A few weeks before his trial with Twitter, Elon Musk could become an Apple supplier. For your new iPhone, the Apple brand launches an emergency service that will be connected to a satellite. Elon Musk naturally proposes associating the services of his Starlink satellite constellation for the operation of this new application.
The two companies had “promising exchanges,” Elon Musk said on Twitter, adding that Apple’s iPhone team is “super smart.” According to him, SpaceX has been talking to Apple about using Starlink connectivity for the iPhone maker’s new satellite features. It was not clear if the talks were still ongoing.
Starlink is SpaceX’s project to create a constellation of thousands of satellites to provide ultra-high-speed global Internet coverage. The company currently has some 3,000 satellites in orbit and recently said it has more than 400,000 customers, Bloomberg recalls.
global star on the move
For its part, Apple has already partnered with Globalstar to boost satellite infrastructure. The tech giant said it is committing $450 million to support the feature. The Emergency SOS service will allow iPhone 14 users to communicate with emergency services in areas without a network. The feature is expected to launch in November in the US and Canada, but not in Europe. It will be free for two years.
Last month, SpaceX and US mobile operator T-Mobile US defeated Apple by revealing that users of T-Mobile’s network could use SpaceX satellites to send messages to areas without cellular connectivity. This collaboration depends on SpaceX launching an upgraded version of its Starlink satellites. The service will be different from Apple’s (limited to location sharing) in that it will allow communication between consumers.
Source: BFM TV
