Microsoft eyeing potential options in iPhone development

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone

Over at Fortune, Jon Fortt reports on a conversation with Tom Gibbons (right), the VP in charge of Microsoft’s Specialized Devices & Applications group. SD&A is the MS umbrella that contains the Mac BU, along with projects such as Surface, Windows Embedded and Sync. Yes, Mac folk, we’ve been saying for years that we’re special, and Microsoft agrees — at least that we’re “specialized,” which is almost as good. Anyway, Gibbons had some interesting comments about MS plans for the platform of the future.

Gibbons says that for the past week a team of Microsoft engineers has been deep-diving into the SDK with an eye to “understand[ing] what we can bring to the iPhone.” In addition to the ActiveSync functionality that’s part of the forthcoming 2.0 update to the platform, it seems that MS may have some application-side ambitions for the iPhone as well. Considering that the Mac BU is a tidy and profitable division for Microsoft (Fortt guesstimates Mac app revenues for Microsoft at $350 million with $200M in annual profits, which strikes me as high-side but certainly not out of the realm of possibility), the opportunity to extend desktop productivity dominance to more corners of the mobile space (beyond the existing Windows Mobile installed base) must be quite appealing.

Still, there’s another quote from Gibbons that underlines Microsoft’s perceptions of the iPhone’s impact (emphasis mine): “To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in [the iPhone] environment, we’re… trying to understand that now.” Possibly an honest estimation, maybe a deliberate shading, but anyone who looks at the iPhone market and thinks that Mac users = iPhone owners is operating in a slightly different reality than most of us. Memo to Tom G: Your Windows Office customers are going to want iPhone integration too, and you can take that to the bank.

[via Techmeme]

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AT&T Jacks Up Text Message, Multimedia Message Rates

Yesterday, AT&T announced an unlimited voice plan for the iPhone that still comes with a paltry 200 text messages. Now, we have word that AT&T will be jacking up the price of text messages over your plan’s limit to a whopping $0.20, with multimedia messages going up to $0.30 (not that the iPhone can send those). If you send lots of text messages you’d better sign up for a larger text plan or risk adding some pretty crazy fees to your bill. [Broadband Reports]

AT&T Jacks Up Text Message, Multimedia Message Rates

Yesterday, AT&T announced an unlimited voice plan for the iPhone that still comes with a paltry 200 text messages. Now, we have word that AT&T will be jacking up the price of text messages over your plan’s limit to a whopping $0.20, with multimedia messages going up to $0.30 (not that the iPhone can send those). If you send lots of text messages you’d better sign up for a larger text plan or risk adding some pretty crazy fees to your bill. [Broadband Reports]

Mac sales to stay strong; more 3G iPhone rumors; Amazon No. 2
Planned purchases of Macs should buck a drop in computer spending created by a poor economy, according to a new study. Meanwhile, Digg’s chief now claims to have additional evidence of a 3G iPhone, Amazon’s music store is catching up to iTunes, ASUS…

Apple iPhone 2.0 Patent Shows Dual-Touchscreen Flipphone

It’s rare that Apple’s patents actually show the exact form factors of devices they have in development, but this “dual sided trackpad” patent for a phone seems to definitely show that they’ve got some flipphone version coming up. The patent itself outlines a phone that has two multitouch sensors, both on the “bottom” part of the phone. When it’s closed, the phone acts like your current model iPhone. When it’s open, only the bottom part of the phone is touch-sensitive, whereas the top part is just a display.

The top/bottom touchscreen difference has the interesting effect of bringing some new features such as actually drawing out a number on the touchpad, rotating and old school dial (?), simulating a T9 dialpad, or even having both sides of the touchscreen active at once for some crazy control.

What’s the point of this? Besides new features, apparently many people HATE the candybar form factor and won’t even consider a phone a real phone unless it’s a clamshell. Like Jack Bauer, for instance. [Unwired View]