Filed under: Macworld, One More Thing
WSJ reporting Apple-Cingular deal on phone
A loyal friend of TUAW sent us the heads up that the Wall Street Journal is running with the story (subscribers only) confirming an Apple-branded phone featuring Cingular service, to be launched "as early as Tuesday." As soon as we get a look at the full story we'll summarize it up. Time to mark your bingo cards everyone...Update: Reader Tony B. shot us the text of the full story. Aside from the confirmation of the deal, there's not much else that hasn't already been discussed. There is one paragraph that departs from the usual cautious and conservative WSJ style:
"Several recent analyst reports forecast that Apple would sell millions of phones within a few years, bringing in billions of dollars in revenue. Some analysts go even further, predicting the impact of an Apple cellphone on wireless carriers, chip makers and other parts suppliers."
Apparently this writer is confusing Steve Jobs with The Brain:
"What are we going to do this year, Steve?"
"The same thing we do every Macworld, Phil Schiller... try to take over the world!"
Thanks JMC!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jonny A said 9:36PM on 1-08-2007
Yeah the iPhone is old news... We want VR sunglasses!
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LittleJoe said 9:37PM on 1-08-2007
Ahhhhhhhhhhh! But my Verizon contract still has a couple more months! Noooooo! $200 fee here I come!
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Nacio said 10:35PM on 1-08-2007
NOOOO! i quit cingular to get the sidekick, cut the contract! now i have 2 Years on t-mobile... oh well ill just wait for newton millennium edition.
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Jon H. said 10:07PM on 1-08-2007
So it's pretty much confirmed.
Ugh.
Am I the only one who's *not* looking forward to the so-called iPhone? It would be Apple doing exactly what we expect them to do; how un-Apple like. Granted the stage (meaning the market) is set, just like the stage was set for the iPod 5 years ago.
Apple to the rescue...
He could bring back Abraham Lincoln, Beethoven, Genghis Khan, Joan of Arc, Socrates, and Billy the Kidd for the Stevenote and maybe then I'd be impressed about the iPhone. --Though I am looking forward to that still-TBA Leopard feature.
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Rudi said 10:28PM on 1-08-2007
Sigh - another carrier-limited Apple phone. Ugh.
If they want the thing to be successful, they need to make it both globally standard (think GSM) and carrier agnostic.
Call me a bitter T-Mobile customer who will never, ever go back to Cingular.
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John P. said 10:30PM on 1-08-2007
http://mobileburn.com/news.jsp?Id=2997&source=ARCHIVE
:D
I'm SURE it isn't this phone Cingular will be demonstrating.
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Chris said 10:35PM on 1-08-2007
So wait? It'll have one-way video calling? You can't see the other person?
Still, I'll take that if that's all I can get :-)
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LittleJoe said 10:45PM on 1-08-2007
"Am I the only one who's *not* looking forward to the so-called iPhone? It would be Apple doing exactly what we expect them to do; how un-Apple like."
Apple-snobs. The reason I avoided apple for so many years.
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Jason said 10:47PM on 1-08-2007
Funny. I'm about to use the SMS text messaging fee increase (and they're charging for incoming now, too!) to get out of my current contract with Cingular... I was hoping to move back to T-Mobile. So I was really wanting this to be an unlocked phone with no carrier required. Ah, well, maybe I'll cut a new contract with Cingular after all. Depends on how good the phone is. If it's crippled like the Motorola iTunes-capable ones were, obviously no dice.
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Leonard Nimrod said 11:01PM on 1-08-2007
I'm with all of you. I hated Cingular and will NEVER go back to them, even if they are the only ones offering an Apple iPhone. T-Mobile would great, the other carriers I would do as I have no experience with them, but Cingular is a big "Hell no!" from me.
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Steve said 11:22PM on 1-08-2007
That's it - WSJ is gospel. This is incredible for me as I'm on Cingular and month-to-month. Halle-f'n-lujah. Sorry guys, but maybe it's just a 6-month exclusive, so don't get too down.
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Torbert said 11:21PM on 1-08-2007
You'd think an industry news site like yours could pony up for the WSJ subscription. You just wait around for a reader to tip you on stuff like this?
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Mike Rose said 11:40PM on 1-08-2007
Torbert: This is what happens when 60% of the bloggers are at a pre-Macworld dinner in San Francisco... they don't let me play with the big kid toys. :-)
I get the print WSJ at the day job but I didn't have the subscription label here to sign in!
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samfish said 12:16AM on 1-09-2007
God, I hope this isn't true. I've been on Cingular before and while they could never EVER be as bad as AT&T was, I was still pretty unhappy with them.
I REALLY hope that they release an unlocked phone...y'know- like how every other country on Earth does it...
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Jason said 2:32AM on 1-09-2007
Yeah, Cingular is the crap. We tried to get out of our contract with the text messaging hike and got nothing but excuses thrown back in our faces. The big one they are going with is that text messaging is not a service and we don't have to use it. Also, no one at Cingular offered us ANY compensation for our grief. Nothing at all. No 200 free text messages or anything like that. Not even apologies. I even got a call from the (supposed) president after I filed a complaint. He said they could block incoming and/or outgoing messages if we wanted after I told him we can't control if others send us messages and we get charged for incoming, too. He also didn't offer anything when I told him their messaging plans are twice as much as other carriers.
Cingular is the worst cell phone carrier I have associated with. I was really bummed when they took over AT&T and really wish I hadn't signed up with them again. One more year on this contract, then me and the fiance are on to T-Mobile. iPhone be damned.
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