Slashdot Mirror
iPhone Faces Uncertain Market
48 hours have passed since Steve Jobs's MacWorld keynote and the reality distortion field is beginning to wear off. Lists of the drawbacks of the announced iPhone are sprouting all over the Net (and there is the occasional defense by true believers). Now narramissic writes, "The iPhone may be poised to take over the high-end cell phone market, but is it a market worth taking? Not if an InStat survey from July is any indication: Of 1,800 consumers surveyed, just 21 had spent more than $400 for a cell phone. Prices for the iPhone, admittedly more of a handheld computer than a cell phone, start at $499 for the 4G-byte version with a required two-year contract with Cingular. So, is Apple pricing it right? Analysts quoted in this article seem to think Apple's going to have a hard time getting the 1% of market share that Jobs called for."
LMAO. Nice to know there is a voice of reason in the world...
I was right here yesterday getting modded down to -1 Flamebait for expressing these types of opinions, and was starting to think the world had gone insane. There must be fanboys crying into their Mountain Dew this morning...
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Your Treo has accelerometers and a proximity sensor? It has a Dock Connector? It has a full web browser (not some shrunken down "baby browser")? It has a touchscreen interface? It has a virtual keyboard so you don't have to press 7 four times to get an S? It syncs with iTunes?
How many people are going to post ignorant "My phone does all this" claims without thinking it through? No, your phone does NOT do all this.
For Christ's sake, Slashdot claims negative press is "sprouting up all over the Net" and then links to Microsoft shills like Scoble and ZDNet. In fact, many of those guy are linking to the other guys in their articles...it's the same group of people.
"Sufferin' succotash."
You're forgetting that Apple FUDsters never change their tune. There is always a chorus of "Someone somewhere did this before and there's no market for it!" Then six months later, everyone forgets their criticism and pretends they liked the product all along.
"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." - CmdrTaco on the iPod launch
"Sufferin' succotash."
"There "wasn't a market" for the iPod, either."
/.'er has a famous "lame" quote about the iPod. Apparently, according to you, that was a market prediction from the entire community.
You seem to be the only one saying this. Yes, one notable
"The fact is, there is no phone like this out there, and a lot of people will want it once they see what it can do."
What? Of course there are phones like it already. There are no phones with its combination of screen size and overall size and there are no phones with an iPod dock connector, but there is nothing the iPhone does that isn't done by phones already on the market today. As a phone, there are many available that are superior to the iPhone.
"You guys are treating it as just a cell phone when it's really an iPod, cell phone, and miniature Mac in your pocket."
It is NOT a miniature Mac in your pocket. It does NOT run Mac software and it does NOT support 3rd party apps. It is inferior in this regard to every other smartphone in the market today and it is certainly NOT a pocketable computer. It IS a cellphone, though arguably a poor one, and a superior iPod. Many other cellphones integrate music and video including many full-keyboard smartphones.
"I hereby predict the FUDsters (initiated by cell phone manufacturers frightened of what Apple unveiled on Tuesday) are wrong and that Apple will be highly successful with the iPhone."
Be a fanboy with your head stuck in the sand. Criticisms of the device aren't FUD, they're real and they're valid.
My post wasn't just a little fanish. It was very fanish. I am a fan of the iPhone. And guess what, I don't own a Mac, an iPod, or any other Apple product. What does that do to your little preconceived view of the world?
Anyway, as soon as this thing is available in Canada, I'm all over it. If the rest of you are happy with your Treos or Zunes or whatever fucked-up thing you've grown accustomed to, then by all means, stick with it.
Your entire post is BS precisely because you have yet to use the device to know for certain that these features are in fact as well integrated as Apple claims.
And you still haven't explained to me how the touch screen makes up for the lack of tactile response one gets from keypad texting. I haven't read about the technology in the iphone that accomodates this.
your point about the razr is not relevant. I made no point about how well this will sell. The iphone will sell very well. Also, you bringing up the razr is interesting, because you bring up a poorly integrated device and point out that it still sells, which leads me to believe that in your mind of minds, you might not find the iphone as well integrated as your exuberant boasts suggest.
You claim brilliant integration in a device you haven't used: this is fanboyism. your only knowledge as to this perfect integration is what the chief exec of the firm selling this device has told you. This is fanboyism.
Yet you still don't explain how the touchscreen intends to accomodate for the lack of tactile response, meaning that the texter in question will have to visually confirm each keystroke.
You also don't address how texting has long outstripped voice and is the predominant use of most phones in the world. texting outstrips voice by orders of magnitude. how does a touchscreen make texting easier and faster? it doesn't.
you don't explain my assertion that rumbling on controllers makes games better because i can respond to stimuli I don't see. You don't in fact address this tactile issue at all.
For these reasons and many more, your post is BS.
un burrito me trampeó.
Shit. You d00ds really need to take a chill pill. Seriously, this is the sort of shit I expect to see in a preschool: is not! is too. is not! is too. Blah blah fucking blah.