Is Apple Planning a Smart Phone?

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After Apple teamed up with Motorola to add iTunes to a mobile phone (the Rokr), rumors have been circulating that the computer maker plans to create its own smart phone. That's certainly anyone's guess, but if it hopes to achieve the success it did in the portable music player market, it should think again. Apple faces a number of hurdles it may not have had to consider before.

Ed Zander, CEO of mobile phone maker Motorola, made some comments in September that were widely quoted in the press. The one that seems to have received the most notice was “Screw the Nano. What the hell does the Nano do? Who listens to 1,000 songs? People are going to want devices that do more than just play music, something that can be seen in many other countries with more advanced phone networks and savvy users.” This struck many people as a possible sign of friction between Motorola and Apple, made all the more interesting because of their alliance to produce the Rokr smart phone that plays music from Apple’s iTunes music store.

But the relationship between the two companies goes back more than 20 years, when Apple used Motorola’s 68000 processor in the Lisa. Zander has known Steve Jobs for 15 years. He said he was only upset because people were asking him about the Nano when he really wanted to talk about the Rokr. In any case, such a longstanding relationship should give Zander some insight into Apple’s plans. What does he think? “And we know that they are going to build a smart phone -– it’s only a matter of time.”

Could it be true? Is the veteran computer maker going to build on its success with mobile devices by making something that one in three people worldwide carry with them? While Apple tends to be secretive about such things, some hunting around in publicly available records proves enlightening. The domain name “iphone.org” was created in 1999, and is currently registered to -– you guessed it –- Apple Computer, through the end of this year. It points to Apple’s home page. That certainly sounds like the company has some sort of plans in that area.

This doesn’t mean that we’ll suddenly start seeing bright white iPhones with clickwheels, full color screens, and other user-friendly features that Apple products are known for. Before Apple can even consider doing this, the company faces a number of hurdles, some of them inherent in the idea of offering music (or any additional features) on cell phones.

Next: What Apple would Need to Do >>
 

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