We’re at the end of the 2011 iPhone 5 launch. The demos went well; Steve Jobs has come back on stage to thank everyone and conclude the proceedings, “…but before you go, just One More Thing. I’d like you to meet someone.” And the CEO of Deutsche Telekom walks onstage. “Deutsche Telekom owns a company you know as T-Mobile USA, but let’s start calling it by its new name: Apple Wireless.”
An audible gasp — louder than the one when Jobs announced the $499 price for the iPad – and then the room erupts in applause. At long last, iPhone users will enjoy the level of carrier service and support that is their birthright.
This is fiction, of course, wishful thinking. But bear with me…
The idea came up during a “what if” conversation with my wife Brigitte, while walking along University Avenue in Palo Alto. What should Apple do with its almost beyond comprehension $76B in cash? The COO of the Gassée family is creative and practical, an abstract painter turned “lumber VAR”–she builds or rebuilds houses in Palo Alto. She’s not enthralled by technology and takes a utilitarian view of computers, phones, navigation systems, tablets…an attitude that provides a useful counterpoint to my sometimes overly-enthusiastic embrace of anything that computes.
She immediately nixes a big acquisition that could dilute Apple’s culture, an aspect of the company that’s integrally important to Steve. She has no interest in financial engineering and concludes that Apple will continue to make small acquisitions that pose few cultural challenges–but small buyouts won’t solve the cash “problem”. What to do with all that money?
As we chat, we walk by the wireless carrier stores: T-Mobile, a couple AT&T retailers (one is shutting down), Verizon and, next to the Apple Store, Sprint, a big store with a bored sales staff that easily outnumbers the customers. “Why doesn’t Jobs buy a carrier?” she asks, “He’d easily do a better job than these people….”
As befits our well-debugged relationship, I immediately launch into a critique of her suggestion: “This is a terrible idea, on so many counts!”.
First, there are regulatory problems. Getting FCC approval for a new iPhone is one thing; wrestling with Washington bureaucrats for spectrum allocation is another. Apple’s maverick culture, its blatant spite for government bureaucrats and Congress windbags won’t do well there.
Second, carriers are capital intensive: Their return on equity (the profit-per-dollar invested in the business) is way below what Apple enjoys, in spite of its having “way too much cash for its own good.” For example, last quarter, AT&T’s Net Income was $3.6B for $113.8B in Equity, a ratio of 3.16%. Apple’s numbers were $7.3B for $69.3, a ratio of 10.5% — more than 3 times AT&T’s.
And just imagine the other carriers’ reactions. Not only would they kick Apple products from their networks and stores, Apple would find itself in court for anticompetitive practices, for unfairly favoring its own wireless arm.
One can see Apple’s stock losing 10% on the day of the announcement and critics would have yet another field day: “Apple does it again, their Walled Garden™ just grew taller walls!”.
But it’s also a beguiling idea. Let me count the ways.
Imagine the dancing in the streets. Apple would be finishing the job it started when it broke AT&T’s err… back, when it took over content distribution with iTunes. We don’t like carriers; we experience their service as both poor and expensive, to say nothing of their impenetrable and ever-changing contract pricing:
(Not to pick on AT&T. Every carrier offers a similar, bewildering array of entrapping offers.)
By contrast, imagine Apple’s simpler pricing. Three tiers to fit your appetite for data: $49, $79, $129 per month. No gimmicks, no SMS surprises, no fees piled up at the bottom of the bill: Just the price in your contract, plus taxes. If you approach the data limit for your plan, you get an SMS offering to upgrade you to the next level–but only for this month. No underhanded up-sell.
With $76B in cash and another $10B or so per quarter, a carrier is certainly within Apple’s budget. AT&T, with its $167B market cap, is probably out of reach (and too complicated, too many businesses), and Verizon ($97B), with its dying landline business and unionized workforce, isn’t in keeping with Apple’s ways.
But consider another carrier, T-Mobile USA. It no longer offers landline services, it’s non-union, and it’s affordable—it got a $39B offer from AT&T. Acquiring T-Mobile from its parent company Deutsche Telekom offers several advantages.
To start with, it prevents an abomination before the lord: It kills AT&T’s predatory acquisition attempt. Furthermore, as my friend Peter Yared noted, Apple might very well have big mounds of cash sitting outside the US, potentially subject to taxation if repatriated. Problem solved. Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, shows up at Deutsche Telekom’s HQ in Bonn bearing a smile and an RSA dongle: “You have a Mac I can use to make the wire transfer?” No, they don’t. But a nice 30-year Anniversary Lenovo PC will do for the transaction.
