Engadget reports that Steve Jobs officially launched the iPhone, combining the functions of a widescreen iPod, a phone and an internet device into a handheld form factor.
No buttons – what is being called a multitouch screen and Mac’s OS X as the operating system. It knows when you hold the device close to you in order to turn off the display and touchscreen. Other sensors detect light to adjust brightness and an accelerometer to help the device determine whether to display in landscape or portrait mode.
Music, video, photos (2M pixel), SMS with full QWERTY keyboard, phone with regular keypad, push email. Google maps, Yahoo mail, automatic switchover to WiFi. And more.
It is a GSM EDGE device at this point and exclusively on Cingular in the US. US pricing will be at $499 for 4GB, $599 for 8 GB. Phones start shipping in June. Europe in the 4Q07 and Asia in 2008.
At these prices and with all these integrated capabilities, has Apple finally released a threat to RIM? A lot will depend on their ability to deal with the issues of integrating into an enterprise server.
Is there a cooler device for consumers? I haven’t seen one.
Rogers – when will iPhones appear in Canada?
Update: [January 9, 4:15 pm]
Apple stock (NASDAQ – AAPL) rose 8.5% on the news. RIM (NASDAQ – RIMM) dropped 7.5%.
Update: [January 9, 4:30 pm]
Between the Lines has great photos and a good analysis of winners and losers. Not only will AT&T; (NYSE: T) benefit from increased subscribers due to the popularity of the device, but it is not clear that there is much of a subsidy – if any – in this advanced handset.
ACTRA – the union that represents Canadian cinema, radio and TV artists – went on strike on Monday seeking compensation for performances by its members on the internet and mobile devices. A number of productions have signed continuation letters with the union, permitting work to continue through the strike.
Union vice president Austin Schautz said:
We are the faces that are out front. It’s our fair share of the product that goes on the air.
ACTRA is opposed to having their work distributed on new media, such as in promotional materials, without being paid. In a statement on ACTRA’s website, actor Wendy Crewson says:
Professional performers don’t work for free. Not on TV. Not on film. And not on the internet.
The strike is the first in ACTRA’s history.
When digital media facilitates the distribution of content on new platforms, coupled with consumer devices that readily convert content between platforms, how do performers develop appropriate compensation plans?
It will be interesting to see the development of this file. Will actors and producers find parallels in the disruptive forces brought to the music industry?
Technorati Tags:
ACTRA, new media, disruption
Rogers released their 4th quarter subscriber numbers that show it is adding new telephone subscribers at a clip of more than 1000 per day. In the 4th quarter, Rogers added 95,000 cable telephony lines – and that was during the Christmas holiday season.
Ted Rogers was quoted as saying:
Rogers ended 2006 with solid subscriber results reflecting the continued healthy demand in the markets we serve and the innovative product sets we offer across our wireless, cable, high-speed Internet and telephony services businesses
Basic cable continued to grow, although growth in digital cable has slowed marginally.
Nadir Mohamed, Rogers’ president and COO, will be a keynote speaker at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit in June.
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Rogers, Canadian Telecom Summit
For the letter N, he had:
N is for network neutrality, the hot-button Internet issue of 2006. As several ISPs in Canada and the U.S. openly touted the potential for a two-tier Internet, opponents called on regulators and legislators to preserve a neutral approach with equal treatment for all content and applications.
Net neutrality was the subject of a number of my posts in the wake of AT&T’s year-end concessions offered to win approval of its merger with BellSouth.
“Save the Internet” advocates express the concern that ISPs will block or degrade the transmission of material from content providers that refuse to pay, thereby creating a two-tiered internet, contrary to the ideals of the internet’s origins. [A presentation of the perspective of this as a utopian myth can be found in Craig McTaggart’s paper1]
An alternate view would suggest that at least the larger content providers are able to negotiate commercially with those that might seek to impose a tariff on transmission. For example, is it possible that a major content provider might demand fees in exchange for carrying their content? It might be more done with subtlety or finesse, but are there examples of such arrangements in preferred distribution agreements?
Perhaps these deals would take the form of having the ISP offer free space in a data centre to improve service quality. [Put on your best Al Pacino accent from Donnie Brasco and repeat “after all, we wouldn’t want your customers to have to wait more than 32 msec for a response, would we?”]
Can we think of content providers that have sufficient market presence to be able or to threaten to turn off the flow, making their material inaccessible for customers of ISPs that attempt to engage in a transmission ‘shake-down’? In such cases, neither the content providers nor the ISPs unilaterally impose terms on the other.
The threat of mutually assured destruction may help ensure reasonable negotiations among the larger players. The absence of regulation does not necessarily imply the end of the internet – a scenario painted by some.
Net neutrality is a complex issue. It should not be solved by backroom deals and concessions, slogans and populist campaigns, but through reasoned discussion in an open forum. Expect N for Network Neutrality to continue to be on the telecom policy agenda for 2007.
1 Craig’s paper was presented at the 34th Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy at George Mason University, in September 2006.