{"id":245023,"date":"2010-01-28T21:48:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T02:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5587346.post-5962419584111151073"},"modified":"2010-01-31T21:48:44","modified_gmt":"2010-02-01T02:48:44","slug":"ipad-take-3-130-for-ivoip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/245023","title":{"rendered":"iPad take 3: $130 for iVOIP?"},"content":{"rendered":"
My first iPad impression<\/a> was surprise that Apple had allowed a keyboard. That makes the iPad a potential alternative to the $1500 Macbook Air<\/a>. Then I saw it as a high-end netbook competitor.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
My second impression was that the iPad is the beginning of the end of OS X<\/a>. Sounds extreme, but, separately, Mac mega-pundit John Gruber said the same thing<\/a>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
That’s impressive enough, but one thing has nagged at me. How could the inclusion of a $7 3G chip<\/a> boost the cost of the iPad by $130? Yeah, I know Apple likes fat margins, but that’s extreme even by their standards. It’s not like it’s subtle, and it’s not like the AT&T wireless service is free. It’s still $30\/month, same as for the iPhone. [See Update, below]<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There’s one explanation that makes sense. The money is going to AT&T — in addition to the $30 a month for data services.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
How could AT&T possibly extract that much money? What hold could they have over Apple?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Well, one might imagine various contractual obligations, but Apple’s lawyers are famously vicious. Apple is getting something for this money. Possibly, a lot.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
One clue is that VOIP services are reported to be a part of the iPad version of the iPhone OS<\/a>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What if Apple is giving AT&T the lion’s share of that $130, but in return AT&T has agreed that Apple can provide SMS, VOIP and iChat (optional webcam attachment) services over the iPad’s 3G connection?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In other words, iVOIP.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Take that<\/i> Google Voice<\/a>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Might explain why Apple was willing to go to war over Google Voice on the iPhone<\/a>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This is going to be an interesting year in tech.<\/p>\n

PS. Oh, yeah. And balanced DRM for eBooks is going to turn publishing upside down too<\/a>.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Update 1\/31\/2010<\/b>: See Andrew W’s comment<\/a>. Basically, I’m wrong about the $130 going to AT&T, it’s probably going to Apple and it reflects development costs for the 3G integration. To quote Andrew:<\/div>\n

… I don’t think AT&T is getting a taste of the $629. I’ve never heard of that happening before, and Apple has way too much leverage against AT&T. I suspect the iPad price plans were part of some larger negotiation. (e.g., I wouldn’t be surprised to start hearing rumors that AT&T’s exclusive contract is extended.)<\/p>\n

Also, don’t forget that Apple gets a cut of your monthly iPhone bill. Apple\/AT&T negotiations probably focused on that more than anything. My guess is that Apple reduced their cut in order to get a monthly price that they thought consumers would tolerate for a new and unproven device\/market…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/small><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first iPad impression was surprise that Apple had allowed a keyboard. That makes the iPad a potential alternative to the $1500 Macbook Air. Then I saw it as a high-end netbook competitor. My second impression was that the iPad is the beginning of the end of OS X. Sounds extreme, but, separately, Mac mega-pundit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":711,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/711"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}