Once the deed is inked, the hard work starts. This will probably be a two-year exercise.
Decisions will have to be made. Tactfully convert existing T-Mobile users to iPhones or free them go elsewhere? (The competition will, of course, welcome these ‘‘victims’’ with open arms.) Retrain employees or offer them a decent exit package?
But the big task, the goal of the acquisition: Play the Apple vertical integration game and adapt the network to support one and only one type of smartphone, Apple’s.
Other cellular networks have to serve a wide range of devices — from basic phones to gluttonous high-end smartphones — and support a mess of protocols: Ancient ones with layer upon layer of patches, more modern ones with their factory-fresh bugs. Contrast this with Apple Wireless’ simpler task of serving one type of phone, one type of protocol. Given the two-year time frame, let’s assume the protocol will be a stable variant of what markitects call LTE or 4G. And, from there, voice and data coexistence, smoother video calls, voice-mail on iCloud, and so on.
And that’s just T-Mobile. Need more spectrum? $10B, three months of net cash flow, gets you Sprint.
Another possibility, admittedly remote, is to use tight wireless network integration with iCloud to create an inexpensive “smart dumbphone”.
What I mean is: Today’s iPhone is an app phone. It has enough hardware oomph to run a wide range of applications, all “wired” to a screen size. Because of this, cutting the iPhone’s bill of materials in half is well-nigh impossible — an “iPhone Nano” would be a much more difficult proposition than the iPod Nano. Apple would need to send developers back to their Xcode.
A better alternative would be to jettison native apps altogether, to go back to the Summer of 2007, when Steve Jobs promoted Web 2.0 apps for the first iPhone. Today, the pitch would be HTML5 Web Apps. We can already see a few good ones on iPhones and iPads, such as the new HTML5 Kindle app:
Or the nicely interactive iPhone manual, which feels like a “real” app:
A putative iPhone Nano on the no-less putative Apple Wireless network would be a dumbphone with HTML5 smarts and tightly integrated (I’ll use the P-word) proprietary services to make it sing and dance.
(As it happens, someone else already came up with the name Cloud Phone, see Trevor Sheridan’s post on the Apple’N’Apps site.)
As for the reaction from competing carriers, one has only to turn to the history of Apple Stores to get an answer. Existing retailers didn’t ditch Apple products when the company started its own retail chain. In fact, Apple Stores set a new standard in pre- and post-sale service. As a result, competing retailers raised their game. One can expect a similar reaction from AT&T and Verizon when faced with Apple Wireless.
So, yes, it’s a beguiling idea, but…
Would buying a carrier make sense financially? Look at AT&T’s iPhone ARPU, reported at more than $100/month. For Apple Wireless, this translates into more than $1B per million iPhones on its network. In 2010, T-Mobile’s ARPU was approximately $50/month for its 33.7 million customers. It’s tempting to look at the potential billions in service revenue and pronounce Apple Wireless the next big revenue opportunity.
But service isn’t Apple’s way of making money. Their one and only goal is selling devices. Everything else is in support of that goal. Execs, starting with the CEO, will wax poetic about the crystalline purity of software, more/better/faster content, new iCloud services; but what really counts is device revenue and profit. In the iPod days, iTunes didn’t make money, but it boosted device volume and margin. For today’s $100B Apple, a couple of billions in iTunes revenue is nice, it pays the bills, but it doesn’t move the needle. The iPhone is what does.
A wireless carrier owned, operated and integrated by Apple would only take two or three years to generate (much) more revenue than iTunes. But would it sell twice as many iPhones? Probably not.
It’s a nice fantasy, a carrier with the service quality and simplicity we get today when we enter an Apple Store. But for the fantasy to become reality, Apple Wireless would need to give birth to services that generate significant new hardware opportunities – opportunities that would need to be unavailable through Verizon and AT&T (otherwise, what’s the point?).
Another way to deflate the fantasy is to consider the US-only nature. Apple can’t and won’t go around the world and buy wireless carriers. With China soon to become Apple’s largest and most profitable market, the company isn’t about to lose sight of that prize, to be distracted by the complicated task of acquiring and integrating a US carrier.
That was the reverie…
Back to reality, why can’t carriers stop playing their games and show us some decency?
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52 Comments
Actually, if Jobs *really* wanted to help the country and the world he’d buy us another aircraft carrier. After all, he’s already set on building a Pentagon without the angles.
