But a phone-only approach does make sense for Apple, at least for now—after all, Apple makes better hardware than anyone else.
"Gates saw software as a separate market from hardware before anyone else, but his great insight was recognizing the power of the network effects surrounding the software," said Michael A. Cusumano, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.
Google Hardware Labs, anyone?
Whether there'd be new hardware is anyone's guess.
But to get anywhere, Apple needs to quickly remake its OS to run PC software and license its hardware to anyone willing to make it.
For one thing, it's deliberately incomplete, and Apple's plan for the iPad v2 is spelled out in the hardware for anyone to see.
AT&T might not be dishing out the high-speed HSPA+ or LTE radio waves just yet, but that doesn't mean they won't sell the hardware to anyone lookin' to be future ready.
The downside is that it is probably pie-in-the-sky to imagine that the military would ever sell such hardware to anyone on the off-chance they hadn't obliterated all information held on it.
Manufacturers like Intel are opening their hardware specs so anyone can build out an infrastructure based upon open designs.
There are only 13 hours left in the campaign and, given the fear of potential hardware hacking by anyone and everyone, this could be an interesting solution.
