Quote:
Originally Posted by HOM
Apple's 'magic' these days is finding an emerging market and solving some of the big outstanding issues that keep the products from reaching mass market. I don't see what problem with mobile phones Apple is going to solve.
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This is a very good point. I would say that the one issue with phones is that phone companies make so many of them and they are released so often, different phones from the same company often compete with one another, or have nearly identical features and both get outdated in a few months. On top of that, some phones are clearly designed to be replaced to maximize the companies profit. They give you a fancy looking phone for free to get you on the contract but they know that you'll be lucky to get a year of use out of the phone despite all it's features and capabilities, it is cheaply made, so you end up having to buy a new one.
Of course, this is largely a problem with the mainstream phone market, more expensive, business class phones are often built to last, and the clientele usually gets upgrades with their company or through some other venue anyway.
So, what Apple can do is produce a phone that is cheap enough for 'the rest of us' but quality enough for the high end market.
If the rumors are true about 25 million units, then despite what 'class' of phone this might be, Apple is probably shooting for RAZR territory, i.e. mainstream full tilt.
So, If Apple makes a phone that is business/high-end caliber and markets/sells it to the justin timberlake fan club, they will probably be in a very good position to secure the portion of the market they are looking for.
The other thing to consider is that a move into making a phone might not be entirely profit driven, and Apple might have some other 'ace' as it were that will require a leg on the phone market to fully function, similar to the iTunes/iPod phenomenon. I don't know what that might be though, haven't really thought about it.