Writing for the New York Times, John Markoff posits that Apple may be poised to take on the cell phone market with a new product the company hasn’t hinted at yet — something Markoff calls “iPhone.” Markoff’s comments come in a new article entitled Apple’s Chief in the Risky Land of the Handhelds (Subscription required for access).
Markoff suggested that circumstantial evidence may point to such a device. He cited Apple’s contract with Pixo, the developer who created the iPod’s software — which Apple has a deal with to create a second product. Markoff also pointed to Apple’s “wrangling” with PDA maker Palm over connectivity between Palm-based devices and Mac OS X.
Financial analyst Charles Wolf told Markoff “When you connect the dots, you end up at a phone.”
Jobs himself has derided the PDA many times in public interviews and statements. As recently as last week, he told an interviewer that he felt that PDAs would ultimately “be subsumed by the telephone,” according to Markoff. On stage at Macworld Expo last month, Jobs showed off Mac OS X 10.2’s ability to synchronize data with a Sony/Ericsson cell phone that can manage calendar and contact information using a forthcoming technology called iSync.
Markoff also suggested that other new features in 10.2, which goes on sale as a retail item later this week, seem “desirable” for a phone product, like chat, address book, mail, calendaring, automatic networking and more.
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