Will Apple Become Your Next Carrier?

[Howmander]

The iPhone is a success MobileMe was a failure it offered nothing new and better free services were available such as gmail also most people did not want to pay for something they could get for free. I was a MobileMe and @mac user they were bad services apple did the right thing by cutting them and moving onto iCloud I have had over a year of warning to move my files and websites and found much better free alternatives. Apples mvno network would be a big successs and no other good alternative would exist if they could iCloud's every major provider in the us plus imagine if they were able to do it worldwide being able to land in any country turn on your phone and start making calls and surfing the web without worry of extra fees etc if anyone could do it it would be Apple.

Explain HOW MobileMe was even remotely a failure? It does exactly the same thing as iCloud (sans webhosting) and yes people had to pay for it (ooh, $8 a month essentially. I spend more than that on itunes, big frickin deal. People need to stop being cheap) but other than that, how is it a failure and icloud isn't? They're the same thing! How do people not see this?

[Telekom]

Are you ready to ditch AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint to receive your wireless service directly from Apple? An industry expert says Apple will soon be providing wireless plans directly to iPad and iPhone users by becoming a mobile virtual network operator.

According to 9to5Mac, wireless industry analyst Whitey Bluestein made a presentation that outlined how Apple will directly provide wireless service to customers.

As a MVNO, Apple would not own the wireless spectrum, but contract with an operator to obtain access for a bulk rate. Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile are examples of two MVNOs in the United States.

Here's a link to the full story:

http://appadvice.com/appnn/2012/05/e...rvice-directly

I hope this happens if Apple can provide an ala carte service for voice, text & data buckets.

The thing that's not mentioned is that an MVNO uses one of the established networks. As we've seen countless times being an MVNO (at least in the US) is hardly a sure thing. There are plenty of dead bodies of failed MVNOs (Disney/ESPN and others) and in fact another one (Túyo Mobile) just died on April 30. Making money while paying huge amounts to the network you're using bleeds a lot of money from your business. Virgin Mobile would probably be gone if it were not for the fact that Sprint (whose network they were using for connectivity) actually bought Virgin Mobile. MVNO's sound great but don't always make the big bucks with the exception of outfits like TracFone and Net10 which has the world's richest man Carlos Sim as owner. Off hand I don't know what TracFone/Net10's financials are but I do know that many companies who have dipped their feet into the MVNO thing have found that it's not the money maker they perhaps at the outset thought it was.

[Telekom]

They should buy spectrum and roll out their own network at least it would be 50times more reliable.

And you know about this reliability just how? Considering that they've never run a network it's prescient that you should make this statement.

[daleraver]

I agree that MVNO's are not a sure thing for turning a profit. That said, Carlos Slim's network, American Movil also includes Straight Talk in addition to the brands listed. I have one ST account, and follow the HoFo ST forum. It seems there are a lot of users who gladly pay $45 a month to have the AT&T service that would otherwise cost $80-$100+ per month.

I imagine a large percentage of these users would switch in a heartbeat if Apple gets this off the ground. I can only speculate that Apple would roll out a package that was comparable to the quality of their other product lines to maintain their high customer satisfaction ratings.

[Airforcekid]

Explain HOW MobileMe was even remotely a failure? It does exactly the same thing as iCloud (sans webhosting) and yes people had to pay for it (ooh, $8 a month essentially. I spend more than that on itunes, big frickin deal. People need to stop being cheap) but other than that, how is it a failure and icloud isn't? They're the same thing! How do people not see this?

No one used it you can have the greatest service in the world but if it does not get enough users it's a failure when I had my @me everyone else was either gmail or yahoo even today most people opt out of apples email and just use the backup and sync functions.

[Doolie]

No one used it you can have the greatest service in the world but if it does not get enough users it's a failure when I had my @me everyone else was either gmail or yahoo even today most people opt out of apples email and just use the backup and sync functions.

Saying, "No one used it" is kind of a stretch. Plenty of people used it. I even used it for a while. Apple decided to make it a free service and integrate it into the OS more.

[ceredon]

Saying, "No one used it" is kind of a stretch. Plenty of people used it. I even used it for a while. Apple decided to make it a free service and integrate it into the OS more.

But it certainly didn't gain and major traction the way their free competitors did.

Besides making it free, they also put it on steroids. MobileMe has no APIs for third party apps to utilize directly, couldn't sync media between devices, couldn't do OTA system backups or restores, couldn't do live OTA activation. etc, etc, etc. MobileMe was a failure in terms of gaining significant traction in the market place. iCloud has all the pieces to do so. iCloud isn't so much a free MobileMe as much as MobileMe was an immature, underdeveloped, paid, small subset of what iCloud is.

And yes, while MobileMe wasn't expensive, free will often win out, especially when free alternatives were more functional in many ways.

[Doolie]

But it certainly didn't gain and major traction the way their free competitors did.

Besides making it free, they also put it on steroids. MobileMe has no APIs for third party apps to utilize directly, couldn't sync media between devices, couldn't do OTA system backups or restores, couldn't do live OTA activation. etc, etc, etc. MobileMe was a failure in terms of gaining significant traction in the market place. iCloud has all the pieces to do so. iCloud isn't so much a free MobileMe as much as MobileMe was an immature, underdeveloped, paid, small subset of what iCloud is.

And yes, while MobileMe wasn't expensive, free will often win out, especially when free alternatives were more functional in many ways.

MobileMe started out as free.

[ceredon]

MobileMe started out as free.

Nope.

If you want to go way, way back, then yes, as iTools, it started as free. But since being reborn as .Mac and then MobileMe it has ben a paid service.

[jarrodpd]

And you know about this reliability just how? Considering that they've never run a network it's prescient that you should make this statement.

Well with the huge lump sums of money they have they will buy the most reliable equipment and will hire someone who is extremely good with mobile network technology. Also the things that have been happening to verizons network for over a year they would have that solved fast, when people finally found a way to infect macs with a virus they had a fix out for it in about a week.

[mandrsn1]

They could allow other devices however non iPhones get 10 minutes of talk 10 texts and 10kbs of data go over and your phone is banned also it must take a triangular sim card.

That is the exact kind of stuff the FCC is working to prevent.

[every1nosme]

Well with the huge lump sums of money they have they will buy the most reliable equipment and will hire someone who is extremely good with mobile network technology. Also the things that have been happening to verizons network for over a year they would have that solved fast, when people finally found a way to infect macs with a virus they had a fix out for it in about a week.

Mvno's use the equipment of the carrier they purchase time from, they have no control over things like tower placement and capacity.

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[jarrodpd]

Mvno's use the equipment of the carrier they purchase time from, they have no control over things like tower placement and capacity.

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Did you not read my original post?

[Doolie]

Nope.

If you want to go way, way back, then yes, as iTools, it started as free. But since being reborn as .Mac and then MobileMe it has ben a paid service.

Ah okay. I remember .Mac accounts. Yup. I had a free trial. I think it was like 90 days, 3 months or something.

[every1nosme]

Did you not read my original post?

I apologize for misinterpreting you. The discussion had split into two different directions; 1: apple buys there own spectrum and 2: theybecome an mvno. I assumed wrongly that you were on the mvno train of thought.

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