“When Steve Jobs first demoed the iPhone in January 2007, he made it clear that reaching someone by typing their phone number onto a keypad was no longer acceptable, albeit tolerated. Instead, he showed an Address Book interface that unifies the concept of a “Person” across all forms of communications on the iPhone, be it iChat, e-Mail, or a Normal Phone Call,” Chris Holland writes for Internet Brands Developer Blog.
“While an ‘Address Book’ seems as trivially simple a concept as it isn’t new to anyone who’s used a mobile phone within the last decade, seeing it executed ‘The Apple Way’ in a larger synchronized ecosystem, helps paint a picture of possibilities that lie ahead,” Holland writes.
“Picture unlimited free calls over WiFi/IP without even having to ‘think about it,’ by simply picking a Person from your Address Book, and hitting ‘call’ …The same way you’d make a Normal Phone Call,” Holland writes.
“When calling somebody, the iPhone could detect whether WiFi connectivity is available, and whether there is a SIP Address for the person i’m looking to call. If both these conditions are met, the iPhone could perform a ‘pure SIP Call’ over the Internet, without ever touching the carrier’s or any phone company’s network. Blam. Free call. An icon might indicate to me that this call is a free, un-metered Voice-over-IP call,” Holland writes.
More in the full article here.
Kinda sucks if your AT&T and selling this thing, all the while cutting your own throat.
Nothing to add, really, except the MDN word is “voice.” Nice.
Now that would be truly kewl.
And then Jobs’ would be assassinated by the cell companies.
Depending how AT & T prices out the plan it could suck for them or be great for them. Service contract fee(s). We’ll see soon.
Why would AT&T care? You’ve signed a two year contract. They still get paid.
“Kinda sucks if your AT&T and selling this thing, all the while cutting your own throat.”
“hy would AT&T care? You’ve signed a two year contract. They still get paid.”
Jay, meet No Squirt For You. No Squirt For You, meet Jay.
I think I’m getting trapped into the same thing we’ve been bitching about for six months here-people making judgements about iPhone without the product or all of the facts on hand-my bad.
I’ve always liked formal introductions!
New AT&T slogan: “Your phone bill delivered.”
I want an iPhone now, daddy!
If ATT can pick up enough switchers from other providers, they might not mind the loss in revenue. And free calls over VoIP would pretty much guarantee that they would. It’s going to happen sooner or later anyway. Might as well do it first while you have an exclusive contract and have everybody else scrambling to catch up.
…then as soon as you drive, walk, commute, crawl out of range of the wi-fi hotspot, boom dropped call. Great concept but not quite ready for primetime I think.
jay: It’s a bit frustrating for me to not know the AT&T plan details with only a few days before launch.
” . . . crawl out of range of the wi-fi hotspot, boom dropped call.”
I just assumed people lived at Starbuck’s.
They never seem to leave.
Maybe that’s what Apple should do in Europe because of the carrier’s cold reception. Just release an iPhone without the cell chip and focus on broadband with Skype.
We met at Starbucks. Not at the same Starbucks but we saw each other at different Starbucks across the street from each other.
“Just release an iPhone without the cell chip and focus on broadband with Skype.”
Nice thought but my guess is that Ballmer is more likely to use an effective anti-perspirant than for that to happen.
Skype is the wrong approach, (for VOIP in general) I know it is extremely popular (so is Windows!) but it is NOT open, and all Skype calls involve their servers.
This whole question of finding an available WiFi connection has not been addressed from a legal standpoint. In some places, just jumping onto any available signal is illegal. Consider the man in Michigan recently being charged with a felony because he used the wifi of a nearby cafe to make a connection without patronizing the store.
He is being hung out to dry in the legal system
Can’t just go around hopping onto any old network and expect there to not be issues.
This is a neat idea – but it will not happen within the next 5 years. Not with Apple’s blessing anyway. This is one of the reasons that they wanted control over the installable applications – because AT&T was so worried about people just using VOIP.
” . . . because he used the wifi of a nearby cafe to make a connection without patronizing the store.”
Which is why I have a trunk full of muffins and receipts.
After the Korean War, my dad was an engineer for what he called the Bell system. One of his favorite things each year were the news reports of saturated networks over holidays when folks had to hope their call would reach a distant relative. He would just smile and say “Keep makin’ those long distance calls”.
Back then, revenue was a measure against network saturation. Today, revenue is subscriber-centric.
Back then, AT&T dominated technologically because of the Bell Labs and Western Electric. Today, Apple is their technological bullet. All the others telecoms rely on the fractured market place in exactly the same way Microsoft relies upon all the PC manufacturers. AT&T has the silver bullet again and they are about to become the most dangerous player in their game.
When Judge Harold Greene broke up AT&T in 1986, they had $80 billion in cash reserves. Put that in perspective to today’s MSFT and AAPL.
This is the move of a lifetime. Jobs has aligned his UNIX OS with the guys who invented it to create the perfect storm business alliance. His chips are all in. IPTV will be next.
