Existing users, 
iPhone will need iTunes account, other details revealed in AT&T email
Posted 12 June 2007 @ 1pm in News
Earlier today, AT&T sent an email to users who signed up for notifications regarding the iPhone. The message, titled “Get ready. iPhone is coming June 29th” reveals that an iTunes account will be required to set up the device and recommends that potential iPhone buyers create an iTunes account now if they don’t already have one. The message states:
“To set up your iPhone, you’ll need an account with Apple’s iTunes Store. If you already have an iTunes account, make sure you know your account name and password. If you don’t have an account, you should set one up now to save time later. To set up an account, launch iTunes, select the iTunes Store, and click the ‘Sign In,’ button in the upper right corner of iTunes. Sign in and you’re ready to go.”
Other interesting tidbits from the email:
- The iPhone will be able to synchronize with Apple’s Address Book or Microsoft’s Entourage on a Mac, or Outlook or Outlook Express on a PC. It can also synchronize with the web version of Yahoo! Address Book.
- Calendar synchronization occurs through iTunes, pulling data from iCal or Entourage on the Mac, or Outlook on a PC.
- The iPhone email application can access Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL, and .Mac Mail. The iPhone can synchronize server settings from email accounts stored in Mail on a Mac or Outlook on a PC. As previously announced, the iPhone also works with almost any industry-standard POP3 and IMAP email system.
- Photos are also synchronized through iTunes, pulling images from iPhoto on a Mac or Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Photoshop Album, or any picture folder on a PC.
Feedback? info@iphoneatlas.com.
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3 Comments
Posted by Ralph
12 June 2007 @ 3pm
Very interesting that iTunes appears to be the conduit, not just for music, photos and video, but for calendars and email settings. Presumably iTunes is also the conduit for contacts as well?
Makes sense to have a single conduit, and obviously iTunes is already installed on Macs and PCs, but it seems strange that iSync is not involved!
Posted by Ralph
13 June 2007 @ 10am
Ah, I understand why Apple wants all content to be transferred via iTunes. This enables Apple to be the retailer of all commercial content. This includes music, videos, etc. that are in the iTunes store today, but probably also games and other iPhone software down the road (note the EA Games announcement at WWDC).
That also explains why an iTunes account is required to operate an iPhone…so that all users will have a credit card on file with Apple.
I wonder if AT&T realizes they just lost the content franchise?
Posted by Alarik
13 June 2007 @ 8pm
Ralph,
You’re quite right, I think. See the column by Staci Kramer on Forbes’s PaidContent.org (sorry,don’t have the link). Here’s a quote from the article:
“True, most of the first-ins probably already have iTunes and are likely to have an iTunes account. (This takes Microsoft’s Passport/Windows Live ID one step further by linking access to a credit card. It would be the equivalent of requiring a Zune or Xbox Marketplace account before activating the abilities of Windows Mobile 6 on a smartphone.) This way, Apple can have a retail relationship outside of AT&T —a vital step, especially for a company for which control is as important as the product itself. When you get to this point, iPhone is beginning to look and sound like an MVNO that isn’t labeled as such.”
I like that–turning AT&T into a quasi MVNO. Apple displays the same cleverness by having Safari on Windows–it’s there for the sake of the iPhone.
All very ingenious.
Alarik