Tim Coughlin's Blog

Apple Should Release the iPod phone Based on VoIP

I was reading this article over at Slashdot ( http://slashdot.org/~Eugenia%20Loli/journal/125773 ) after the author sent me her link and it got me thinking. Apple should build a VoIP based phone and market it as a convergence device with the iPod. This would be a fantastic idea and it really fits the bill as far as Apple’s typical business practices go.

This is an emerging market in which Apple could be a big fish and essentially take control as it did with the iPod and portable music. As it stands there are only a couple of players, the main one being Skype which does not have the marketing power or user base that Apple garners. It is also a market with enormous growth potential and one which allows Apple to do an end run around the mobile phone networks, without actually competing with them. As a byproduct, with the iPod phone having WiFi built in, it would allow for wireless music downloading at no extra cost and the use of said music as ringtones, a massive market on its own among the younger age groups.

I envision an iPod nano style device but slightly thicker, including 1Gb of storage (is this where the iPod shuffle 1Gb has disappeared?), WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 (wireless headphones and mic combo) and all the functionality the iPod already has. As for input I would either see a ring of buttons (think Nokia 3650) or maybe just the iPod clickwheel, using the numbers already saved by Address book and a more rudimentary input for new numbers.

By marketing this device under the iPod brand Apple would gain a number of advantages. The first would be the halo effect the name has, getting it a great deal of press and recognition among consumers. The second would be that people would not expect the handset to be subsidized as they do with phones, because its an iPod ... right. Last, it could keep the form factor the iPod already uses, giving it a cool and clean look when compared to most other handsets.

This would be an ideal time for a product launch like this with the density of WiFi ever increasing in cities and Google well on the way to building free WiFi networks all over the shop. Because many homes also have WiFi now it kicks the land line phone operators into touch too. Admittedly WiFi coverage is nowhere near that of the cell phone networks as it stands, but thats what makes this plan so perfect. Because this would be an iPod, Apple can plug this as its primary use. VoIP could be a cool extra like video or photo .. for now. But in 5 years WiMax will be as popular as WiFi now but the coverage will be exponentially larger. By then all iPods will have this functionality with their wireless headsets and Apple would truly be placed to take the telecommunications industry by storm.

Intel Based Macs Likely @ Macworld? (Intel to Ship 1 million 'Core Duo' Chips in 3 Weeks)

This is only a short entry. I was reading the notes from endgaget of the Intel Keynote at CES today. In it naturally they refer to the Core Duo, widely expected to be the chip which makes it into Apple’s first Intel computers. About 1/4 way down the article is the quote:

"Core Duo is our first new brand since Pentium.  It's about three times smaller than Pentium, about the size of a dime .. it is the world's lowest power dual-core processor.  We'll ship the millionth Core Duo in three weeks."

Now, I am not that familiar with how many chips Intel expects to sell each month, but a million of these relatively high end chips available in three weeks suggests some volume customers. People like Dell have only their highest spec laptop shipping with the chip (Inspiron E1705) and I am sure the other big manufacturers are the same. Is this an indication that Apple will be getting quite a number of these chips? They would be a volume customer as it is expected the chip will make it into all the portable line up, the Mac mini and possibly the iMac too.

Anyone with more insight into whether this number could hold any significance please let me know below. I may be way off with this assumption and the number of 1 million chips may in fact serve to discredit ideas of an Intel intro at Macworld. Anyway, 4 days and counting!

iWeb to form Part of iLife ‘06? What is the Mystery App?

Apple briefly had a link to iLife ‘06 posted on its website earlier today which indicated the existence of a new App called iWeb. Since its discovery the website has reverted to showing the current iLife suite and any reference to iWeb has disappeared.

It is no surprise that iLife ‘06 will be released this year, after all there has been a new version each year for a bit now. I was wondering what Apple would add to the bundle this time around to make it a must have purchase for the masses. After all, a revision to the current programs would be nice, but it is questionable if it would be compelling enough to garner enough interest for most iLife ‘05 users to upgrade. So could iWeb be the next killer app getting us all reaching for our wallets?

The question is, if indeed iWeb does exist, what functionality it would offer. The name itself in non-specific enough to leave the potential field of operation wide open. However, its easy to speculate where Apple could be going with this app. So here is a possible feature list, certainly features I would like to see included:

1) A web design tool : I would see this as a basic design tool, offering similar options to those I have available on the web based client for this Typepad account. It is likely that there will be a number of pre designed templates a la Pages, which can then be tweaked with colours and fonts. Once sorted, the software will link to a .Mac account or other webspace for publishing. This would encompass all the usual features such as blogging and photo uploading. It would be nice to have the feature of adding iTunes links built in (with the ability to make some money off being an affilate) but this seems unlikely.

2) A podcast delivery tool: this is quite likely as podcasts have become a large part of the iTunes experience for many and Garage band already has the functionality to create said podcasts. This is a feature I would see being streamlined in garageband itself to make it more intuitive to achieve, and to allow the two apps to talk together easily.

