This article was written on January 10, 2007 by CyberNet.
Alright, this should be the last of iPhone news for now. I couldn’t help but write up another post, mainly because I was intrigued by some overly excited commenter’s over at Gizmodo that made some good points about why the iPhone might take off like crazy. Then I came across another interesting article over at TUAW that gave a reason why it might not take off like crazy as most people are anticipating. I guess you can just consider this a comment round-up because a lot of good points have been made.
We’ll start with the overly animated commenter’s over at Gizmodo under their article “Gizmodo iPhone Hands-On: I called my Mommy,” which is an interesting read as well. Anyhow, the first comment that caught my attention here was from a reader named ‘graydon’ and he says:
I’m getting one the day they are available. I will take out my tmobile pebl and a hammer and smash the crap out of it right in the Cingular store if I can get some swag.
I don’t care about price. I care about experience. I have a gut feeling the experience will be frigging awesome. Just like when the ipod first showed up and people were like “Meh – I ain’t spending that much for some mp3 player” and a month later they were all blinged out with ipods.
What intrigued me was this was someone who had no reservations about the price, or Cingular. He’s goin’ out to get one the day they become available. Interesting because my first thought was $600! That better be one darn good phone for $600…. and it very well could be worth every penny of it, I’ll just have to wait and see. There’s no doubt about it, there are a lot of excited people ready to go out on the day of release.
Next was a comment from ‘djdare’ and he says:
You know its funny how history repeats itself. Same talk as when the iPod came out… it’s too expensive, this is just a niche item for the fanboys… blah blah blah.
Bottom-line be patient, 5 years from now, we’ll all wonder what life was like before the iPhone came out. MS will be releasing a competing product called the Phune, touting their slogan “welcome to the circle jerk”.
Just look back at a 1G iPod, think about how that looks to you now… those retailed for what 4gb phone is going to go for in June, so just give it time. Other carriers will join in and it’ll be a party.
Good point! Same talk as when the iPod came out about the price, and look at where the iPod is today. And I couldn’t agree more with the whole deal about giving it time. Before I consider purchasing an iPhone, I’m going to wait until well after the release to hear what the masses have to say, and to see if Apple will have any kinks to work out. Hopefully other carriers will join in to make it a more competitive market.
Next, from our article Apple’s Big Announcement: The iPhone, MetaMan made some good points:
- Since it can run Dashboard widgets as apps, it would be almost effortless to program your own iPhone app with some basic functionality.
- If they could cut the price and (eventually) pick up some other networks, this could easily become the most popular phone ever.
- The real purpose of the iPhone is to stop PDAs and phones from taking precious iPod market share.
- I see cell phones separating into four classes: basic (those crappy flip-phones with 1-MP cameras), upscaled (RAZR-type-things, but with at least semi-decent technology), high-end consumer (iPhone, Q, Blackjack), and business (Blackberry). Upscaled and high-end consumer would be similar, but high-end would be much more smartphone-like.
I can particularly see #1 making a huge impact on the iPhone’s popularity. The iPhone will be able to run Dashboard widgets as applications. As he pointed out, it would be almost effortless for most people to program their iPhone and really add functionality to it.
Finally, I’ll just point out a comment Ryan made under the article, How will Microsoft Compete with the iPhone:
I don’t think Apple is necessarily going after the SmartPhone market. I think they are going to target the casual phone users who also have an iPod…by offering the capability to bring those devices into one slim yet useful device. Businesses are still going to be attracted to the Blackberry and Treo because they won’t want their employees to get distracted with video and audio while they could be doing something more productive like emailing.
I couldn’t agree more. I doubt Apple will be focusing their marketing strategies on businesses or professional users. They’re going to be focusing on the casual user, something that the SmartPhone market has not gotten into.
Moving on…. of course there are those that don’t think there’s much of a chance that this will take off, and if it does take off, it won’t get very far. One possible reason that some consumers will turn their nose up at the iPhone is because while it runs a full operating system, you will not be able to install applications. Apple is touting that it “Runs OS X” which has left a lot of people to believe that any application could be installed. Unfortunately this is not so. According to TUAW, it will be running a stripped-down version. Dan Lurie from TUAW says:
The inability for users to install additional applications of their choosing certainly makes me think again about my intentions to purchase the device. While the iPhone is certainly revolutionary and exciting, why should I buy it if I won’t be able to install additional applications such as a terminal/IRC client or Skype, as I would do with competing devices such as the Palm Treo.
Another good point, but then again, will the widgets give it the expandability that people would be looking for with applications? This is something that I’m sure many people may take into consideration when they take the plunge and purchase an iPhone.
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