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How Apple Kept the iPhone Secret
An anonymous reader writes "Bogus prototypes, bullying the press, stifling pillow talk — all to keep iPhone under wraps. Fortune's Peter Lewis goes inside one of the year's biggest tech launches. One of the most astonishing things about the new Apple iPhone, introduced yesterday by Steve Jobs at the annual Macworld trade show, is how Apple managed to keep it a secret for nearly two-and-a-half years of development while working with partners like Cingular, Yahoo and Google."
With all of this recent iPhone talk, why haven't I seen a single mention about Cisco already trademarking the "iPhone" and creating their own iPhone a month or so ago?
Have Cisco and Apple settled their talks over the trademark usage?
This is my signature. There are many like it but this one is mine.
as the size of the thing? Thats a fairly hefty unit to try and pass off as a phone.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
After checking the feature set on Apple's web site, mark me down for at least two of those things.
My Treo looks positively anemic in comparison. It is enough to overcome my disgust for Cingular too.
I dont think anyone outside of Apple anticipated just how well recieved that phone would be.
Wanna bet? Its a matter of time, before it gets hacked. This is too good a device to just leave it alone. Heck I'd even learn objective-C if I had to.
I have a feeling that this is not going to be a geek's toy.
Probably not. Which is so self-destructively stupid of Apple. I signed up on their developer network within minutes of seeing this thing, and was ready to plop down a few grand for a top-of-the-line Macbook to learn development on OS X until I read that reps at the show were saying that it wasn't going to support third-party software. As much as this device is going to sell, it will have zero presence in enterprise markets, and serious people will never buy one because no one is going to carry two phones. They could have owned the mobile market.
I don't know why I was surprised. They only implement software as a means to end - to sell hardware. And as illustrated by their name change, the trend for their hardware is going to be overpriced toys.
The initial users of this will be the Apple Inc. otaku and the bloody edge types who will buy one only to hack it hard&softwise. (Bless'them, their prybars & their knowledge of the obscure.)
Once set free this knowledge will lead to a firestore of devlopment.
Apple Inc is selling hardware here and software here.
It's OSX. It'll open, maybe like one of those funky aspirin bottles, but it'll open.
What's the name of that handwriting recoginition program that runs under OSX again?
Something to giggle about.
Apple said in one of the interviews (the Time one?), that they announced now because they had to get FCC certification, and one that happens it can't be kept secret anymore. And they'd rather announce it then let it get leaked by the FCC. They also mentioned that the certification process is months long.
"I'm a Genius!"*
*Not an actual Genius
After checking the feature set on Apple's web site, mark me down for at least two of those things.
You want it because all you saw was what Apple wanted you to see. You have no idea how it'll actually perform as a phone in ways that matter. I don't care how sexy it animates the UI if it's a shitty phone.
All the fervor is akin to GM showing off a new sexy looking car, and people wanting it, having no idea if it'll actually be a good car or not.
You won't know any of this until Apple gives units to users (or maybe SOME journalists who aren't too distracted by "OOOO, NEW SHINY APPLE TOY". You're an absolute fool if you "pre-order" this thing.
Please help metamoderate.
"Not support" is not the same as "not run". I can see why Apple doesn't want to feild requests of random people trying to get particular apps running on it.
A sentence you'll never see on an Internet discussion board: "You know what? You're right."
This thing needs a Linux port.
Say, how much does a Beowulf cluster cost on the Cingular network?
I've got a Nokia 9300 that pretty much rocks the party.
I've got ssh and rdp clients for admin work, mp3 player, removable flash media, email, sms, good back-up restore functionality and works in linux too. There's even an OSS gui toolkit on sourceforge.
No, it didn't come from the Jobs Reality Distortion Field, but it allows me to have a life when I'm on weekend support rotation.
FYI, it's available now.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
RDF = Reality Distortion Field. I am kind of going through withdraw at this point. This is the first Macworld I can remember where I had nothing to go out and buy the next day. Sure I could get a 802.11n Airport Express Base Station, but where is iLife? Where is something interesting that is available today? And how long before the Apple faithful tire of gadgets... The Mac is a computer, not a gadget and it seems unforgivable, IMO, that all that was announced during the keynote were gadgets.
Try watching the video of Jobs introducing it (it's long) on Apple.com - it really is pretty amazing.
For a start it runs OS/X. It's got no buttons - just a hi-res 3.5" color display with a multi-touch touch-screen interface (responds to multiple touch points simulataneously - see the video to see how this is used).
I'm a jaded 25+yr veteran programmer who hates cell phones, but even I may consider buying one of these! It's just way too cool.
While we do know a good deal about the iphone, one thing I am still wondering about: what processor is it running on? Are they really running a full version of OS X? And if so, what's to prevent that thing from giving you second degree burns as it sits in your pocket?
I know that traditionally apple has been mum about the components in their portable devices. However, this isn't exactly another ipod, but not quite a portable computer either. I guess I just want a guarantee that it's going to be able to handle apps faster and more crisply than any other mobile on the market.