The money would be better spent on a crash research program to discover a cheaper and better way to deliver wide-area broadband internet service. This is a technological problem, not a carrier problem. If Apple applied its usual profit margin standards to this business as it stands now, it probably would be charging as much as the current internet providers.
I’d rather see silicon valley pool their resources and invest in a next gen wireless network (like Lightsquared) With 15 billion each from Apple, Google, Microsoft and Intel the could get it done.
Apple can accomplish most of these goals by intentionally making carriers into more of a dumb pipe. ie:
1. Only sell unlocked phones
2. Android imessage client
3. Built in voip similar to imessage
4. Free tethering that the carriers can’t turn off
5. Single model that works on cdma/gsm/lte
6. Bring back prepaid model
This would reduce carriers to nothing more than a utility where they could compete only on coverage, price and customer service.
My thoughts exactly. Wireless connectivity is the one feature essential to all of Apple’s devices that sucks big time. Much more important to fix than doing TVs or other stuff reportedly in the Apple grapevine.
Building their own network takes too long and would turn the other carries into an enemy immediately. Buying is much better. Very risky though, and would probably need a truly low-cost iPhone in the lineup to make it viable.
You didn’t mentioned one of the biggest issues — dropped calls. Verizon gets a pass because the CDMA network includes a lower frequency band that penetrates obstacles better, not to mention legacy cell towers that go back to the beginning of the cell phone era. I can just hear the complaints about dropped calls and coverage.
Still, this is a wonderful article that gets everyone to go “hmmmmmm.” Doing this is always illuminating and educational in so many ways. And it’s interesting because it feels like you’re 80% of the way to the goal post. Great piece!
Two big reasons why this shouldn’t happen. Sexting and phone sex would be hit by Steve’s banhammer.
One thing you forgot to mention, Jean-Louis, is that if Apple bought T-Mobile (and maybe later Sprint), it would also be buying thousands of retail locations.
Those aren’t locations for just selling iPhones, but mini Apple stores… where iPhone shoppers can also check out the latest macbook air (MORE DEVICE SALES!).
One phone for one carrier. Imagine how awesome that would be. One network OPTIMIZED for just ONE PHONE! And Apple should call it the soon to phased out name…MobileMe! Thats a perfect name for it. There might be a little bit confusion, but MobileMe would be a great name for the service.
Simpler pricing at $49, $79, $129? No, if it was really simpler, it would be closer to $50, $80, $130.
“Apple Wireless would need to give birth to services that generate significant new hardware opportunities – opportunities that would need to be unavailable through Verizon and AT&T (otherwise, what’s the point?).”
What about selling MacBooks with integrated 3/4G? Sure, they could do this now and work with Verizon/AT&T, like they do with the iPad, but it would be much more compelling if Apple provided an A to Z experience. They could price it such that the purchase price for the hardware was inclusive – no more monthly fees.
It would also add an interesting new dynamic to iCloud. What if, included in your iCloud membership, your computers/iPod touch/etc. automatically synced, no WiFi hotspot needed?
I think Apple is innovative enough to make buying a wireless carrier worthwhile for more than just supporting iPhones…
This reads like a business-school research/homework assignment — a whole lot of engineered words to basically say “won’t ever happen”. Would’ve been far more interesting if you simply used the Apple-as-carrier premise to launch into a much better and more practical solution for our carrier woes.
There is no reason the font on your web site should be this small. I have 20/20 vision and my face is less than 12″ from my laptop, just so I can read your text…
Wonderful ruminations, Jean-Louis. A couple of thoughts:
1 – the regulatory problems are not so bad: it would preserve a second GSM network and a fourth wireless network. Apple could also promise to build a more broadly compatible LTE network than what AT&T plans post-acquisition.
2 – the return on equity is poor, but strip out the tremendously inefficient parts of a carrier (marketing an undifferentiated service, complicated network, complicated management) and it’s not so bad
– I would not say Apple sells devices; they sell ‘experiences’ — simpler and friendlier ones. So a service is not so different.
– Finally, such a move — unilaterally converting one US carrier into a dumb pipe — could push the entire mobile industry over the dump pipe precipice. This would speed up smartphone (and iPhone) adoption, which in itself could give the Apple Wireless venture a positive return
I thought about this idea ever since Apple launched the iPhone in 2007. I even sent Steve an email proposing he buy Sprint a couple years ago, and spin it off so it wouldn’t dilute Apple earnings, and that he turn it into a dumb pipe run at break-even. It would drive more hardware sales. If regulatory pressure forced them, they could even propose to allow other handsets that met the iPhone-optimized wireless settings to subscribe to Apple wireless. And yes, I too thought it was a bit too much of a pipe dream.
