Will we soon see the logo of the famous bitten apple in the satellite space? According to the American site Bloomberg, Apple is working on its own satellite technology to make iPhones communicate with each other, without going through the network of telecom operators. A team would have been created in secret to develop the project and Apple would have hired a dozen engineers specializing in aerospace, telecommunications and the design of antennas and satellites.
The team would be led by two aerospace engineers, Michael Trela and John Fenwick. Both of whom previously worked for Google. If it were to see the light of day, this technology would be used both to make iPhone communicate with each other and to connect them directly to the Internet. Bypassing the wireless networks used until then. This would allow Apple to no longer be dependent on telecom operators and their satellites.
Apple Has Secret Team Working on Satellites to Beam Data to iPhones
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Apple representatives declined to answer Bloomberg’s questions on the subject. And there is no assurance that this project will be carried out. Apple could abandon or delegate it to another company. The construction of satellites is not guaranteed either, Apple could more simply use ground infrastructures which exploit satellite data and serve as a transmitter between the iPhones.
But according to Bloomberg, satellite technology would be a priority for Tim Cook, and Apple would await the first results of this project within five years.
It is worth to mention that Amazon plans to deploy more than 3,000 satellites as part of a future constellation. However, the industry had a lot of failures. Iridium LLC filed for bankruptcy protection in 1999. And Teledesic abandoned its “internet from the sky” plan more than a decade ago. Newer efforts from Facebook, SpaceX and Amazon are a long way from generating revenue. And Apple rarely enters new categories without a clear way to make money.