Apple’s pitch for satellite investment anticipates the misadventures to which humans are prone. Get stranded up a mountain with no mobile signal and your iPhone 14 will text out an SOS. The idea is to make smartphones even more indispensable.
But distress signals are unlikely to be the end of Apple’s ambitions. Just as the company has begun to use more of its own chips to increase autonomy over hardware manufacture, Apple may hope that satellites will give it more control over connectivity. The result could be direct competition with wireless carriers such as AT&T.
Satellite/smartphone deals are all the rage. Huawei is working with China’s BeiDou satellite network while T-Mobile has signed a deal to connect smartphones to SpaceX satellites. SpaceX boss Elon Musk also claims to have had conversations with Apple. Amazon has partnered with Verizon, OneWeb with AT&T and Nokia with AST SpaceMobile. Some aim to connect satellites directly to phones, others to cell towers.