Apple, give us something to talk about

Able to cash in on crazy dreams
Eventually there will be several iPhone models, and annual unit sales will number in the tens of millions. But then what? There isn't a clear road ahead, though some possibilities are enticing. Armed with a hoard of cash—$15.4 billion at last count—and a trove of cultural currency, Apple can afford to take chances more than ever. And so crazy ideas can't be easily dismissed.

Take a recent rumor that Apple might launch a music label in partnership with rap entrepreneur Jay-Z, who recently left his role as an executive at Def Jam Recordings. If Starbucks, the world's biggest seller of coffee, can have its own music label, why can't Apple, the third-largest music vendor? And if not a record label, then why not a TV or movie studio, one created with digital production and distribution values in mind instead of the last century's sacred cows? Far-fetched? Perhaps. But with the cash and reputation to attract the right kind of talent, Apple might even be able to partner with existing media companies, starting with Disney, where Jobs happens to be the biggest individual shareholder.

Apple's next frontier
Alternatively, Apple could simply explore more opportunities in consumer electronics, once again exploiting the versatile Mac computer operating system. Just as it helped make the iPhone so easy to use, the Mac OS could be adapted to almost any type of device. Imagine a smart television that connects not only to a traditional cable TV feed, but to the Internet, and features a built-in DVR and "place-shifting" capabilities to access all that content remotely. Like the iMac, the TV could be equipped with an embedded iSight video camera and Apple's iChat for video-chat sessions in the living room.

How about reimagining another popular consumer device? Digital picture frames are popular, but not all that smart. Apple could add the iPhone's wireless connectivity and touch screen to create a simple communications hub, an alternative to the PC for playing video and music, displaying e-mail, and surfing Web pages, all on a slightly bigger display with a larger on-screen keyboard than the iPhone's. The device might also provide access to any file stored on your computer from anywhere around the house. "I can see these portable screens going anywhere," says Tim Bajarin, head of research firm Creative Strategies.

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Or how about the car as Apple's next frontier? In-car entertainment and navigation systems could certainly benefit from Apple's touch. They're hard to use, buggy, and because of the automotive industry's manufacturing cycle, their features tend to lag behind what consumers have come to expect from the consumer electronics industry. Already partnered with most automakers to provide iPod integration with car stereo systems, Apple could also try to adapt its elegant Mac OS to a car's other systems. Microsoft has been after the automotive market for nearly a decade, and is making inroads with Ford and Fiat.

(MSNBC.com is a Microsoft-NBC Universal joint venture.)

Learning from retail
While all these ideas may sound far-fetched, it's instructive to look back. In 2002, when Apple first announced it was launching a retail arm, the idea was widely dismissed as too costly and unlikely to appeal to enough people to be profitable. Last year, Apple's retail operation generated more than $4 billion in sales.

At $4,500 per square foot of retail space, Apple's sales are more robust than those of any other electronics store and even luxury retailers such as Tiffany & Co. and Neiman Marcus, says Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research. Some crazy idea.

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