Real Kato Blog: iPhone Day Approaches

iPhone. iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone iPhone.

So here it comes. You can't avoid it. The iPhone is front page news everywhere. It was on the Daily Show, on David Letterman, on our local news. It's very exciting.

Lots has been said about the iPhone, and I won't go through it all. But I'll address some criticisms that I think are overstated.

First, the price. Is the iPhone too expensive, at $499 for the 4GB version and $599 for the 8GB version? Look: if Apple is able to sell every single iPhone that it's able to manufacture, then clearly the price isn't too high. Apple's obligation is not to provide the masses with the least expensive product possible. Apple's obligation is to maximize profit for the benefit of its shareholders. Judging from the lines that are forming at AT&T and Apple stores around the country, I think it's entirely likely that Apple has guessed correctly, and that they'll be able to sell millions of these things even at these prices. If not? Apple has room to tweak the price if they need to, without killing their profit margins.

Second, the touch screen. Will the on-screen keyboard, with its lack of tactile feedback, be too difficult to use? You know, I'd bet that the vast majority of consumers out there are not text-messaging jocks who can spin out 25 words per minute on their 0-9 keypad, or who write lengthy emails on their Blackberries. Most of use don't use our phones for a lot of writing because it's just too difficult. I don't deny that it's possible to achieve proficiency with text entry on a Blackberry, or even on a regular cell phone. But if I put a cell phone, a Blackberry, and an iPhone in front of a fat-fingered novice user, I'm gonna guess that the iPhone's interface would be the most comfortable.

Anyway, I don't buy most of the criticisms about the screen, because they come from people who haven't used the device yet. Or from people who have only been exposed to the interface for a few minutes. Think of this: if touch screen keyboards were the existing familiar standard, and someone came up and tried to get you to switch to the bizarre 0-9 keypad text-entry method, you'd scoff at that too.

Third, the "slow" EDGE network access. Yes, EDGE is a little slow compared to the 3G networks that other providers have. But let's think about a couple of things.

(A) Most of my life is spent in a location that has WiFi available. And even a good 3G network is no match for WiFi connected to broadband Internet. I'll do most of my mobile web browsing at 5 megabits per second instead of 384 kilobits per second, thankyouverymuch. Having EDGE as a backup is just gravy. 3G would be nice, but it's not a necessity for me.

(B) You can hardly blame Apple for this. AT&T doesn't have 3G widely deployed, and AT&T is the exclusive carrier. No doubt Apple approached Verizon at some point. But I'd bet that Verizon stubbornly hung on to their consumer-hostile closed-system mentality, and wouldn't let Apple do things like self-activation over the Internet or music purchases from iTunes. Verizon would have wanted the iPhone to be as locked down as every other cell phone out there. For me, I'd rather have the freedom than the 3G speed.

(C) I wouldn't be surprised if Apple planned to leapfrog 3G in favor of WiMax, eventually. Apple and Intel are closely allied now, remember, and Intel is the leading proponent of WiMax.

Fourth, the software limitations. No Flash animation, no Java, no independent software applications, no iChat. Blah blah blah. There will be plenty of software updates over the next few months. And as for the lack of support for proprietary Microsoft technologies (especially Exchange mail support), fooey. Why would Apple want to promote Exchange, when better open standards for email are available?

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Here's my prediction: Apple will sell truckloads of these things, and they'll be the must-have status symbol of the year. They'll be passé by as soon as next year, but by then Apple will have come out with the next-generation model. Is the iPhone the next iPod? You betcha.

Permalink 3 Comment

Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Comments

Comment #1 from Bake Town (Guest)
2007 Jun 29 - 12:17 pm : #

I was thinking of getting one, but I think I'll wait a while too see how it goes. What I want to know is it going to break if it is dropped, because I don't know about you, but I drop my phone sometimes. I'm still using the Nokia I won at Blogher!

Comment #2 from Crouching Hamster (Guest)
2007 Jun 30 - 1:03 am : #

Totally.

Comment #3 from Steve (Guest)
2007 Jul 2 - 9:02 am : #

"...they'll be the must-have status symbol of the year."

That's my only major problem with the iPhone. Here's one more device that nobody really "needs", but millions of people will go out and spend $500 or $600 that could be used for so many more useful and beneficial purposes.

Of course, I'm a hypocrite, 'cause I really, really want one, I just don't have the money for it right now, but still...

Comments are closed for this post.

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