Running a carrier is hard, but not as hard as retail. The list of reasons why Apple shouldn’t be a carrier reads like the list of reasons why they shouldn’t do stores.
I don’t want them to buy one carrier, though. I want them to create an iCloud service that puts all of my Apple devices on the wireless Internet with unlimited data for $30 per device, and then Apple deals with AT&T and Verizon and so on, just like they deal with Samsung and Sony and LG and other parts suppliers.
This is a dumb idea and will never happen. Phone carriers are an old business model and is hugely capital intensive. The Apple war chest could be spent on something much more useful… like dividends.
Nice post, Jean-Louis. Quite enjoyed it.
Only one problem with the idea from my point of view. It’s a US-centric investment. Apple is global. Most of the world has great carrier service. We get unlimited data for only a few dollars a month, we rarely experience dropped calls, and we sigh whenever we see bad reviews of the iPhone due to problems with US carriers.
So for me, this would be a waste of Apple’s latest cash.
I gave it some thought and I really have no alternative. Maybe invest to build a dedicated e-Reader. Not the best idea, but that’s the only electronic gadget I own that’s not Apple. Oh, and my UV water sterilizer.
I would like to believe Apple is saving up to buy another juggernut (such as Facebook or Google) rather than a carrier (such as T-Mobile).
Apple’s strongest growth and largest potential market is China. If Apple is going to buy any wireless carrier, it would be a Chinese one.
Nevermind that China would ever let such a transaction to pass. Not that Apple can afford to buy any Chinese carrier. Not yet anyways.
All this talk about Apple should buy a wireless carrier is very similar to the calls during iPod’s heyday for Apple to buy a music studio in order to populate iTunes music store in response to recalcitrant media companies.
Tell me again, why exactly should Apple get in to a business it wants to reduce to a commodity, be it music singles sales wireless data?
When I started reading the article, I thought you were going to have Apple Wireless be a new joint venture with Deutsche Telekom, dedicated to Apple’s upcoming gee whiz gadgets and services. DT already knows how to run a network, likes its ARPU and ROI, and would foresee improving these by focusing on Apple’s latest technology. Apple would get a royalty or license fee plus huge opportunity to sell its gadgets.
This DT linkup would also handle access to Europe. China? Wait for the Chinese version of DT to come forward and offer the same partnership. Might take a few years, but you needn’t do everything at once.
Pic 2 is duplicated as pic 3, so you do not show the interactive manual.
Otherwise a nice read, thanks.
I think it will not pan out though, since
- being a telecom operator is not in apples business model. They make hardware, ( and software to sell said hardware)
- it can not easily be extended to other countries without massive costs
- it is not like they need to do it to save their business. Their problem is manufacturing the iOs stuf quickly enough.
Apple’s first technical writer, Jeff Raskin, drove two projects, one was the idea of a distributed Apple Network and the other was the idea of a digital memory-mapped device with an image presentation interface, to be dubbed the Macintosh. See the Raskin papers in the Stanford University Library. The difficulty with a distributed network is partly carrier competition, partly content control, and partly internationalisation of the imaging interface which are persistent problems.
/ Henrik
The most convincing counterargument to this hypothesis: http://technologizer.com/2011/07/29/a-brief-history-of-apple-not-buying-things/
Duplicate screenshots.
Web 2.0 and HTML5 are just buzz-words – the webapps of now and then are exactly the same thing, with new features added.
First article I’ve read for a while that took more than 3 minutes! I don’t think they would actually buy T-Mobile but it is a nice idea if the carriers are as bad as you say they are in the US, I’m on giffgaff in the uk (bit.ly/edgiffgaff) and it seems a lot better!
Nice idea, and very plausable in my opinion. Apple offer complete end-to-end experiences: sales, support, software, hardware, online services. The weak link in the chain is the carrier – with cloud services more than ever – so it makes sense for them to strengthen that.
The only part I disagree with is the direction that an ‘iPhone nano’ would take. Want to cut the iPhone BOM in half?…make it an iPod Touch. The Touch has the same app-ready hardware that makes the iPhone so popular (and is killing Nintendo/Sony’s portable market) so why not go down that route?
