Apple Cell Service?

MacOS Rumors (http://www.macosrumors.com/20050523B.php), discussed Apple creating their own cell phone network.

This is bizarre to me; the cell phone industry is a HIGHLY competitive industry; some would say hyper-competitive with thin margins, high operating costs, and so on. Providers want quality of service beyond the established network — not a thin subset of what they can get now. Apple’s stores are not close to a real usable network by themselves — so it makes no sense at all that they are going to compete on this alone. Apple would have to partner or acquire someone else to be viable as a national network. Possible, and interesting. I could see Apple trying to leap to another technology; satellite based phones, or something else where they could charge a premium. But the cell phone industry doesn’t need another player, unless Apple can seriously add some value beyond a slightly cool but bulky phone that can play music.

Now, having a device like an iPod phone with PDA capabilities and a higher end data network, may make a lot more sense. Apple offering broadband or wireless service on their own backbone (802.11/something else), might make more sense. I could see them making an agreement with a cell phone provider to add their iPod technology to a custom branded version of the network — or offer some services for one of the cell phone providers. But again, just being another cell phone provider can not be the whole story — it’s just too outside Apple’s domain. I could even see this as a tactic to force the other providers to play nice, “or else”. But by itself, there’s something missing to the story. (IMHO).