myPhoneWar.com - Apple's filed over 200 patents, so you have to ask yourself... do you feel lucky punk?

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No Man's Land

The End of the World

Some of the most revolutionary features of the iPhone seem to have more to do with concessions by Cingular Wireless, than simply being about advanced technology.  For instance, while the iPhone allows wireless or Wi-Fi access, it is NOT an "unlocked" phone.  Carriers like Cingular usually get substantial revenue from high-speed connection fees, and as such, discourage their phone makers against including this.  Also, after approaching Verizon, apparently the deal breaker with that company, was Apple's insistance on using the iTunes Music Store and not Verizon's own VCAST service.  As many features as Apple successfully negotiated, here is a short list of remaining taboos the new relationship did not touch. Perhaps with good reason too.

TABOOS 

• Ringtones - Early on, it was expected that the iPhone would break the rules that have governed ringtones on phones.  Presumeably Apple would allow its customers to use any song on their iPhone as a ringtone (whether purchased from iTunes or stored as MP3.  Details started to become clear however, that Apple intended to make managing ringtones simpler, but that they may still be sold as separate products in iTunes.  Ringtones clearly appear to be a holy cow, multi-million dollar market that Apple may choose or be forced to keep intact.
• Purchasing Music - It remains to be seen if Apple will allow the iPhone to purchase music.  It's been a consideration, that the only thing that separates an iPod from a "computer", is the fact that the iPod is a receptacle for content, but does not acquire content for itself.  According to Apple's agreements, one might surmise that to change this paradigm, would make said iPod one of the limit set of devices allowed to be authorised on any given account (similar to how Microsoft's DRM is often implemented).  As a "dumb" receptacle, the iPhone should not be capable of running "iTunes" for wireless downloads.  This is one of the clear circumstances, as to why Apple would profoundly benefit from less DRM restrictions on content.
  

VICTORIES

• Wi-Fi / Network Phone
• Visual Voice Mail (joint development)