Aha…
This is the first sign that Apple might work with multiple operators in certain markets. Could that be the Middle East?
AppleInsider reports that Tim Cook, Apple’s COO, has said that the company is not married to the single operator model. He also said that Apple has to take into consideration that in some markets most users are on prepaid, not postpaid, plans.
He also said that the aggressive hacking of the iPhone in markets where the device is not yet available officially, is an indicator that there is demand in those markets..
Well: DUH!
I know that Apple want to provide with a great experience (like visual voice mail, which I personally don’t care about). I also know that they love to take more money from operators.
But Buy is Apple missing out on the Middle East. While Nokia launches one phone after the other in this region (sometimes before other regions, by the way), Apple has delayed the Middle Eastern launch of the iPhone far too long in my opinion.
When will Apple start treating the region as a real market? People are coming back to the Mac and everyone know how phone crazed this region is.
Apple’s attitude toward the region baffles me.
Let’s see if the rumors of carrier independence come true.
Comments
4 responses to “Apple COO: iPhone “not married” to single operator model”
Dude, check my blog. A video clearly shows the iPhone running on the mobily network in a full arabic interface.
That was done by a fan Sari.
Ahmad, Ya ahmad, where are you nowadays?
Been a while since you’ve posted anything and in a way, I like you posts alot. So I’ve been wondering!
It’s not much of a phone as much as it is an “i”. I’ve had one for about a month now and I really hate every aspect of the phone functionality. Few of the turn offs that come to mind are: 1. no search in contacts (my contacts list is huge! flicking does not work for me), you also can’t look for a contact by company name or category (hotel for instance or syntax to get all the contacts in syntax, something I’m very used to with Windows Mobile) 2. inability to forward text messages or 3. attach an additional contact if you’re replying to one. 4. Inability to delete a single phone record, or a single type of phone calls (clear missed).
Other than that the i part of it is just brilliant, the photoslides, the iPod, being able to watch movies on it while on a plane was enjoyable. I love how hackable the phone is (I have apache and PHP installed on mine), if we could only have copy and paste activated, and be able to connect to bluetooth GPS devices.
It looks like I will be carrying two phones for a very long time (at least till version 2 of the software is out and cracked). Btw, Guy Kawasaki uses a Windows Mobile phone (http://ikbis.com/ymj/shot/94876), that says much about the phone functionality of the iPhone.