Tim Cook says Apple won't be a mobile carrier, because it doesn't have the global expertise
Apple CEO Tim Cook has confirmed that he doesn't share the dream of his predecessor Steve Jobs in making Apple into a mobile carrier. Jobs famously had a dream of getting everyone in the world to turn on free guest WiFi, and using that as an ad-hoc mobile network, but obviously the plan never amounted to much.
Now, Tim Cook said at an interview at Startup Fest Europe in Amsterdam that Apple will not be entering the mobile carrier space and will also not be attempting to become an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator). Cook's exact reasoning was kind of interesting:
We don’t have the network skill. We’ll do some things along the way with e-SIMs along the way, but in general, I like the things carriers do.
Our expertise doesn’t extend to the network. We’ve worked with AT&T in the US, O2 in the UK, as well as T-Mobile and Orange, and we expanded as we learned more. But generally, the things Apple likes to do, are things we can do globally.
Apple has a history of saying that it won't do something... until it does. But, this answer seems far more real than those past examples. The key here isn't just that Cook is denying that Apple would get into the space, but that the reason is because Apple wouldn't be able to do it globally. Cook isn't necessarily saying that Apple can't be a mobile carrier, just that it's too difficult to jump through all the regulatory hoops around the world to make it work everywhere.
source: 9to5Mac
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