3) A vidcast delivery tool: as above but linking to iMovie instead. This could be important for Apple as vidcasts are ideal content for the iPod, being about the right length and with quality of video not being a major concern.

Options 2 and 3 would have seamless integration with iTunes, make the process of uplading your work even easier.

4) A .Mac frontend: I am not a .Mac subscriber myself so I am not familiar with the way the accounts currently work. I do often hear that .Mac is underwhelming to say the least, so maybe iWeb will become the software which will change all this around, linking the above three functions as well as the iCal and Address book functionality into one easy to use package.

I’m sure there are other possible uses as well. If anyone has any interesting thoughts, post them below. Anyway, its not long before we find out if this is a reality or not. MW is just around the corner!

Apple Being Left out in the Cold by Partners

Over the last few weeks Apple has been left increasingly isolated in the music business. First Motorola decided to stop selling an iTunes compatible phone in favour of its own service. Then, this week HP has broken off all ties to the company, replacing iTunes on its PCs with Real’s music service. The latter decision was expected following HP’s decision to stop selling their own branded iPod devices after it showed very disappointing sales.

The question is, what difference will this make in the long run. The less important of the two announcements is HPs. The key to this business as it stands is the iPod and irrespective of what ships on people’s PCs as the default music player iTunes will prevail because ‘iPod people’ will install it themselves. It may make a very minor difference to Apple by preventing people who do not use the iPod discovering iTunes as a way of consuming music. This market is not particularly important though, because the main revenue stream in the business is the iPod itself, not the music sold through iTunes (Apple set it up this way because they know they are the only end to end provider of music services, thereby shafting all the other companies trying to enter the market).

The fact Moto has broken ties is more troubling. I say this because it is impossible to ignore that people will increasingly want to listen to music through their mobile, either because they do not want to carry two devices or because they cannot afford to buy both (think the younger end of the market). However, Apple has the option of making this news irrelevant, should they choose to release their own iPhone (a possible reason for the obviously rocky relationship Moto and Apple have had over the iTunes phone since the outset). The key here would be find a mobile carrier who would work with you on a phone allowing iTunes music to be used as ringtones - admittedly a difficult sell. The second possibility would be for Apple to sell the handset at full cost as part of the iPod family, and make it possible to accept sim cards from any of the networks. The latter would work here in the UK I believe, but I am not sure if this is viable in the US where it seems your mobile networks are very different.

Either way Apple is going to have to be careful that it does not become too isolated, because in the end the risk is Microsoft will win through a war of attrition.

Musings on the iTunes Movie Store

Looking at recent developments I believe I can guess at where Apple will go with the iTunes Movie Store. I’m not an insider however and this is all purely speculation, but it would make sense from many viewpoints.

This week we heard that Apple upgraded the bandwidth on .Mac accounts to 1Tb. 1Tb, thats huge! So the question to ask would be what could possibly need that kind of bandwidth? The natural answer is that in the near future Apple will be pushing video streams through broadband into peoples’ homes. This is the natural conclusion which everyone is coming to, but it leaves one significant question. How will this link in with the iPod. One assumes that because the video is streamed it will not be stored locally on a users computer thereby leaving the iPod out of the loop.

At the same time however, it does answer the critics questions about the quality of the video Apple is offering. With a streaming service in place, using h.264, Apple could significantly up the quality of the video to the extent it would look great on large wide screen TVs. This is critical in my view, as quite frankly the downloads available currently are fine for the iPod, but thats about it.

This leads me to believe Apple will offer a dual video service.

The first element will indeed be a high quality video streaming subscription service coupled with an upgraded Mac mini unit, or more likely an Airport express : video. I believe that both of these products will appear, but I think an upgraded Airport will be first. The main reason for this is that it will be a hard sell if people have to buy a computer to gain access to the videos. I see more opportunity for Apple if they give away a small unit to plug into the TV with every subscription, using their computer as the main control point. The Mac was always meant to be the digital hub after all.

The second element will be a download service implemented as it is currently in the US, providing the iPod link. This will probably not encompass feature length movies, but will instead be a vehicle for TV shows and music videos. I believe that the movie studios are reluctant to allow users to download movies onto local storage because of their fear of piracy. It also explains the relatively poor battery life for video playback on the current iPod. The 30Gb would barely show a whole movie. It does however comfortably play back a few music videos and a TV show or two, with some battery spare for music.

Between these two services Apple would have all the bases covered. People will watch movies, TV shows and music videos on their TVs, wirelessly streamed from their computer. Then, should they want to purchase TVs shows or music videos they could transfer them to the iPod and run.

The only question remaining is, will the streaming video service include the TV shows and music videos currently available to buy individually? My guess is that TV shows will be available to buy or stream, movies only to stream, and music videos only to buy. We shall see. Anyways, those are my thoughts, let me know what you think.

[UPDATE]
As pointed out by xavier below (thanks!) it has recently been stated that the .Mac bandwidth upgrade was a mistake. ( http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060103085453163 ). It could be that Apple is trying to build up hype for Macworld with a stunt to spark speculation in the media. Any ideas?