Nokia, Apple, Speculation After reading this column about Nokia, Apple, linux et al., which also suggests that Nokia's Series 60 phones will one day have access to iTunes Music Store and would maybe produce an iPhone for Apple (all speculative, of course), I've been thinking about the iPhone again.
There's a distinctive problem for Apple and an iPhone: People switch phones too often, and they don't really pay for them. The majority of mobile phone users have one-year contracts, and every year, they get a mobile phone. Over the years, those cheapo-phones have gone from b/w to greyscale to colour displays, they play music and are able to play the latest ringtones and Java games. The phones are always just bad enough so you want a newer one rather sooner than later. Also both handset makers and service providers try to invent "New! Only on newest phones!" features all the time. And although they mostly aren't really necessary, this, too, helps to create upgrade frenzy. And that's not the Apple way.
It's clear that the iPhone would be the perfectly iSynchable iPodphone. But if it's really good, people won't upgrade. But maybe that's just the phone the world really needs, although both the other handset makers and service providers would suffer from it. And that probably means that Nokia won't help Apple creating the iPhone. Dilemma. - posted by Patrick Armbruster @ 12:48 [article link]