Plus, target HTML5 and you create two problems: an awful gaming experience that will never match native, direct hardware access; cross-platform solutions are created by default, which means the iPhone would never again have a ‘killer app’ that other platforms missed.
An iPod Touch 3G should still come in at around 50% of the iPhone’s carrier-free retail cost and would offer everything an iPhone offers minus GSM voice calls. Want to make old-fashioned “phone calls”? Use FaceTime (with or without ‘face’) over 3G.
Just my thoughts.
Us or USA? I mean, you guys in United States have a bad wireless ecosystem, but do all the world pay for US errors? Pre-paid unlocked phones are very used outside US. Apple is a world company!
Spare us the politically correct nonsense about your wife, I nearly skipped the remainder of your article.
Build the hardware for the new 62-mile wifi protocol. Don’t tie us into yet another teleco network – help move us to ubiquitous wifi.
@ All: First, my apologies for the duplicate Kindle HTML5 App screen in lieu of the iPhone Web App manual. It’ll be fixed. Aug 15th is a holiday in France…
Second, it’s good to be back. Lots happend while we were on break and the temperature just rose this am with the Googorola acquisition. I have no comment on this one, I’d like to let the dust and the corpospeak to settle first.
@ Paul Johnson, @ David A Fenton, @ Kathy: Thanks, you’re right, creating a new kind of wireless network probably would be better than buying a carrier. I was just having fun exploring the idea. But where would Apple get enough spectrum? Ther are physical laws that put an upper limite to the ammount of bits/second you can transfer on a spectrum slice. Yes, we invent all sorts of trick, better modulation schemes, “steerable beams” and, to start with, a cellular network to make frequencies reusable because a given cell won’t be “heard” (interfere) a couple of cells away. But something will have to happen if the other 70% of cell phones, the so-called “dumbphones” are to become bandwidth-hungry smartphones. That’s about another 4 billion phones worldwide…
@ JFE: You’re right, both Google and Apple (and Microsoft) want carriers to become wireless ISPs, that is “dumb pipes”. Carriers knnow this, of course. It happened already with AT&T and iTunes…
@ Johannes Ernst: Yes, the Apple TV (meaning an Apple TV set) makes little sense. Attractive idea at first, but think about bringing it to the Genius Bar. Or updating the processor inside. Apple customers are willing to buy a new iPhone or iPad every yer, or every other year for the more fiscally prudent ones, same for your MacBook Air. But TVs are viewd as lasting much longer in spite of manufacturers’ efforts to sell 3D versions.
@ LauRoman: Today, you can commit various sins using an iPhone or an iPad and getting Safari to the wrong sites. Google and Bing (with its own iPad app) will oblige. The iPhone camera and email will take and send NSFW pictures. And so on. Steve’s “banhammer” can’t do anything about that.
@ Eludium-Q36: Thanks for grading my student paper
Unfortunately, carriers won’t change of their own accord, they’re eerily similar all over the world. Old oligopolistic (or government agency) mentality. Only a takeover by someone not caring about carrier goals but about a broader business objective will do. I really don’t know, just trying out ideas to see what happens.
@ Dan: Sorry about that. I think there might be a solution. In Windows 7: http://bit.ly/qxFMHm
On a Mac: Command + temporarily increases font size in your browser. Command – does the opposite. And Command O (the digit zero) returns to “normal”. Thanks for reading us spite of the impediment, my aging eyes feel your pain.
@ Ed: Thanks, this is a great day, first time I’m accused of being politically correct; usually, it’s the opposite. I won’t write I lost my PC cherry, that would be inappropriate.
My wife sends her regards and wants you to know she appreciates your concern.
So, Jean Louis, does all that mean an aircraft carrier is out of the question?
@ vanderleun: Well… AS you know, Apple is building a spaceship in Cupertino. See http://macw.us/qFpvK5 and enjoy (big PDF files, but worth your time, I think).
You are approaching this as if you work for Microsoft instead of Apple.
A Microsoftie would approach this as “Hmm I wonder how much revenue we could add by acquiring T-Mobile”. He would then do the numbers and reach the conclusion that it would be bad for their margin.
Apple would approach this as “Hey I wonder how much better our products would become if we bought T-Mobile?”.
