There’s more to Apple’s push e-mail and visual voicemail than meets the eye. Network operators have to install Apple hardware in their data centres, giving the iPhone maker access to information on exactly what iPhones are used for.
Sure, it sounds a little creepy, but it’s the only way Apple can serve up features like visual voicemail, push e-mail and push notifications that save battery life by running background apps on servers instead of the phone.
However, some analysts say that a by-product of Apple’s positioning could be the next holy grail of mobile money-making schemes: control over mobile advertising.
“Apple can data mine the application message stream,” says analyst STL Partners, “and it’s been a telco’s dream for years to mediate such flows.”
The thinking is that, once Apple understands exactly how iPhone owners use the web on their phone, they can start to sell on the back of it.
“It doesn’t take massive market share (stimulated by the new low price point) for the iPhone to de facto become the mobile web,” explains STL. “You don’t have to be too bright to realise that one of the most likely things to be pushed to a phone in future is an advert, mediated again by Apple.”
So is Apple about to do for the mobile web what Google Adwords did on the desktop? It’s not too far to stretch. The two companies even share company directors.
Stay tuned for more as soon as we hear it.
TBC | £TBC | Apple (via The Register)
