iPhone Will Spell 'Armageddon' Industry-Wide if Apple Inc.'s Team-Up
with AT&T is a Trojan Horse, Leading to Something on a Larger Scale

by Joe Leo, Columnist

SPECIAL REPORT: Commentary (6.22.07)-- Okay, we all know that the iPhone is going to be an earth-changing event of sorts. To quote the Cingular Wireless employee we interviewed Tuesday, "...a pandemic of a zeitgeist..." But a press release today from PriceWaterhouseCoopers seems to point to something bigger that no one but Apple Inc. themselves sees coming... positioning the company's assets on a global scale.

For a company to be successful, they can't be only good at one thing. Well, they can, but that limits their influence and control in the industry. If Apple Inc. were still "Apple Computer, Inc." and solely focused on their Macs and the subsequent proprietary operating system--today known as "Mac OS X"--they would only be, well, I hate to say it, a nobody. (Did I say that?). But because of their little train that could, the iPod, they've enjoyed the best times ever.

What are we getting at here, in terms of the iPhone? Well, again, you'll have to go back to the story I wrote about what the iPhone is at its core-- an iPod masquerading as a cell phone.

In a Press Release today from the accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, they state that the internet, TV distribution, and video games will be the fastest-growing global segments:

Double-digit growth is expected for digital and mobile spending in each territory during the next five years rising to $153 billion by 2011. Spending related to the distribution of entertainment and media on convergent platforms (convergence of the home computer, wireless handset and television) is also growing at double-digit rates and will exceed 50% of global spending by 2011. Within the next five years, nearly half of the total industry growth is expected to be generated through online and wireless technologies and, during the same period, broadband households will grow by 300 million to 540 million subscribers and wireless subscribers will increase by 1.1 billion to 3.4 billion. The migration to digital formats is having an adverse impact on competing revenue streams while consumer-generated media is accelerating content fragmentation, the report says.

[click here for the full context of the press release]

So, are you with us here yet? Or do I have to explain any further? Let me give you a hint. First, we saw the iPod. Next, we saw the [Apple]TV. A week from now, we will see the new iPhone. This has nothing to do with getting more people to move to the Mac platform. (Well, it does and it doesn't). It has everything to do with Apple changing its game plan, as we saw in January of this year, from being not just a computer company, but to being a bigger one.

One that controls the global--key word, global--entertainment and media industry.

When that happens, and Steve Jobs has already led the company down that path and even brought along consumers from "the dark side" (Windows/PC users) with them, then Apple Inc. will become the #1 company not just in the United States, and not just in computers--which will never happen in and of itself as "Apple Computer, Inc." without the iPod (I just contradicted myself on one of my biggest beefs)--but will become the #1 company in the entire world.

How's that for a long-term (or short-term, knowing Jobs's aspirations) company goal? That will surely, if not slowly, get all kinds of people to move over to the Mac platform. Remember what the teaser and/or theme for Macworld 2007 was for this year?

"The first 30 years were just the beginning... Welcome to 2007."

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