Note: apple is developing satellite technology
On December 20, Beijing time, people familiar with the matter said that Apple has established a secret team to develop satellites and related wireless technologies, and strive to find new ways to send data such as Internet connection directly to the company's equipment.
Apple has about 12 engineers from the aerospace, satellite and antenna design industries working on the project with the goal of deploying their achievements within five years, people familiar with the matter said. The research of this project is still at an early stage and may be abandoned. The clear development direction and use of the satellite have not been finalized. However, Apple CEO Tim & middot; Tim Cook has shown interest in this project and pointed out that it is a priority for the company.
Apple's development of communication satellites and next-generation wireless technology means that its goal is likely to send data to user devices, which may reduce its dependence on wireless operators, or connect devices together without traditional networks. Apple may also be exploring the use of satellites to provide more accurate location tracking for its devices, so as to improve maps and launch new functions.
It is unclear whether Apple intends to build an expensive satellite constellation or just use ground equipment to receive data from existing satellites and send it to mobile devices. Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Boeing are the largest satellite manufacturers.
An apple spokesman declined to comment.
In recent months, Apple has begun to recruit new software and hardware experts for this team, looking for engineers with experience in designing communication equipment parts. Apple also recruited other executives from aerospace and wireless data transmission.
The team is composed of Michael & middot, a former aerospace engineer; Michael trela and John & middot; Led by John Fenwick. The two helped lead skybox before the satellite imaging company skybox imaging was sold to Google in 2014. Subsequently, the two led Google's satellite and spacecraft business until they left at the same time in 2017 to start a new project at Apple.
In Apple's first year and a half, the two explored the feasibility of developing satellite technology, understood the problems they wanted to solve, and began to strengthen project research in recent months. This effort suffered a setback earlier this year. REGg & middot, the former person in charge who joined apple to lead the project in 2016; Greg Duffy left. Duffy to Dan & middot, senior vice president of Apple hardware engineering; Dan Riccio reported that he was the co-founder of the camera startup dropcam, which was acquired by Google in 2014.
According to Lingying, a professional social networking website, Duffy said that the projects he developed involved 'satellite communication, wireless and home products / technologies'. He declined to comment on the details of his work at Apple.
Rita and Fenwick still work in Apple's hardware engineering department, but now report to Riccio's deputy in charge of iPhone engineering.
People familiar with the matter said that the team was recently replenishing personnel from the wireless industry, including engineer Matt & middot; Matt ettus. Itus now helps lead the project. He is one of the most famous people in the field of wireless technology. He founded ettus research. Itus research is a subsidiary of national instruments, which sells wireless network equipment.
Apple also hired Ashley & middot, a senior executive of Aerospace; Mole & middot; Ashley Moore Williams and Daniel middot, a former Netflix executive; Daniel Ellis. Williams focuses on the communication satellite project. Ellis has helped manage Netflix's content distribution network and has experience in building a network to transmit content and information around the world.
Satellite technology development is one of several 'special projects' of apple. " 'special project 'is synonymous with Apple's ongoing skunk engineering project or major new product category development. Apple is also developing a virtual reality (VR) headset, which will be launched as soon as 2021, and plans to release augmented reality (AR) glasses after that. In addition, apple is also developing microled screens, new household products, automatic driving technology and an apple watch that can analyze users' blood chemistry to determine blood glucose levels in the future. Apple is also expanding its independent chip development business, no longer relying on Intel on MAC processors, and no longer relying on Intel and Qualcomm on mobile baseband.
According to Apple's financial documents, under the leadership of cook, Apple has rapidly expanded its R & D budget and invested US $16 billion in fiscal 2019, a year-on-year increase of 14%. One of Apple's main goals is to make the technology behind more products independent, which may be achieved through the development of satellites.
As part of the future constellation plan, Amazon plans to deploy more than 3000 satellites. However, there are many examples of failures in this industry. Iridium filed for bankruptcy protection in 1999, and teledesic abandoned the "air Internet" plan more than a decade ago. The newly launched efforts of Facebook, SpaceX and Amazon are still a long way from generating revenue. Apple rarely enters new areas without seeing a clear way to generate revenue.
"The lesson of previous failures of iridium, Globalstar and teledesic is that it is really difficult to find a viable business plan for multi billion dollar satellite communication projects." Tim & middot, chief expert of TMF associates, a satellite consulting company; Tim Farrar said.