The CEO of France Tlcom / Orange, Stphane Richard, recently gave a fairly comprehensive interview to the site All Things Digitial (Wall Street Journal) in which he gave his views on the evolution of mobile, the Internet and Apple. If the boss of France Tlcom had already communicated some information in 2010 about the iPad, a few weeks before its release, it does not fail this time to drop some details including about the next generation of the iPhone.
The next iPhone will be more compact.
"I understood that the next iPhone would be smaller and thinner, it (Apple, editor's note) is looking to save space", says Richard, without specifying if it is the iPhone to be released this year or the iPhone 5 which should arrive next year.
A new SIM card will soon be available.
Stphane Richard also confirmed that Apple was working with operators – including Orange – to offer a new standard SIM card, "As you know Apple has been working for several years to reduce the size of SIM cards because they need space in the iPhone. They even thought of making the SIM card disappear in the e-SIM project. We all told them that it was a bad idea because the SIM card is a key piece in terms of security and authentication. I think they understood and we had a very constructive dialogue with them. We will work with them to standardize a new format of SIM card which is compatible with our security needs and compatible with their desires in terms of size. ”.
Regular but sometimes difficult communication with Apple.
The Cupertino company would seek at all costs to impose its rules on operators. For example, it is not possible for operators to personalize the iPhone with their brand. Ms. fights for operators to be able to offer their own application, obligation to go through the App Store. A constraint. Everyone is talking about net neutrality. But it's not just about the pipes, it's also about application management. If you have someone like Apple who can say "I want to" or "I don't want to" on their store, that's a problem. Until now, we have always found solutions with Apple even if it was sometimes difficult. We are not at war with them. Of course ideally, we would like to choose which services are embedded on the phone, as we can do with Android. It is not possible with Apple which forces us to offer our services to our customers via its App Store. The problem will arise the day Apple tells us “we don't want this application”. That day we will go to trial. Because competition does not only concern pipe suppliers and operators. For us this is a principle that should be valid for the whole internet ”.
The challenge of the development of the Mobile Internet.
Smartphone prices are democratizing over time. It is for example possible to find an entry-level smartphone for 150. If prices fall for consumers, problems related to bandwidth management are felt by operators who believe that awareness must be made by consumers who must understand that it is still impossible to offer unlimited data plans at relatively attractive prices. “The real risk is collapse. No one says it loud enough, but the real global risk is the collapse of the network, globally, or locally. We are the people with the pipe. We are expected to invest heavily in these to support the explosion of mobile internet traffic. But at the same time, the people who create this traffic are not really encouraged to manage it properly, overall. It’s unfair and dangerously upsets the system ”.
The iPad and … the rest.
Finally, Stphane Richard is still wondering about the future of the tablet. For him, it’s for sure, it’s the iPad that dominates comfortably. To be honest, I am a little skeptical about the future of the tablet market in terms of volumes. First, I think the iPad is way ahead of its competition. For me as a user and partner, there is the iPad and the rest. I think there is a global market for the iPad. How big it will actually be, remains a mystery as it is a new market .
We discuss it on the forum.
(Source: All Thing Digital )
