Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and LG might be secretly rooting for the iPhone to be a (minor) hit.
By Stephanie Mehta, Fortune senior writer
December 15 2006: 3:52 PM EST
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- If Steve Jobs' Apple decides to build a wireless phone, as widely rumored, the company has the chance to shake up not just the wireless device business - an industry dominated by the likes of Motorola and Nokia - it also could upend the entire wireless distribution model in the United States.
We know very little about the so-called iPhone. Apple isn't talking ("We don't comment on rumor and speculation," a spokesman told me) but we do know that wireless represents a huge opportunity - and threat - for Apple, and every other consumer electronics and computer maker.
Wireless phone makers increasingly are adding MP3 players to their devices, with the capability to download songs over the air. It certainly makes sense for Apple to want a piece of this action.
How Apple makes this happen is a topic of great swirl in tech and telecom circles. UBS telecom analyst John Hodulik recently published a report positing that Apple would seek to become a virtual phone company, buying airtime wholesale from Cingular and reselling wireless service, along with its new phone, sometimes in the first quarter of 2007.more
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