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1.: WSJ: Sprint bets the farm, ponies up $20 billion to get the iPhone From: Bill Boulware

2.: Apple's Rumored Virtual Assistant Could Outshine The New iPho From: Bill Boulware

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1.: WSJ: Sprint bets the farm, ponies up $20 billion to get the iPhone

Posted by: "Bill Boulware" bill.boulware@gmail.com boulware0224

Mon Oct 3, 2011 12:26 pm (PDT)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/9To5Mac-MacAllDay/~3/5brZsrO_S1w/

Sent to you by Bill Boulware via Google Reader: WSJ: Sprint bets the
farm, ponies up $20 billion to get the iPhone via 9to5Mac by Christian
Zibreg on 10/3/11

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sprint, the nation's third
largest wireless operator, is literally "betting the company" on the
iPhone, having committed to buy 30.5 million iPhones – at a surreal
cost. Citing the obligatory "people familiar with the matter", the
Journal wrote that Sprint CEO Dan Hesse told the board in August that
his company "would likely lose money on the deal until 2014″. He also
said that the lack of the iPhone is "the No. 1 reason customers leave
or switch". The board then signed off on the so-called "Sony" project,
even though they were aware of a "staggering" hit to Sprint's operating
income, because they realized Sprint couldn't compete otherwise:

Mr. Hesse told the board the carrier would have to agree to purchase at
least 30.5 million iPhones over the next four years—a commitment of $20
billion at current rates—whether or not it could find people to buy
them, according to people familiar with the matter. In order to keep
the price people pay for the phone low and competitive with rivals,
Sprint would be subsidizing the cost of each phone to the tune of about
$500, which would take a long time to recoup even at the high monthly
fees iPhone users pay.

Directors debated what they had just heard. Some worried the payoff
would be too long in coming. One member questioned whether the
multiyear deal might outlast the iPhone's popularity. To sell that many
iPhones, Sprint would have to double its rolls of contract customers,
convert all of them to the Apple device or a combination of the two.

Boy Genius Report has heard that Sprint will actually get the rumored
iPhone 5, which is a 4G WiMax device, while Verizon Wireless and AT&T
get to wait until the first quarter of 2012 to launch a 4G LTE version
of iPhone 5. This could also explain why Verizon sided with Samsung in
Apple litigation (and AT&T smartly kept their mouths shut).

Whichever way you look at it, the Sprint iPhone deal is HUGE. Apple has
just secured additional shipments of up to eight million iPhones
annually for the next four years. It's reasonable that Sprint would
sell that many iPhones a year and the deal would boost Apple's annual
revenues by five billion dollars. It also sends out a clear message to
carriers that don't yet carry the iPhone: Either you pay through the
nose and get the phone that can turn your fortunes around or risk
getting left behind.

There is probably not a single phone vendor bar Apple anywhere in the
world capable of talking any carrier into pre-paying such a staggering
amount of money for the privilege of carrying a smartphone. That is,
unless the phone in question happens to be the iconic product
everybody's still lusting after. The 30.5 million iPhones worth $20
billion equal to an average selling price of $655, which is in line
what other carriers are reportedly getting as well. Now, you would have
thought that committing to such a substantial bulk purchase would come
with some concessions or rebates, but this is Apple and their CEO is
known as a tough negotiator (yes, we're talking about Tim Cook).

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2.: Apple's Rumored Virtual Assistant Could Outshine The New iPho

Posted by: "Bill Boulware" bill.boulware@gmail.com boulware0224

Mon Oct 3, 2011 1:06 pm (PDT)

We shall know in 22 hours (starts in 21 hours and will last 1-2 hours).

Sent to you by Bill Boulware via Google Reader: Apple's Rumored Virtual
Assistant Could Outshine The New iPhone via Wired: Gadget Lab by
Christina Bonnington on 10/3/11

Buzz surrounding Apple's Tuesday event has never been higher, as
consumers eagerly await the announcement of the next generation iPhone.
But the new hardware could take a back seat to a bigger announcement: A
potential voice control software feature that could be released with
the latest version of iOS 5.

The voice control feature — referred to by Apple pundits and bloggers
as "Assistant" — could change the way people interact with their
iPhones, using conversation with an artificially intelligent assistant
to help make decisions and schedule daily activities.

"This is an area in which Apple has been trailing Google and is playing
catch-up," Forrester analyst Charles Golvin said in an interview.
"Similar to the notifications improvements [in the iOS 5 beta] and the
ability to use the volume control button as a camera shutter."

This type of service has been a long time coming for Apple. Former
Apple CEO John Sculley first described such a user experience feature
in his 1987 book Odyssey. He called the concept the "Knowledge
Navigator," and Apple subsequently released several video demos over
the next several years illustrating how the idea would work. The
Knowledge Navigator concept takes place on a tablet-computer (decades
before Apple unveiled the iPad), incorporating advanced text-to-speech
functionality, a powerful speech comprehension system and a multi-touch
gesture interface much like that which is used in iOS.

Back in the late '80s, Scully's lofty visions of the future were the
stuff of dreams. Today, we're much closer to this becoming a reality.
We've got intuitive, portable touchscreen devices that house powerful
processors with enough memory to handle such impressive tasks.
To boot, we've got chips and software that can back up the processes
required for complex speech analysis.

Apple had the hardware portions of its Knowledge Navigator concept
pretty much nailed down with the latest iterations of the iPhone and
iPad, but lacked the text-to-speech and speech understanding chops.
Until a start-up named Siri came along.

Siri began as a voice recognition app for the iPhone. The app sounds
similar to Google's voice search, which is integrated into Google
Search on iOS and is a standalone app on Android and other platforms.
With Siri, instead of just searching for a specific topic, place or
person using your voice, you're giving more descriptive instructions.
One command, for example, may be "Find the nearest good Chinese food
restaurant." At launch, Siri was integrated with about 20 different web
information services, so rather than just taking you to the search
results page for "good Chinese food restaurants," it would bring up
Yelp results for the highest ranking restaurants near your
GPS-determined location.

But it's much more than just a digital Zagat's. Siri calls itself a
"Virtual Personal Assistant." Rather than just issuing the app commands
or Google-style search phrases, you interact with it through
conversation. Saying something like "I'd like a table for six at Flour
and Water" would prompt the app to make a reservation using OpenTable.
And if you haven't provided enough information for it to complete a
task, it will prompt you to elaborate. Siri then uses information about
your personal preferences and interaction history so it can better
accomplish specific tasks. As you use it more, it learns your
preferences and improves its performance.

Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to Wired: Gadget Lab using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your
favorite sites

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