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🛰️ call me whenever, wherever
last week, apple announced a bundle of new products
the one that stood out to me the most was the new iphone 14’s "groundbreaking safety features designed to save lives"
enter: emergency sos via satellite
the feature lets users contact energency services (aka 911) while stuck in areas with little to no cell phone reception
this is done by users pointing their phones in the sky to quickly catch a satellite
this allows their contacts to also track their location while in low-reception areas
it’s tech, but an insurance play
every time the new iphone releases, personally, i have a hard time spotting a crazy new invention or a game changer
but, once again, apple’s put out a bundle of new features that are just enough to get people to be buying again and waiting for the next upgrade
this satellite-sos feature provides apple yet another edge - the company will start charging a service fee after letting it be free for two years
an extra few bucks of “insurance payment” wouldn’t be much of a turn-off for most consumers, while justifying that much extra revenue for iphone sold
apple's secured the business infrastructure by promising to pay globalstar a "recurring service fee" and to cover 95% of globalstar's capex
others are catching up soon
spacex and t-mobile essentially announced the same thing in august to end mobile "dead zones"
(although apple's iphone 14 will come out in november, while spacex and t-mobile were initially aiming at end of 2023)
others tapping in the market soon:
amazon x verizon
ast spacemobile x lynk
i hope i never run into a situation where i’ll have to use the feature though…