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iPhone requires Apple servers on network?
Speaking in an annual results webcast yesterday, Charles Dunstone, CEO of Carphone Warehouse, a European retailer of mobile phones and services, claimed that in order for the iPhone to function correctly, Apple servers must be placed “deep into the [operator’s] network.” Dunstone was responding to a question on whether his company had been in talks with Apple over the handset, or if there would be a network-specific deal like in the US. He replied: “It has to be in some form a deal with a network, because the way the iPhone works requires the operator to install a lot of servers and stuff deep into the network to supply some of the services to it. So if you buy the phone, say on Cingular in the US, and put a T-Mobile SIM [card] in it, it won’t work properly because T-Mobile won’t have all this proprietary stuff. So the first thing they have to do is do a deal with a network. I don’t think they’ve done that yet.” [via SeekingAlpha]
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1
Haven’t we always known this? visual voice mail et al?
Posted by robroe in Manchester, UK on June 6, 2007 at 8:33 AM (PDT)
2
Yes, and it’s certainly possible that this is the case for some of the advanced features like Visual Voicemail, although it also makes me wonder about what else might be coming.
It would be an incorrect assumption, however, to assume that the iPhone won’t work at all without Apple’s servers on the carrier’s network.
The likely worst-case scenario is that it works like any other cell phone would, and features like Visual Voicemail and other advanced Apple-specific network features become unavailable.
For the record, the RIM Blackberry also requires special settings on the carrier’s part, although it’s inaccurate to suggest that those servers have to be on the carrier’s network, as RIM actually runs their own servers that the carriers simply facilitate connections to.
Posted by Jesse David Hollington in Toronto on June 6, 2007 at 9:02 AM (PDT)
3
Could be a proxy server like Bitstream’s Thunderhawk service to pre-render web pages for the iPhone to make the Edge speeds seem not so slow.
Posted by Rand on June 7, 2007 at 1:17 PM (PDT)