The iMPACT of the iPhone and the iPod, Still Coming

The popularity of the iPod line is legendary, and the marketing savvy shown by Apple with the iPod literally put a new face on the company, moving it away from the laptop and personal computer, over towards Sony as a consumer electronics company, even towards the Recording Industry, as a legitimate player. The iPod has underscored the legend that is Steve Jobs - if anyone has the clout to change an industry, you have to think that he would. He alone saw an opportunity in the Napster mess, challenged the recording industry to get with the program, and created a marketing and economic consumer sensation with the iPod and iTunes.

Will the Telecom World be next in line to taste the thrill of disruption, led by Steve Jobs?

When they announced the release of the iPhone earlier this summer, it made a big splash, but a lot of the press necessarily talked about ATT as well, because this was a joint deal between the two companies. To get the cool device, you had to sign up for a two-year service contract with ATT. Not only was the phone $699 ($200 more than it is today, after the price cut), but also, there was the 2 years of service fees, as well as knocks on the data service quality available from ATT.

See here and here and compare the tone to the product reviews for the iPod Touch above. Sure, these are snarky pieces, but one of the main beefs about the iPhone is legitimate - it comes with a lightweight data service (ATT's EDGE network - still 2.5 G). It appears that 3G is not yet there, so EDGE will have to do for now. Or will it?

It wasn't long (early July) before we saw articles like this one, IPhone Turns Focus On Greater Wi-Fi Use By Handsets, which speculates on the potential of Wi Fi mesh networks to take on a new role supporting hand held devices.

This is indeed a ray of sunshine during some gloomy times, and we can expect even more positive reports on the potential of these networks. Networks and devices and applications go hand in hand, and they spur each other on. This trend will continue to grow and networks will be spurred on by such consumer applications and devices as - drum roll please - the iPhone.

See here and here for some positive, level headed assessments that highlight the potential of hand held devices to raise the value of these networks. These are Motorola driven articles, so still subject to a little of the Hype machine, but they do contain some good industry facts and indicators on why hand held devices could become more and more significant.

I've long held that VOIP has the potential to be the Killer App for Metropolitan Broadband. To understand better what a big challenge this represents to the Telecom Paradigm, see Fractals of Change - VoIP Over WiFi WILL Disrupt the Cellular Industry, for a good analysis piece on the disruptive impact of voice over IP - "VOIP" over Wi Fi networks.

When voice telecommunications truly becomes just another application on a broadband network, the world will have turned upside down. There is so much money in voice telecommunications, and the costs are so much less when its an IP application, that this trend will be hard to counter. In time, the tail will wag the dog. At least, that's the way it must look from the telecom industry, in their darker moments of uncertainty.