As has been said, we don’t know how rate plans will be structured. If it is a flat rate for unlimited access then AT&T might not mind VOIP since it would free-up network resources.
yah, cool idea but not ready for primetime. with the limited availability of WIFI hotspots, limited range and coverage, lack of wifi switching stability (like you have with cell phones being able to move from cell to cell mid-call) and other issues this would have way to many complications to work the way Apple would want it to work.
Right,
iChat is nixed as is VOIP. This article is based on fantasy.
I wish were it true!
“When calling somebody, the iPhone could detect whether WiFi connectivity is available, and whether there is a SIP Address for the person i’m looking to call”
Yeah, iPhone already does this, but great suggestion
AT&T is way ahead of this. Why do you think they are trying to position themselves as also the nation’s largest internet service provider? When iPhone goes off the cell network to make a call on the internet, chances are ATT will be what’s pushing that internet signal. -or so they hope.
Gizmo Project client (http://www.gizmoproject.com) from SIPPhone is cooler than skype. Its multi platform (OS X/Windows/Linux). Since it uses the open SIProtocol, I can get free US phone numbers (ipkall.com) or free PSTN number(grandstream.com) mapped to my soft phone or harware ATAs(Grandstream Handytone). I hope iChat voice will use the open SIProtocol.
mw: some
I’m sorry guys, but this is all just mental masturbation. First, you’ve got to get the actual product out and see how good or bad that is. Then you need to see how much AT&T is going to charge us per month for the privilege. Then you need to see how fast or slow AT&T’s network service or even WiFi actually is on the iPhone. Finally, Steve Jobs needs to make VOIP and Skype available for the iPhone. There are so many big IFs in this dream that you guys have cooked up, that I doubt that any of that stuff is going to actually come true. Now, forget it, take a nice cold shower, and get back to work.
I agree with Rudge, and their are other “ifs.” It will take more than 5 years for cheap mobile continuous-access WiFi service to be available anywhere other than the largest cities in the US. In the meantime, AT&T makes a bundle.
I predict Video ‘text messages’. No need for a fast network, just record a note, send it, works just like voice mail but with video.
-c
MW: ‘stop’ (the inanity)
Apple won’t do that, until it has a relatively large footprint in the mobile phone world. Once Apple can call the shots (like it currently can with iPod and iTunes in the music industry), Apple could probably implement such a feature with trivial effort.
In the mean time, some clever web developer should see if it is possible to create a web-based iPhone app for handling such “free” calls through a web-based service. If Apple doesn’t do it, AT&T can’t complain about it.
So instead of installing Cell Phone towers, AT&T will install WiFi towers? Or upgrade Cell Towers to provide AT&T customers free WiFi in addition voice calls?
Hmmm, this could be interesting….
There won’t be any plan(s) plural..
THERE WILL BE JUST ONE iPhone PLAN.
Unlimited calling and unlimited data. That’s the only way iPhone will work.. No more rollover minutes, or additional charges or being nickel and dimed for every minute on the web.
Steve Jobs is very into the “one price for all” model. A revolutionary phone needs a revolutionary plan.
My guess is $99.
xgeek
Skype does not involved their servers for communication, it is based on the bit torrent model, therefore every user is also a server
Tom
You’ve seen the future and it is good. Finally someone with perspective on this forum
Good guess Pete
If it doesn’t interpret sign language, smoke signals, flirting, Morse code and semaphore, forget it. It’s worthless. It should also detect gas.
Hmmm… I wonder…
Veruca, my darling… drink your grape juice and go to bed. I’ll get you an iPhone on the 29th.
Free calls via VOIP will definitely be Apple’s endgame. Why? Because all kids want a limitless phone and no parent wants to pay the exorbitant cell charges. AT&T is in the ISP business as well so they can win no matter what, and they are already known to be rapidly expanding their WiFi networks, but are still afraid of cutting off their lucrative cash flow until they see how the numbers will play out. Apple will have to wait until they have a big enough market share to risk pissing off the providers by providing VOIP on the iPhone.
Another tool for the terrorists.
Oh shoot, never thought of that. I guess they should ban the iPhone then. Too bad, it was nice while the dream lasted.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
So, will the two-year-contract require a data contract, or just the cell phone part?
“‘When calling somebody, the iPhone could detect whether WiFi connectivity is available, and whether there is a SIP Address for the person i’m looking to call. If both these conditions are met, the iPhone could perform a ‘pure SIP Call’ over the Internet, without ever touching the carrier’s or any phone company’s network. Blam. Free call. An icon might indicate to me that this call is a free, un-metered Voice-over-IP call,’ Holland writes.”
But WiFi is now obsolete. Instead you will very soon be able to connect via WiMax, with a range of 30 miles, through your own ISP on your own mobile broadband account. What happens to cell companies charging for communications by the minute when mobile broadband coverage matches or exceeds cellular coverage? They die a quick (and richly deserved) death.