You have probably read about the iPhone, the latest endeavor from Apple. Think iPod meets mobile phone meets Palm, but OS X style. The blogosphere’s all over this.
I’m not impressed, by the way. The iPhone lacks 3G and is arriving at a time when that’ll be the norm. The camera is just 2 megapixels which will be less than half of what the main competition will offer at the time, and it’s really expensive. $499 $599 (thanks David) for the big one isn’t so much? Dude, that’s with a 2 year subscription to Cingular!
People will buy it, it’ll probably be good, and it looks nice as well as sporting the Apple logo. Go figure. I get gadget crazy too. I’m no better, but I won’t get it. Lack of 3G is my reason.
OS X in a phone is cool, indeed it is. It sure sounds like you have a stripped down Mac in your pocket. However, it’s a closed system so you won’t be downloading OS X software to the left and right. It’s not Palm OS or Pocket PC, it’s a mobile version of OS X where Apple are in charge, from start to finish. Maybe that will change over time, but it doesn’t impress me. If I dish out lots of money for a smartphone (or whatever they want to call it) I’d like to put the software I want in it. It’s kind of the idea, you know.
Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone looks great and I do not doubt it’s a good product. But looking at the coverage in the blogosphere you’d think it was the solution to all our problems. I guess that’s the way it is, the majority of bloggers with an audience are interested in gadgets, especially the sleek Apple ones.
I am too. I’m no better. I work better in an esthetically designed environment. I’m more motivated to use a clean interface, than an ugly one.
Then I wake up and realize I can’t afford being design picky all the time. Functionality has to come first.
Someone should give me a pile of money.
Thord, Cingular will cave in and make their videos iTunes compatible very soon, and the iPhone will become 3G almost instantaneously.
No mystery here, just Steve Jobs wanting to dominate the mobile market while continuing to earn revenues from iTunes.
It’s the old Apple story. Watch this space.
Well, you can’t make the iPhone 3G without having 3G hardware in it, you know.
True, but my information says that a simple switch of firmware will do the trick. Apple has already prepared for this.
Well, there’s a reason why 3G phones are a bit bulky: the hardware is a bit roomy. But sure, they might have put it in there, although i really doubt it.
Hehe, never underestimate how tricky Steve Jobs can be.
i’m also finding it hard to believe that a gsm phone will have 3g compnents inside, but who knwos…
After doing some reading, it appears that Jobs have confirmed that they will do a 3G phone, but it will be a new version when 3G hits big in the US. However, when we get the phone in Sweden, as in Q3-4, 3G will be the big thing. It almost already is.
Apple needs to think about on how to handle Sweden, and other 3G advanced markets, since a GSM launch of the iPhone will totally rely on the Apple brand. Which will work to some extent of course.
This is where I got my information from, Thord. HERE.
I’m answering you in an all new blog post. Feel honored, John.
I’m honoured, Thord.
A couple of points, though. The name iPhone is apparently not taken now — it ran out recently, so Apple is free to use it. And AT&T is debranding the name Cingular and rolling up the company into itself. So this could fundamentally change the shape of the iPhone in the future. All Jobs wants is to make money from iTunes. When the DRM business is sorted, the iPhone could become something very different.
Absolutely, I have no doubt that the iPhone (or whatever they’ll call it) will be an interesting product. I do have some reservations about this first iteration though, especially the lack of 3G. But I’m living in a country where this is widely available, so that’s not an issue for most of the world I guess.