Post by 4aapl on Aug 7, 2019 22:04:41 GMT -8
Muskrat has no income, no banks are willing to refinance, his boring company is grounded, his stock is a loser, he overpromises and under-delivers, and no sane person truly believes half his utterances. And yes, he has talked about low orbit coverage, talk is cheap. If only he had FU money like AAPL, who can fund the entire project! Apple just needs a delivery company for said satellites, no larger than a MacMini with solar wings for the renewable energy, which is modest. So until Bezos starts space next day delivery, Space X is it.
FWIW, SpaceX is already launching a bunch of tiny satellites into very low orbit. I believe it is part of the plane tracking system going in. I forget all the details, but we watched a cool launch of it when headed down to LA at xmas time, a year and a half ago.
A friend works for SpaceX. I had already noticed Musk several times with several companies basically saying (or straight out saying) they were doing it to push the envelope, and get things going quicker. Like with opening up the patents for Tesla. But the friend said this was all about Mars, and that everything has that as the end game. Something about that they'd need to bore a few meters into Mars to cut down on the radioactivity or exposure, and that the LA basin has similar geology, so it was a great test bed.
Apple has had lots of opportunities to go wild on creating it's own cell carrier, if it wanted. It hasn't, which as far as monopolies is probably a good thing. But it does seem like there are opportunities, like going with low orbit satellites to get rid of coverage gaps for a great backup, even if laggy but a lot better than a traditional sat phone (Everest or the like talked about the lag).
We're in the forest, and there are places on rides and trail work that don't have coverage. And then there's the big national parks. While I don't think there needs to be screaming fast internet everywhere, having it at least work would make for a good backup, for the times you need to reach someone.
Someday! But maybe Apple will help push the envelope here. I doubt it, but I could see it happening if the right person saw a good reason.