Yes, you had people eager to buy a product before they knew anything about it other than it was a cell phone made by Apple. But Apple has a knack for this sort of marketing. And when I say "marketing", I don't mean "advertising". I mean everything that goes into marketing, including product creation.
Apple is just doing such a good job right now at making products that fall in line with what people are looking for. It is inspiring fierce brand loyalty and buzz. Sony is not doing a great at making products that satisfy what people want, and so people aren't clamoring for a chance to see every new Sony product.
I've been carrying a PPC-6700 (with qwerty keyboard) for almost a year. From what I've seen, I can do everything the iPhone does. Granted, mine is thicker but still...
Did you see the keynote. It's not just a phone + iPod, it's a smartphone (with all of the features you expect when you hear "smartphone") + iPod with an interface that doesn't suck.
a) it's not a smartphone.
b) its interface does suck. Worse than all the others, even. At least if you plan to use it as a phone, or even as a web tablet.
What the iPhone is is a touch-screen iPod with a radio tacked onto it so you can make calls. Jobs almost seemed like he had to convince himself that making calls was actually the primary goal of this thing yesterday (when he called it the "killer app"). It obviously is not. It was designed as a video iPod first, and the interface (or lack thereof) reflects that. But people who make a lot of calls and who write a lot of emails need goddamn tactile buttons. Not to mention a screen that's not going to scratch or crack (unless you keep it in an un-phone-like case) or get loaded up with fingerprints and gunk. You thought the iPod nano 1.0 bitching was bad, just wait until people try carrying this thing around unprotected in their pocket.
About it being "secret", we saw mockups of a touch-screen iPod that looked exactly like the iPhone a while back. All that's different is the addition of a GSM radio. And we've always suspected Apple was developing a phone. This has never been a big secret, either in concept or in execution.
Here's an even better one, a "VGA+" display at 690x480. http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/product/foma/903i/n903i /topics_01.html .
Yes, these are of course Japanese phones, and Japanese phones are for some reason much more advanced than western phones.
While you're at it, why not show off NTT's full FOMA lineup? Here: http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/product/foma/
Almost all of these have better raw specs than the iPhone, with higher res screens and cameras, expandable memory, user-installable apps, 3D graphics and more. You'll also notice that the Japanese have almost universally shunned any form factor other than the clamshell... just as we have. That's going to be a big problem for the iPhone in terms of attracting mainstream users (in the United States). The iPhone's problem is that it's attempting to redefine a market that's already been defined through market forces; it's not like we've never had candy bar style phones here before, and it's not like we haven't had touch screens. They just don't sell as well as clamshells, and phones with buttons.
Back to NTT, though... what's the one thing all of these have that the iPhone doesn't? 3G support (which is old hat in Japan at this point). Another big minus for the iPhone. It's not like Cingular doesn't have 3G phones here either - I've got one myself. So this is another big negative - how are you expected to actually make use of all of the iPhone's internet features on a 2G network?
On the one hand, it doesn't serve much purpose to compare the iPhone to Japanese phones, which are almost universally more advanced than ours (funny thing is NTT does sell the Moto Razr, but it's like at the bottom of their lineup of already bottom-rung 2G non-FOMA phones, and I didn't see a single one last time I was there). On the other, I do think it's worth pointing out that the iPhone is really not as advanced as some people seem to think it is. And I also think it's interesting (and telling) that even a place like Japan, which has embraced Apple's design ethos and which places so much importance on industrial design, continues down the clamshell/button road even in their ultra-high end stuff. There are reasons for this. Apple should have taken a lesson.
OS X is now EMBEDDED. Apple can now take their OS and use it to run a whole mountain of consumer electronic devices.
So how long till they announce HD based widescreen iPods.
Andy
The secret is how much they paid Linksys/Cisco to be able to use the name iPhone.
c hive/2007/01/10/102198.aspx
http://www.gizmocafe.com/blogs/gizmo_cafe_blog/ar
Heh heh.
Mark
As a point in fact, we don't know that it's not an Intel chip (unless you know something I don't). Jobs highlighted that it ran OSX as part of his speech that it runs "desktop-level applications", not because of eye candy. They made a point of having "widgets" that seem to be pretty much identical to those "widgets" that run on the desktop. Even if it isn't an Intel chip, Xcode already allows you to compile for different archictures (universal binaries), so I'm not sure why it couldn't handle making apps for whatever is on the phone. You just wouldn't want to use universal binaries on the phone for the sake of file-size.
I'm not claiming that it will necessarily make sense to directly port applications from the desktop to the phone. However, I predict there will be a kit within Xcode for making iPhone applications. I think that, in the short term, Apple might treat 3rd party apps as unsupported hacks, while they try to congeal a long-term vision for what the device will become. However, in the long term, I'd bet that it will become a new form-factor for general computing, and it will be about as open as the Macintosh platform.
