Telecom-orifices

I wonder if Cingular CEO Stan “snoozer” Sigman demanded an apology from Steve Jobs over this comment?

Great Expectations Juice Up Apple's Trade Show - WSJ.com : ... While the digital music player is still selling well, the business is growing at a significantly slower clip as it gets larger. Apple sold 39.4 million iPods that brought in $7.68 billion in revenue during its most recent fiscal year ended Sept. 30. The number of iPods sold was up 75% from the previous fiscal year, but down from 409% growth the year prior to that.
But there are big obstacles to Apple becoming a player in the wireless market. At a Wall Street Journal conference in 2005, Mr. Jobs described his reluctance to get into the cellphone business.

In particular, the Apple executive referred to wireless carriers as “orifices” because of the bottleneck they pose in selling products directly to consumers. Apple has long favored selling products like the iPod and Macintosh directly to users.
Certainly, consumers appear to be interested in seeing Apple apply some of the design know-how it demonstrated with the iPod into new areas.

Mike Vorhaus, a managing director at consulting and research firm Frank N. Magid Associates, said consumers have shown a willingness in surveys conducted by the firm to see the Apple and iPod brands attached to more than just pure music players. “Both have permission to be anything in entertainment,” Mr. Vorhaus says.

(previous coverage of the rumored iPhone here)

Technorati Tags: Apple