRM free (unlike Microsofts which get the 3or3 scheme thrown into them too)
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12 million phones? (Score:4, Insightful)
Just for a reference, Motorola sells around 10 million RAZRs a quarter. I don't think Apple is crazy enough to believe the iPhone is going to be that popular.
Re:12 million phones? (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you kidding? With the i**** brand on it? RAZRs were trendy because they were thin. B.F.D. Being thin doesn't measure up to being an i-something from Apple.
I would be absolutely shocked if it didn't instantly become more trendy and more popular than the RAZR.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I actually would bet Apple does this better on their first try than any of the current manufacturers have been apple to do after over a decade of design.
Apple Product Lifecycle (Score:5, Interesting)
Ouch (Score:3, Insightful)
GSM or CDMA? Which carriers? (Score:3, Interesting)
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Or UMTS [wikipedia.org], the "3G" standard used in most of Europe and Asia.
Most 2.1 GHz UMTS phones also speak GSM, but UMTS would be a great feature as it allows much faster download speeds, which could be handy if you're downloading 128 kb/s AAC song files! It would allow you to download a three minute song in one minute.
The winner for longest-lived Apple rumor... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm thinking the iPhone has to take the cake. What other continuously-running (not off and on, like the buyout/merger rumors) Apple rumor has had legs for this long? The iPhone rumor has been in full force for at least two and a half years [taoofmac.com].
How about SD? (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe I should just start my own company, use someone else's VC to fund it, and if it fails, at least I'll have exactly what I wanted.
Re:How about SD? (Score:4, Interesting)
You can download songs only through the included USB cable. There's no way to transfer iTunes music wirelessly, you can't listen to music through a Bluetooth headset, and you can't use iTunes tracks as ring tones. The strict 100-song storage limit hasn't changed either, and all songs must be saved on the TransFlash card, assuming you haven't filled it up with a lot of other data. And forget the idea of storing more music on the phone's skimpy 5MB of integrated memory--it just isn't possible. So in other words, don't get too excited about circumventing the inadequate 100-song cap. Like the Rokr, the Slvr L7 also connects with only one computer at a time. When we tried connecting to a second computer, the Slvr L7, like the Rokr E1, erased all our previously loaded songs. http://reviews.cnet.com/Motorola_Slvr_L7/4505-645
So it would seem you couldn't just pop in a (micro) SD card with mp3s on it and go. Even worse, it's only USB 1.1.
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So what's the catch? (Score:5, Funny)
My guess is the iPhone will have no "7" button.
Steve hates the number 7.
Re:So what's the catch? (Score:4, Informative)
As for the lack of an FM tuner: that would add bulk to the iPods, and probably wouldn't be used by many users anyway. The iPod plays prerecorded songs and videos; I'm a huge fan of BBC radio but have never missed it whilst listening to my own tracks. In any case, if you really want an FM tuner in your iPod, Apple will gladly sell you one.
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A special kinda stoopid (Score:5, Insightful)
Whoah - not the way to do business with Apple.
Steve Jobs does ... not ... like ... his surprises to leak in advance.
Apple used to leak like a sieve. Everyone knew their product plans before their own salesfolk did. It got so bad sales took a huge hit every time the next big thing was due as everyone put off their orders. Now after Job's return Apple does a few big new introductions at their own MacWorld or at a few specialty shows, the famous "one more thing ..." products. Those are always hugely, obsessively, secret so Apple gets the maximum PR. Heck, everyone in the industry, caring about Apple or not, tracks these just to see what Apple will do next.
The last time someone leaked in a big way it was ATI. The result was 24 hours before the new Mac introductions, with ATI cards, they had their products stripped from the new Macs, all Apple presentations were rescripted to omit references to ATI, Apple marketing materials were quickly remade sans ATI, etc. Apparently ATI were persona non grata at Apple HQ for several months until his Steveness was sufficiently mollified this would never happen again.
Since then other Apple manufacturers have gotten in lower levels of trouble for simply acknowledging large orders had been made by Apple. These are picked up by the local press, which is of course read by everyone in the industry around the world.
But to confirm the long awaited iPhone, a rumor that has been a staple for years from the dingiest Mac rumor site to the NYT, that takes a special kind of stoopid.
My assumption is that as soon as this story started to break a damage control team from the manufacturer to Cupertino. Now the question is if Jobs will go ahead with the rollout or delay it at the last minute. As this is the same man who once had a factory closed down for all of the robots to be repainted, 9 times, 'til he was happy, who has a history of cancelling large projects, I dunno.
