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Inside Apple's iPhone
DECS writes "Despite CNET's wild claims, Roughly Drafted is reporting that Apple's market position and recent performance show the company has the ability, capacity, and interest in shaking up the mobile phone industry. Something that service providers, manufacturers, and consumers desperately need."
If the phone is affordable, and for me, that means > $200, and can store at least a gig of music, then I'm down with it. I haven't bought an iPod yet- why cut into my reading time on the subway? But if it works well AS A PHONE, it gets my vote. The phone market is flooded with cheap, useful phones and expensive phones with tons of features I don't really use. If Apple can give it a useful interface, integrate it well with the computer (I use an apple, but it would be stupid to ignore the PC market), then it's ten steps ahead of everyone else.
Unfortunately, I think the price probably won't break $300, and will possibly be more than that. For all that I like their stuff, new, it ain't cheap. As for integration with iTunes DRM, who cares? As long as it lets me move songs from my library to the phone, I could care less.
They should design an iPod with a phone built in, not a phone that plays music. Could you imagine full bluetooth integration? Sync, pick up calls and listen to music all over integrated bluetooth.
Apple doesn't sell form over function. They differentiate on form, since for this class of device, nearly all the market entrants deliver the minimum required functionality.
Notice that the iPod sells as well as it does without published audio specifications. It is not an audiophile device. In fact, I think at the moment there is no such thing as an MP3 player that would meet the requirements of a discriminating audiophile, and for the vast majority of available content, this is irrelevant.
Just about any MP3 player with a decent pair of aftermarket headphones is going to deliver a "good enough" experience for most listeners. The differentiating factor is how the device looks and feels, how easy it is to use the player's interface, how easy it is to load content on the device, and how intrusive the required copy-protection restrictions are.
The combination of the iPod line of players and the iTunes software is "good enough" for a large number of people.
As far as phones go-- poorly integrated with carriers? Yes, please. I prefer unlocked GSM phones so I can choose my own provider whenever and wherever I am. As far as the bad, misleading and restrictive things that tech companies can do to you, Apple doesn't hold a candle to just about any cellular operator in the world.
Mediocre player? Depends on how you mean mediocre. The device, if it exists, will likely be as mediocre a player as the iPod itself is. You can take that however you like.
However, if, from the perspective of interface design, the first iteration Apple phone is anywhere near as good, compared to other phones, as the iPod is to other MP3 players, then I see no reason why the device couldn't be at least as good as the best Symbian based phones, and a good deal better than just about anything Motorola has produced in the past ten years-- including all-hype, no-function phones like the RAZR and, the ill-fated ROKR.
Well, I just got to play with a preproduction Nokia N95 for a few weeks, and I have to say that I like it - a lot. I haven't much cared for their previous offerings, but the N95 is very nice.
Max.
it lacks a dead-simple web interface to administrate the device, replaced instead by an application.
Yeh, that's a typical Apple situation.
Alternatively, as in the firmware on the Macbooks, they don't give you control at all...
On the other hand you have their total standards-based OS and open API. They're definitely a mixed lot.
Apple has been integrating the revamped "iSight" into many of its new portables, and iMacs, but the fact that it has been yanked as a standalone product makes it difficult to defend as such a "hit".
Not to mention that the built-in iSight is completely worthless for anything but videoconferencing. I have a third party firewire webcam I use with my Macbook pro, and a bit of electrical tape over the iSight because I can't be arsed making sure nothing turns it on when I don't want it on.
Apple's hardware is mediocre in functionality and power, it's only a hit for style. I could go on with the annoying clickwheel on the iPod, and the passive-aggressive 'it's not really a onw button mouse' crap with the mighty mouse and the double-tap trackpads... but I better stop here.
"...a small company like Apple...."
Hmmm. Not sure what you call "small" but Apple's sales last year were $14B with profits of over a billion. They may very well hit $20B in sales this year. Nokia had sales of E10B, with profits of just over E1B.
The pursuit of absolute tolerance leads to the most rigorous and ludicrous intolerance. - REX MURPHY