iPHONE: REALLY A CONSERVATIVE APPROACH TO MOBILE MUSIC
The iPhone is exciting to look at and to contemplate, but it is also a conservative move on Apple’s part.
“As far as style and chic goes, Apple is the Prada, VeraWang, Armani of the electronics/IT industry,” states Al Boschulte, Chairman of Boschulte Schnee Group, LLC. “Coming from any other producer in the world, this announcement would have been ho-hum’ed to death in the industry and the media.”
“They’ve gone conservative as far as plunging into mobile music,” states Victor Schnee, President of BSG. “They don’t provide for streaming of songs – presumably because Apple has no satisfactory way to do that over wireless networks. It’s even unclear to what extent you can do downloads over the EDGE platform they’re using.”
“This is a sexy design, a big bet with interesting, challenging innovations, but it is banking on a surge in growth in the PDA/smartphone/pocket PC space” Boschulte added. “It’s only version 1.0 and they gave themselves nearly six months to tweak it, so we expect this product to evolve rapidly.”
Boschulte Schnee Group (BSG) offers unique Business Case Analysis, using a proprietary model.
The issues of the emergence of mobile music and Apple’s role are included in the following BSG Business Case Analysis studies to be issued in coming months:
BSG Program: Market Segment Business Cases ("MSBC")
Report No. 6: “Mobile Music”and
BSG Program: DIGITAL MEDIA – COMMUNICATIONS IMPLICATIONS ("DMCI")
Report No. 3: “Digital Media and The Future of Wireless Devices”
Report No. 4: “Carriers' Digital Media Strategies“
Report No. 5: “Content Providers' Communications Strategies”
BSG is an expert independent research firm specializing in telecom, wireless, IP, cable/satellite and digital media. BSG also provides customized assistance to clients.
BSG's senior team includes: Al Boschulte, former CEO of NYNEX Mobile (now part of Verizon Wireless); and Victor Schnee, former CEO of industry research firm Probe Group LLC and CFA Institute member.