I too have had this wishful, blissful thought. Clearly that part of the user experience could use an Apple-style overhaul. I think Apple would never make such a large purchase, with its concommitant culture integration challenges. I also think they prefer solutions where they can persuade & facilitate others providing what less creative companies would buy or build. In this case, I think it will be ubiquitous-enough wifi. I live in a cell coverage hole, and since the industry hasn’t been able to fix it (and thousands of other holes) in its tenure, I believe the problems are economically insurmountable. Meanwhile, I could buy a long-range wifi router for $50 that will provide (a claimed) coverage of 1/2 mile radius. If wifi becomes like electrical lights or air conditioning, businesses will provide it if it brings more customers. For coverage in rural & remote areas, something creative will have to be done; perhaps base stations on low-earth orbiting satellites or long-flight dirigibles.
AT&T and Verizon would immediately stop selling iPhones. They will shift to 100% Android/Microsoft. Without subsidies, iPhones would be 40% more expensive. Or their margin goes way down. Either way, bad financially. Running a network is not free. Capital and Labor intensive. Will Apple employ 40k technicians to manage cell sites, deal with weather issues, work with local municipailites and local planning agencies. Apple will not have slave-labor in the US. No Foxconn to support their network.
Well if apple made small cell towers in the store and also buying T-mobile they may get somewhere.
And they also could now make different communication apps even better, like face time with out connecting to a wireless base close to you it would work from the apple wireless network from its internet base.
The only thing I disagree on, regarding your (justified) dreams of desintermediation of the old fashioned telco carrier model, is the low value tag which you put on the telco mobile tech teams know-how. Make a 3G/4G mobile network cope with the data tsunami (simply said, the race for spectrum efficiency) and maintain QoS is an everyday fight which requires a lot of technicity/creativity from both vendor/operator teams. I have serious doubts that Apple would do any better. Let’s await a new equilibrium in the value chain rather than a brake-out. Cheers from a froggy telco tech dinosaurus.
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why exactly should Apple get in to a business it wants to reduce to a commodity, be it music singles sales wireless data?
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[...] do with this Scrooge McDuck-like money pile, Jean-Louis Gassée has an interesting theory: Apple should buy a wireless carrier, such as [...]
[...] [1] — может и Apple стоит что-нибудь такое приобрести? [...]
[...] are nervous about competition, and believe (often incorrectly) that bigger is better. Will Apple acquire a wireless carrier, as Jean-Louis Gassée speculated just a day before the merger? And how would that affect [...]
[...] in on other moves Apple should be making. Jean-Louis Gassee, general partner for Allegis Capital, wrote a blog post yesterday in which he first offered a fanciful vision of Apple acquiring a carrier like T-Mobile. [...]
[...] iPhone, the main element that is still much beyond Apple’s reach is the carriers. On Monday, Jean-Louis Gassee proposed Apple solve this problem by just scooping up a carrier, like Deutsch Telekom. It’s certainly [...]
[...] the iPhone, the main element that is still much beyond Apple’s reach is the carriers. On Monday, Jean-Louis Gassee proposed[1] Apple solve this problem by just scooping up a carrier, like Deutsch Telekom. It’s certainly [...]
[...] Apple buying T-Mobile. Microsoft buying Adobe. We’re all used to reading stuff by tech pundits talking about seismic, world-changing acquisitions in a somewhat fanciful manner. But Google buying Motorola Mobility, the recently-spun-off part of Motorola that makes phones and other consumer hardware, is real–and the most potentially world-changing acquisition in many years. (Compared to this, HP buying Palm was positively humdrum.) If I’d been drinking anything when I read the headline this morning, I would have done a spit-take. [...]
[...] Apple Wireless? That name has a nice ring to it — but it’s never going to happen. Let’s go over a few of the reasons why Apple won’t make a surprising bid for Deutsche Telekom‘s stateside wireless carrier. [...]
[...] Apple acquire a mobile phone carrier to further raise the [...]
[...] the primary element that’s still much beyond Apple’s reach is the carriers. On Monday, Jean-Louis Gassee proposed Apple solve this problem by just scooping up a carrier, like Deutsche Telekom. It’s certainly [...]
[...] the Facebook advertising affiliate, now worth about $500m, according to its latest funding round.Steve, Please Buy Us A Carrier! >> Monday Note“The idea came up during a “what if” conversation with my wife Brigitte, while [...]
[...] on other moves Apple should be making. Jean-Louis Gassee, ubiquitous partner for Allegis Capital, wrote a blog post yesterday in that he initial offering a illusory prophesy of Apple appropriation a conduit like [...]
[...] iPhone, the main element that’s still much beyond Apple’s reach is the carriers. On Monday, Jean-Louis Gassee proposed Apple solve this problem by just scooping up a carrier, like Deutsche Telekom. It’s certainly got [...]
