Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Rumors, Apple
Uncle Walt says Apple is working on an iPhone
Walt Mossberg, Uncle Walt to me, is the top tech journalist without a doubt. When he says something in his Wall Street Journal column people pay attention. Contrast that with the fact that when I say something on TUAW I am often mocked until I cry.Now, Walt's most recent column is all about how Apple's model of controlling the device from end to end is the way to go. Not too newsworthy, in and of itself, however, that's not the bit that has the Mac web all aflutter. Here's the juicy bit, 'Now, Apple is working on other projects built on the same end-to-end model as the iPod: a media-playing cellphone and a home-media hub.'
OMG! WALT JUST SPILLED THE BEANS! iPHONE! iPHONE!
Everyone just calm down. Take a deep breath. Ok, good. Now, I don't know if Walt has some inside information (he probably does), but I can assure you that it doesn't take insider knowledge to figure out that Apple is working on an iPhone and a media hub. The real question is: will it ever be released? Apple works on all kinds of nifty gear in their R&D labs, many of which never see the light of day.
With all that said, wouldn't an Apple cellphone be pretty cool?
Thanks, Brendan.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
kevin said 11:19AM on 5-11-2006
my friend, mac, says that the new iphone will be called the "macphone"
Reply
kevin said 11:21AM on 5-11-2006
he also said something about the media hub called "machub"
but i didn't understand him over the megaphone
Reply
Jordan said 11:29AM on 5-11-2006
My biggest problem with North American cell phones; their user interfaces.
I my opinion, the menu system on my Razr is atrocious.
If they could give the "iPhone" a GUI like the iPod, or OS X I would actually enjoy fooling around with a cell phone.
Reply
bryan ribas said 11:38AM on 5-11-2006
This is what I have been waiting on to upgrade my girl friends phone to. I just got windows smart phone :( so I have to wait some time b4 i can get a new one. I hope it come out sooner then later.
Reply
Jeremy said 11:40AM on 5-11-2006
I hope you will follow this journalist :). I'm interested how this iPhone will look like. Like iPod or like simple cellphone?
Reply
narco said 11:42AM on 5-11-2006
Don't sweat it Scott, we all love you.
Fishes,
narco.
Reply
Chris Hagood said 11:57AM on 5-11-2006
@ #2
it depends on who your provider is,
i have cingular and i like the interface that moto provides
verizon on the other hand installs their own software on there RAZR's and the interface is horrible
Reply
yuvamani said 12:00PM on 5-11-2006
He also mentions that the xbox team is working on a iPod competitor ... Huh ???
Normally I would have dismissed all this as think secret type rumour mongering but then it IS walt.
BTW could he have meant the rockr as the iphone and the mini as the digital hub?
Reply
Jacques Lema said 12:01PM on 5-11-2006
I'd definitely get one. Due to my job I had lots and lots of cell phones. Most of them had an mp3 player with good capacities (512mb to 2gb) . The mp3 player GUI ranged from decent (sony) to miserable (nokia).
I once hoped that some day some one would make a phone's gui so clean and efficient as an iPod. Now that I own a nano, the only thing I would like is to see just a little phone functionality added to it.
Reply
stefan said 12:02PM on 5-11-2006
Yeah verizon?s GUI on the razr is the worst thing ever. I got the phone for all of its options, only to find that it had the same interface as my old phone :-( Bluetooth= crippled. No sailing clicker support, o my.
Reply
justin said 12:03PM on 5-11-2006
"the menu system on my Razr is atrocious."
Moto's UIs have always been atrocious. If you ask me it's only a few American companies that actually know how to do a good UI. I'm actually loving the UI on my Helio phone - it was designed by the guys at Danger. Heavy graphics, great UI sounds, easy to use and navigate... =D
Reply
Andrew Dunlop said 12:12PM on 5-11-2006
Before it happens I would like to make a prediction based on years of experience,
This iPhone or MacPhone or MacPhone Pro will probably be designed 1st for an American market. This will probably mean that it will use some "standard" used in America rather than one that the rest of the world uses.
I hope apple don't make this mistake and also I hope that they go for a 3G option and not just 2G.
Reply
Steve Martin said 12:48PM on 5-11-2006
I have it on very good authority that the Apple "iphone" is done and will be released through the Cingular network. No details about the actual phone, just someone who works at Radio Shack heard the news on the sly from her Cingular rep a few weeks ago.
Reply
BobbyW said 1:06PM on 5-11-2006
Radio Shack. That's a good source.
Reply
kevin said 1:23PM on 5-11-2006
my friend, mac, says thats wrong
Reply
SubGenius said 1:50PM on 5-11-2006
I hope they have an iPhone like the iPod shuffle.
No bells and whistles...just a great phone thats easy to use.
I also hope they make a phone like the iPod video.
Lots of bells and whistles but still easy to use because of the great iPod GUI.
Oh and a bluetooth headset that doesn't make you look like a tool.
Reply
Mark Gould said 2:05PM on 5-11-2006
I don't think a phone is likely, given the need to deal with a huge number of different network providers (and a smaller number of different communications standards) worldwide. (A US-only product doesn't strike me as likely, either.)
How about an Apple/Motorola joint venture, where Apple do the UI and apps, leaving Moto to cover the hardware (perhaps Apple could lend them some industrial designers as well)? Remember that Symbian, which makes the OS and software for a variety of phones, including Nokia, started as a JV between three phone manufacturers and Psion. (Motorola was one of the original joint venturers, but now just licenses the OS.)
Reply
SubGenius said 2:06PM on 5-11-2006
yuvamani, The XBOX team is working on a portable XBOX which will be more of a competitor to the PSP and Nintendo DS than it is to the iPod.
In typical Microsoft fashion this device will probably be a swiss army knife/jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none deal.
I wouldn't loose any sleep over it if I were Steve.
Reply
Doogs said 2:11PM on 5-11-2006
"Oh and a bluetooth headset that doesn't make you look like a tool."
I'm pretty sure that's impossible.
Reply
Guilhas said 2:34PM on 5-11-2006
The only problem about the iPhone strategy might be the need of a partner for the telecom stuff, similar to what Sony did with Ericsson. Apart from that I believe Iphone is the only possible way out for the Ipod dilema: why should I have an Ipod if my phone can store music and video and of course make calls?
Let's think different and big: how about a PDA style Ipod, Mac OsX mobile with iCal and Mail real sync, touchscreen and phone capabilities? Of course PDA business is getting saturated but wouldn't this be really cool?
Reply