"Mobile Me" by Apple

After sticking our neck and making a prediction about the next big thing for the iPod, boy were we happy to see all the hype surrounding the “mobile me” trademark applications by Apple. For those that missed it here is a quote taken from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Earlier this month, Apple filed four trademark applications for the term “Mobile Me,” covering a broad array of possibilities, including “digital music,” “cellular” and “telecommunications.”

So obviously this re-ignited the engines of the hype machine and lots of speculations were made, most of which were about a cellular phone. While we agree that a cellular phone with digital music capabilities is a logical evolution for Apple, this is not the next big thing for the iPod. A cellular phone will always be first and foremost about voice calls while the iPod will always be first and foremost about music so these are obviously going to remain two separate product lines for a long time. Therefore we would like to stand by our original prediction and say that the “mobile me” thing is about adding wireless networking capabilities to the iPod and possibly also adding or improving the PDA like features that the iPod already has but were never emphasized such as the calendar, contacts manager, etc.

And while we are at it, what is the next big thing after Wi-Fi? A phone maybe? I am not going to make another prediciton at this point however if I were Apple I would skip the whole cell phone thing and stick with IP networking. What many people do not realize is that VOIP does not stop at revolutionizing the landline market, but rather the next big frontier for VOIP is the cellular market. Yes, as Wi-Fi starts covering whole cities and with Wimax being just around the corner, think how much money can be saved by on-the-go VOIP? I know one company that has a peanut butter like name and was recenlty acquired by the largest online auction company, that is patiently waiting for this day. A day that will no doubt be the Jelly that goes with this peanut butter, but Apple is here to spoil the party. Apple, in my opinion, is positioned even better than Skype to take over this new market (I think “mobile me” is a pretty good name for this market, don’t you?). Very smart people are leading Apple and it looks like they already figured all this out, and if I am right about this one, then it will be Apple share that hits $1000 5 years from now, not google. But hey this is too much predictions for one months, enough is enough.