[...] in on other moves Apple should be making. Jean-Louis Gassee, general partner for Allegis Capital, wrote a blog post yesterday in which he first offered a fanciful vision of Apple acquiring a carrier like T-Mobile. [...]
[...] iPhone, the main element that’s still much beyond Apple’s reach is the carriers. On Monday, Jean-Louis Gassee proposed Apple solve this problem by just scooping up a carrier, like Deutsche Telekom. It’s certainly got [...]
[...] the weekend, Gassée imagined a surprise Apple announcement: We’re at the end of the 2011 iPhone 5 launch. The demos went well; Steve Jobs has come back on [...]
[...] in on other moves Apple should be making. Jean-Louis Gassee, general partner for Allegis Capital, wrote a blog post yesterday in which he first offered a fanciful vision of Apple acquiring a carrier like T-Mobile. [...]
[...] Steve, Please Buy Us A Carrier! >> Monday Note [...]
[...] Apple buying T-Mobile. Microsoft buying Adobe. We're all used to reading stuff by tech pundits talking about seismic, world-changing acquisitions in a somewhat fanciful manner. But Google buying Motorola Mobility, the recently-spun-off part of Motorola that makes phones and other consumer hardware, is real–and the most potentially world-changing acquisition in many years. (Compared to this, HP buying Palm was positively humdrum.) If I'd been drinking anything when I read the headline this morning, I would have done a spit-take. [...]
[...] President (and my two time board member and longtime mentor) Jean-Louis Gassée predicting that Google will acquire TMobile. Sound crazy? C’mon Google needs stores to compete with Apple and Microsoft. And owning a [...]
[...] Apple could help users find the carrier that is best for them by ranking the features and prices of service providers based on personal preferences. For example, some users may be interested primarily in voice plans, while others may need features like unlimited text messaging. And though it remains unlikely for many good reasons, some observers say both Google and Apple could become mobile service providers themselves. http://www.mondaynote.com/2011/08/14/steve-please-buy-us-a-carrier/ [...]
[...] President (and my two time board member and longtime mentor) Jean-Louis Gassée predicting that Google will acquire TMobile. Sound crazy? C’mon Google needs stores to compete with Apple and Microsoft. And owning a carrier [...]
[...] do with this Scrooge McDuck-like money pile, Jean-Louis Gassée has an interesting theory: Apple should buy a wireless carrier, such as T-Mobile.(LIST: Top 10 Apple Moments)Gassée makes a compelling case (Apple could finally [...]
[...] President (and my two time board member and longtime mentor) Jean-Louis Gassée predicting that Google will acquire TMobile. Sound crazy? C’mon Google needs stores to compete with Apple and Microsoft. And owning a [...]
[...] http://www.mondaynote.com/2011/08/14/steve-please-buy-us-a-carrier/ Share this:DiggRedditLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. This entry was posted in Uncategorized by fozbaca. Bookmark the permalink. [...]
[...] Apple acquire a mobile phone carrier to further raise the [...]
[...] it will happen. Even Jean-Louis Gassée, formerly top-exec at Apple, just this week penned a piece Please Steve, Buy Us A Carrier. Wireless connectivity has become a core feature, perhaps the core feature, of all modern [...]
[...] RSSSollte Apple ein Mobilfunk-Anbieter werden?Über den äußerst interessanten Artikel Steve, Please Buy Us A Carrier! bin ich ein bisschen ins Grübeln gekommen. Und nach einiger Zeit kam ich drauf, dass Jean-Louis [...]
[...] President (and my two time board member and longtime mentor) Jean-Louis Gassée predicting that Google will acquire TMobile. Sound crazy? C’mon Google needs stores to compete with Apple and Microsoft. And owning a carrier [...]
[...] 谷歌收了摩托，符合目前垂直整合的大趋势。Apple会像Gassee建议的那样用收购一家美国主要运营商回应吗？ [...]
[...] President (and my two time board member and longtime mentor) Jean-Louis Gassée predicting that Google will acquire TMobile. Sound crazy? C’mon Google needs stores to compete with Apple and Microsoft. And owning a carrier [...]
[...] head of Apple France who later went on to run Apple’s products division in the mid 1980s, suggested that Apple buy a carrier outright with its growing cash pile, in part to get around some of those [...]
[...] head of Apple France who later went on to run Apple’s products division in the mid 1980s, suggested that Apple buy a carrier outright with its growing cash pile, in part to get around some of those [...]