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/* Not sure if I'm making fun or not
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
The notion that Apple actually produced first-party, in-house, fake iPhones is a sublimely fascinating concept to me. Might any of these "official fakes" have been the ones we saw making rounds on the blogs in the past six months?
Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear
I have to agree with you.
:(
One of my biggest gripes when moving to a Treo 600 (I now own a 650) from a Kyocera 6035 was the fact that it was too easy to smudge the display with a cheek imprint during normal telephone operation. This was because the Kyocera had a GIANT keypad over the display that flipped down for PDA usage (It was, by all standards, a phone first and a PDA second, unlike all of its smartphone predecessors. I consider the Kyo 6035 to be the first good smartphone.) This keypad protected 75% of the screen during normal "phone" usage and transport. The Kyo 7135 was a step forward in screen protection, unfortunately Kyo botched the software on that one.
The iPhone takes that issue and makes it FAR worse - the screen is no longer recessed or protected in any way. It'll get smudged by fingerprints during normal PDA operation, smudged by one's cheek during normal phone operation, easily scratched during transport, and potentially easily scratched during normal usage if you oversleep and have to run to work without shaving.
Apple doesn't seem to have noticed that every attempt at a phone that didn't have tactile buttons for basic phone functionality (i.e. real buttons for actual dialing) has been a massive flop. Telephone users want (in fact NEED) to be able to "dial blind". This is why my Kyo 6035's giant dialing buttons (it wasn't a thumbboard, it just had the basic phone keys) had a little raised bump on the 5 key, as did my Treo 600 and current 650. As slick as Apple's UI is, they have no way of replicating such a simple and critical feature as the ability to locate a "home" key on your device's interface for "no-look" dialing.
What next, after 50 years of being taught that proper typists don't look at their keyboards, is Steve going to try to replace Mac keyboards with an on-screen gimmick? That is effectively what he is trying to do with the iPhone.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
The price certainly means it's not a mainstream product, but it doesn't need to be to be wildly successful... It's a HUGE market... Apple are hoping for 1% cellphone marketshare in their first year, which means selling 10,000,000 of these at $500 a pop - that's a cool $5B in one year, not to mention the boost to their iTunes music/video business. Who knows what kind of market share they can eventually get, but it seems this product is only the start. In the same announcement they also renamed the company from Apple Computer Inc to plain Apple Inc, in recognition of their shift from computers only to consumer electronics... it seems they're not expecting this to be a flash in the pan or just a cute tech demo!
You've obviously never actually looked at the Mac software market. Even a quick glance at VersionTracker will show thousands of apps not developed by Apple, nor developed under contract with Apple.
And this is different than buying any other phone in the US how?
Sure it is expensive...it is new tech...pretty cool tech at that. I mean, how much is the top of the line iPod? Add some $$ to that for phone and internet tool...not that much more really.
But, c'mon, everyone quit bitching about a 2 year contract, etc. That's the way you normally buy a new phone. If you wanted the Samsung Blade when it came out, you signed up with Sprint for a year or two, and got the phone for a discounted fee.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Funny by this standard the iPod was more of a boutique product and I think by any standard it was widely adopted. The iPhone is priced a bit higher than the iPods were up until recently. Yes it has less memory but it is an iPod, Smartphone, plays widescreen movies and TV shows, a fully functional web browser, has many PDA functions, has a built in 2 megapixel camera and uses OSX. I'd say it's easily 10X any iPod ever built for a little more money, hell of a value. I was stunned to see it already has Core Animation built in. This thing is halfway to a desktop computer with a built in phone and camera. At this rate within five years, maybe much less, they'll have all the functions of a desktop in a cellphone. Time for Microsft to raise the white flag. Their motto of too little too late just ain't cuttin' it. This thing is easily five years ahead of anything else on the market. Check out the details on Apple.com and watch the keynote. I was blown away. I never bought an iPod but I'm going to be first in line for an iPhone.
Apple marketing has been successful because Apple products have been great products, and that generates loyalty.
... automatically.
I don't think any of Apple's marketing would be sucessful if the products didn't impress people, year in and year out.
I also don't think any other company could market in the way Apple does today, because it takes a formidable track record to get people as hyped up as they are
Now, this doesn't mean the iPhone won't flop. That price tag is pretty ambitious. But I've noticed something interesting.
Most people complaining about the price admit they will probably bite the bullet and buy one when it comes.
The people Apple needs to worry about are those who say that they won't buy an iPhone at any price because Cingular is a horrible carrier.
Either Cingular has to change enormously or Apple needs to work around that exclusive contract somehow.
I don't remember people being this excited about the Cube. I think the iPhone will easily sell a million plus units to Apple fans and their friends at the high price.
Then the price will go down to $250 with contract around Q1 2008 and then I think he can sell the remaining 9 million, easy.
D
(I admit the price is stiff and also admit that as long as it has ssh, I'm in, and for the 8gb option at that. With passable luck it will accept a Bluetooth keyboard and that plus the web browser pretty much means software development anywhere you like).