iPhone Lust
January 13th, 2007
OK, so I’m one of the millions of geeks that, as Stephen Colbert put it (see my next post about him mentioning Woz and Segway Polo), got “wood” over Apple’s new iPhone. There’s a lot to love about this phone based on Steve Job’s introduction at MacWorld 2007. The best thing is that it runs OS X. I’m a Mac fan and have had a Mac since 1990. I think that OS X is one of the most solid, secure operating systems available today and to have it on a portable device is amazing. I also like that the various applications are the same as the one’s you’d find on your Mac at home; You browse real webpages on a real web browser, not WAP pages, you get your mail with a mail client that works just like the one on my Mac. I love the screen. I haven’t seen it in person but from everything I’ve heard it’s beautiful.
I think the design is great but somehow not quite as great as most of Apple’s other recent products (iMac, MacBooks and iPods). I can’t quite put my finger on what it is but there’s something that could be better about the iPhone’s design. I’m also a little sketchy on the phone’s keypads. I’m not sure I’ll like the way the buttons work but I’m also not sure exactly how they work so I have to wait and trust that Apple’s design will work as well as their others have. I’m disappointed that they haven’t included 3G. It seems that if you want to have a top of the line phone/internet appliance you need to take advantage of all the best technologies available and, by ignoring 3G, Apple isn’t.
I would have loved to see Apple release a provider-independent phone. How great would it have been to have Apple lead the way in breaking the stranglehold that cellular providers exercise over the public? There may be a technical reason they weren’t able to do this or maybe they didn’t want to but it would have been a real blow for the little guy. The choice of Cingular is really irrelevant. Apple could have gone with any carrier - it’s about the phone afterall. Although the $599 price with a 2 year contract seems a little ridiculous. I’d buy the phone for $599 without a contract but I’m not going to be locked into 2 years and pay that kind of money. Of course I say that now…
Last but not least is Cisco’s lawsuit because it had trademarked iPhone. This, in my opinion, will not help Cisco’s reputation. From what I’ve read so far it looks like Cisco almost let the trademark expire but, betting on Apple’s introduction of a phone, decided to renew it just to make a quick buck.
I’ll be interested to see one in the wild and to hear what some of the “experts” have to say about it.
