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Arthur T Knackerbracket [soylentnews.org] writes:

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story [cnet.com]:

Apple could be exploring the idea of launching satellites. 

Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg [bloomberg.com] says that Apple has "a secret team working on satellites and related wireless technology, striving to find new ways to beam data such as internet connectivity directly to its devices." The team currently consists of roughly a dozen people, the outlet adds, with the company hoping to deploy "their results within five years." 

Bloomberg cautions that while CEO Tim Cook [cnet.com] is interested in the project, it's still early days and could be scrapped as "a clear direction and use for satellites hasn't been finalized."

While the satellites could potentially provide internet, which could then allow Apple to have less reliance on traditional wireless carriers, the report says they could also be used for other purposes such as "more precise location tracking for its devices."

Apple did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment. 

The battle for space provided services is only expected to heat up in the next decade. Amazon announced its "Project Kuiper" plan [cnet.com] for internet access via low-Earth orbit satellites earlier this year, while Elon Musk's SpaceX filed an application for 30,000 similar satellites for its Starlink internet program [cnet.com] in October. Other companies looking into satellite internet include Facebook [cnet.com] and Telesat, the latter of which has already partnered with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin [telesat.com]. 

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