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Also, if true, what the iPhone will entail, especially after Disney's recent phone flop.
Re:A special kinda stoopid (Score:5, Insightful)
A leak of a new MacBook would slow down MacBook sales.
A leak of an iPhone would slow sales of competing MP3 cell phones, but not slow much any Apple product. This leak could potentially slow down sales of Sony Ericsson phones.
In fact, Sony Ericsson would benefit from the feature list of the phone, but we don't know anything yet about it. Except that scrollable border patent.
We don't know if we will buy the iPhone... but we WANT information about it so bad that it creates a strong iPhone brand.
-Hey, there, take a look of this new SE/Nokia MP3 cell-phone!
-Buzz off! I want to know about the iPhone first!
Parent
Wish people would get over phone subsidies (Score:5, Interesting)
For one thing, of course there's no such thing as a free phone. You just pay the cost over time through higher call plans. Admittedly, you may get some benefit of scale when the network buys handsets in bulk but there's no reason Apple couldn't do that too. More likely some company will just start offering much cheaper pre-paid SIM plans like everywhere else in the world.
Another thing, the US carrier market is only a minor fraction of the world market. There are 1.5 *billion* handsets in the world. There are around 300M US citizens. Do the math. The European and Asian markets are enormously larger and people there are used to buying unlocked handsets so that they can connect to any network they like. Here in Australia we've had number portability for years.
Lastly, independence from carriers is a *good* thing. We need to stop carriers dictating phone features. I'd like to see a phone that can switch to WiFi when it gets a signal, or peer to peer when I'm close to the person I'm calling. Think the carriers want that? There's no technical reason that phones can't do this today, but the longer the carriers control the phones people buy, the longer it'll take to happen.
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Agreed. IIRC, bundling cell phones with service contracts is actually outlawed in Denmark. The carriers don't get to interfere with phone features and performance, and are forced to compete on an even price footing not muddied by the "deal" you're getting for that fancy phone.
This all reminds me of the bad old days of Ma Bell. For the young 'uns (or just plain forgetful...) the phone company used to own not just the phone line, but the phone, the phone jacks, and the wir
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Re:I remember (Score:5, Funny)
I remember when phones were used to talk to people.
(Git off my lawn!)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's progress!
Re:I remember (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:I remember (Score:5, Funny)
When I were a lad I'd have to walk two hundred miles to the nearest village with my legs tied together with barbed wire, find a rotten apple on the floor near Farmer Bob's apple cart, then take it one thousand miles over broken glass and rusty nails to grandma for her dinner.
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Apple has manufactured still and web cameras, printers, scanners, modems, NICs, displays, etc.
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I have a native OS X application from Sony Ericsson for developing themes for many of their cell phones (my trusty T610 included). With Bluetooth for data transfer, and Apple'OS X's built-in iSync, SMS through the Address Book, Bluetooth File Transfer software, and GPRS dialler support, what more could one need or use?
Yaz.
Yes, but... (Score:3, Funny)
Microsoft is working on a Zune phone that will allow you to record something and send it to someone else with a Zune phone. But they'll only be able to listen to this "message" for three days unless you pay Cingular and Universal Music Group each a dollar.
This new product will be called the "Zone". Microsoft's marketing message will be "Welcome to the Zone".
This "record and recall" feature should be added to the Zune within a year, but look for C|Net News.com to buck the trend and to
Re:How will the iPhone fare? (Score:5, Funny)
It depends if it has more space than Nomad or not.
Parent
Re:I hope they're not too much like the iPod.. (Score:5, Insightful)
The iPod's integrated battery is a *good* thing.
The battery in most iPods will never be replaced, and I actually suspect it wouldn't be even if it were a simple 5-second task. Batteries have gotten good enough that their expected service lifetime can come close to matching the expected usage lifetime of devices they power (yes, some will fail early, but that doesn't mean all or even many will, there are always outliers).
Making a battery user-accessible requires adding latches, contacts, extra layers of plastic casing, and other design compromises that just aren't worth it to facilitate a task that *might* be performed once in a device's lifetime. Those compromises cost the device in terms of money, weight, and ruggedness, all of which could be better allocated enhancing something the user does every day, like listening to music on the go.
If you really want to keep your iPod a couple of years down the road, rather than upgrade to the latest greatest gadget like most people, you *can* still replace the battery, or even have a professional do it for you for a reasonable fee. You just won't have spent the last 700+ days carrying around the means to swap out the battery in your pocket, waiting for the one day when it's ready to be changed.
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Re:My phone (Score:5, Insightful)
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