这些年来，好多报道都称苹果公司将会推出像谷歌的Project Fi一样的虚商业务。去年秋天，甚至有报道称苹果已经开始测试其专为iPhone和iPad提供的虚商服务了。

 

外界都认为，像其他所有虚商一样，苹果将会利用来自美国其他运营商的的已有基础设施，并将其与自身公司的资费套餐与服务相结合。

 

然而，去年8月苹果已经否认了这些，现在蒂姆·库克又给出了最终确认。在计算机技术节上，他告诉已经退休的欧盟数字技术专员Neelie Kroes，苹果公司的专业技术并未拓展到网络方面。

 

库克还表示，“苹果公司在美国和AT&T有合作，在英国与T-Mobile和Orange合作，当我们学到足够专业知识的时候才会扩展我们的业务”。“但总的来说，苹果所要做的事儿时能够在全球范围内都能实现的事儿。”

 

库克再次补充到，苹果尚不具备“网络能力”，但在其发展过程中将会继续发展“e-sim”卡的。

 

苹果SIM卡目前仍然只能在iPad上使用，在不久之后，iPhone也有希望能用，但没办法直接从苹果公司直接购买数据流量以及其它服务。

 

Apple Won’t Become a Carrier or MVNO

 

Speaking at Startup Fest Europe in Amsterdam today, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed the Cupertino company has no plans to become a carrier or mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). Apple simply doesn’t have the expertise, he said.

 

Apple has reportedly been planning to launch its own MVNO — like Google’s Project Fi— for a number of years. Last fall, it was reported that the company was even testing its own MVNO service specifically for the iPhone and iPad.

 

Like all MVNOs, it was thought Apple’s would utilize existing infrastructure already in place from other U.S. carriers and combining it with its own tariffs and services.

 

However, Apple denied those plans last August, and now Tim Cook has put the final nail in the coffin. “Our expertise doesn’t extend to the network,” he told retired European Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes at Startup Fest.

 

“We’ve worked with AT&T in the US, O2 in the UK, as well as T-Mobile and Orange, and we expanded as we learned more,” Cook added. “But generally, the things Apple likes to do, are things we can do globally.”

 

Cook added that Apple’s doesn’t have the “network skill,” and although it will continue to develop “e-SIMs” as it moves forward, Cook likes “the things carriers do” already.

 

Apple SIM, which is currently still an iPad exclusive, may well extend to the iPhone in the future, then — but you won’t be able to buy data and other services directly from Apple.