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Dialing Up the Future for iPhones on Campus

1/24/2007

We’re still interested in the VoIP phones. But if Apple comes out with a user interface for the iPhone that’s anywhere near what they did for the user interface for MP3 players, then that’s going to change the phone business like the iPod changed the MP3 player business. And they have done a great job with user interface in the past.

CT: Do you see the iPhone and iPod as going forward together into the future? Given some of the similar functionalities for audio and video delivery, will Apple ultimately have trouble differentiating these product lines?

DOMINICK: I think that’s one of the reasons that the iPhone is priced so high—with a two-year contract, you’re going to be paying about $500 for the device. But in one sense this is the top end of the iPod line. I don’t think, because of the price, that the iPhone is going to actually compete with the iPod per se, but Apple may end up cannibalizing a little of its iPod business.

At the same time, I would point out that we are getting more and more requests from faculty to do things that look like podcasting. So the general acceptance of the iPod as a content delivery vehicle is continuing to grow. And the iPod is a virtually ubiquitous piece of technology on campus today.

CT: Do you think the iPhone will eventually be offered by other carriers? Will that open the door for more adoption in higher education?

DOMINICK: I think they’ll have to branch out, and once it gets past being a single carrier technology, it will be more open to more people adopting it. Cingular has about 30 to 35 percent of the domestic US market, so Apple will want to address reaching the majority of the domestic market who might want this phone. And they will want additional partners to address the global market.

CT: Are you ready for these devices possibly appearing on your campus next fall?

DOMINICK: Not yet! This phone will launch in June. If we pick a phone that works with Windows Mobile, but is not as appealing as the iPhone, I think we’re going to be inundated by students who are caught by the glitter and glam of the iPhone at the same time that they are trying to make a purchase decision about what we’re offering.

Right now I’m thinking that we are going to have to look seriously at this phone, because there is going to be so much buzz about it in the June-July-August timeframe—just when students and their parents are making back-to-school purchasing decisions. We’re going to have to understand what impact that’s going to have on our programs.

CT: So if a student shows up with an iPhone, will you be able to accommodate them?

DOMINICK: We really don’t know yet. We have to work through that question in the next couple of months. And we haven’t had our hands on an iPhone yet. So, we don’t fully understand what it is, other than what we’ve read in the blogs and so forth. So in the next couple months we’re going to have to make some decisions, some in April, before we even will have a chance to see the device…and we don’t have a lot of information at this point.

CT: Yet this could be an important decision...

DOMINICK: The iPhone is something that has risen to the top of our radar right now—that’s pretty amazing.

Jay Dominick is assistant vice president and CIO at Wake Forest University.

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"Dialing Up the Future for iPhones on Campus," Campus Technology, 1/24/2007, http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=45172

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