[...] head of Apple France who later went on to run Apple’s products division in the mid 1980s, suggested that Apple buy a carrier outright with its growing cash pile, in part to get around some of those [...]
[...] of Apple France who after went on to run Apple’s products multiplication in a midst 1980s, suggested that Apple buy a conduit undisguised with a flourishing money pile, in partial to get around some [...]
[...] head of Apple France who later went on to run Apple’s products division in the mid 1980s, suggested that Apple buy a carrier outright with its growing cash pile, in part to get around some of those [...]
[...] of Apple France who after went on to run Apple’s products multiplication in a midst 1980s, suggested that Apple buy a conduit undisguised with a flourishing money pile, in partial to get around some [...]
[...] of Apple France who after went on to run Apple’s products multiplication in a midst 1980s, suggested that Apple buy a conduit undisguised with a flourishing money pile, in partial to get around some [...]
[...] operatorom za przesył danych. A może idea Jobsa znajdzie jeszcze posłuch w zarządzie firmy? Jak przekonywał jakiś czas temu Jean-Louis Gassée, były szef oddziału Apple France, zespół kierowany dziś [...]
[...] head of Apple France who later went on to run Apple’s products division in the mid 1980s, suggested that Apple buy a carrier outright with its growing cash pile, in part to get around some of those [...]
[...] head of Apple France who later went on to run Apple’s products division in the mid 1980s, suggested that Apple buy a carrier outright with its growing cash pile, in part to get around some of those [...]
[...] head of Apple France who later went on to run Apple’s products division in the mid 1980s, suggested that Apple buy a carrier outright with its growing cash pile, in part to get around some of those [...]
[...] head of Apple France who later went on to run Apple’s products division in the mid 1980s, suggested that Apple buy a carrier outright with its growing cash pile, in part to get around some of those [...]
[...] unto itself, cutting out the thicket of middlemen? One blogger, Jean-Louis Gassée, recently advocated for Apple to buy a carrier. In an era where Google is bidding to be your next cable company, [...]
[...] unto itself, cutting out the thicket of middlemen? One blogger, Jean-Louis Gassée, recently advocated for Apple to buy a carrier. In an era where Google is bidding to be your next cable company, [...]
[...] unto itself, cutting out the thicket of middlemen? One blogger, Jean-Louis Gassée, recently advocated for Apple to buy a carrier. In an era where Google is bidding to be your next cable company, [...]
[...] user unto itself, slicing out a underbrush of middlemen? One blogger, Jean-Louis Gassée, recently advocated for Apple to buy a carrier. In an epoch where Google is behest to be your subsequent wire company, [...]
[...] Steve, Please Buy Us A Carrier! | Monday Note We’re at the end of the 2011 iPhone 5 launch. The demos went well; Steve Jobs has come back on stage to thank everyone and conclude the proceedings, "…but before you go, just One More Thing. I’d like you to meet someone." And the CEO of Deutsche Telekom walks onstage. [...]
[...] John Browett, che prenderà il posto di Ron Johnson dal prossimo aprile.Altri rumor, nati quasi per gioco durante l’acquisizione di T-Mobile da parte di Att, vorrebbero invece Tim Cook alle prese con [...]
[...] Former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassée thinks so. And hey, T-Mobile happens to be on the block. [...]
[...] if Apple could gain greater control of SIM cards, it could cut out carriers entirely (something many people would love). Nokia, feeling that Apple was unfairly throwing its weight around, responded to Apple’s move by [...]
[...] if Apple could gain greater control of SIM cards, it could cut out carriers entirely (something many people would love). Nokia, feeling that Apple was unfairly throwing its weight around, responded to Apple’s move by [...]
[...] if Apple could gain greater control of SIM cards, it could cut out carriers entirely (something many people would love). Nokia, feeling that Apple was unfairly throwing its weight around, responded to Apple’s move by [...]
[...] if Apple could gain greater control of SIM cards, it could cut out carriers entirely (something many people would love). Nokia, feeling that Apple was unfairly throwing its weight around, responded to Apple’s move by [...]
[...] if Apple could gain greater control of SIM cards, it could cut out carriers entirely (something many people would love). Nokia, feeling that Apple was unfairly throwing its weight around, responded to Apple’s move by [...]
[...] » Should Apple buy a carrier? One look at the pros and cons of what Jobs & Co. might do with Apple’s immense cash pile. (via Monday Note) [...]
[...] Steve, Please Buy Us A Carrier! | Monday Note: [...]