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Today is a day that will live in infamy for thousands of iPhone line-waiters as Steve Jobs essentially made them all look like fools with the introduction of what amounts to a phone-less iPhone. This is basically the device everyone was asking for in the first place. Now thousands of reluctant AT&T customers who convinced themselves that locking into a two-year contract was worth the prestige of the iPhone are likely kicking themselves over today's announcement. (Was two months of geek cred worth it?) Now that we've taken care of the embarrassed early adopters clearly pwned by Steve Jobs, let's talk about the business of the new iPod Touch.
It turns out that we accurately predicted just two weeks ago that Steve Jobs would soon launch a wireless music service of some sort. The new Apple deal with Starbucks will allow iPod Touch owners to wirelessly access the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store for free at 600 Starbucks locations in the U.S. Terms of the agreement weren't revealed, but according to Starbucks the rollout will continue with 350 Starbucks stores in the San Francisco Bay area on November 7, 500 stores in Los Angeles in early February 2008 and 300 stores in Chicago in March 2008. Apple has been in dire need of a wireless music download solution as competitors move forward with aggressive wireless music download initiatives, so the Apple/Starbucks deal is a nice (albeit limited) start.
The deal also sets an intriguing precedent that might find Apple partnering with other chain stores such as McDonalds and Wal-Mart in the future, thus making iTunes virtually ubiquitous in the United States in terms of brick and mortar outlets. The other intriguing part of the Apple/Starbucks deal is the use of the T-Mobile HotSpot WiFi network. T-Mobile, a direct competitor with AT&T, has successfully served WiFi to Starbucks customers for several years now. Assuming the iPod Touch could be modded for audio input, could a broader, WiFi/VoIP-centric deal be in the works? And, more importantly, what would AT&T's response be to such a deal?
Aside from T-Mobile's involvement, It doesn't take a lot of imagination to envision a scenario that has iPod Touch users accessing Skype or a similar service en masse, eventually making iPod Touch VoIP users more popular than AT&T iPhone users. Of course, Apple would never admit to such possibilities, but the implications are clear enough.
Photo: mylerdude
