The hypocrisy of this post is off the charts. Everyones a little tired of hearing about this thing. It's like the Paris Hilton of the electronics world. You don't really care or want to know, but secretly you do. Or maybe you don't and you really do just want the thing to get locked up and never hear about it again (Paris permanently in jail gets our vote). Now that I've said that lets move on.
There is no way I'm buying one. For various reasons, here is the main two though: AT&T and $600 bucks. AT&T's service is, uh, not really service. We like the concept, and some of the features of the iPod, but we aren't sufficiently impressed.
Some people have started camping out for them. Which is pretty ridiculous. Especially this guy. Who is asking for donations and food. It's just infuriating that some idiot who is going to drop $600 on a phone is asking for donations. Charities get donations. Please, instead of giving him money donate to someone who deserves and needs it. Like, I don't know, maybe the American Cancer Society or Habitat for Humanity, or for Pete's sake, even Rock the Vote. Apple should deny him a phone, just for being a greedy, obnoxious clod.
Ranting aside, the demand appears to be huge. I even caught my dad looking at them. My dad is still sporting the free phone he got with his contract 3 or 4 years ago. I reminded him that it was on AT&T and he replied, almost sulkingly, "I know."
Apple has garnered a lot of attention with the iPhone. If you read many tech blogs every other story is iPhone or Apple related. The question is will the iPhone sell and grab market share like they hope? It probably will initially, long term is another game. It's going to come down to AT&T, the surge in subscribers might let them actually build a real network. Considering you're locked into a 2 year agreement with the phone you're going to be giving AT&T thousands of your greenbacks if you stick in for the long haul. Maybe you could use the list published by The Consumerist to get out of your contract with AT&T, that they intend for you to use to get into your contract with AT&T. It's ironic that The Consumerist would post a story telling consumers to act as irresponsible consumers.
I'm not going to John Dvorak you, and tell you that the iPhone is going to fail and take Apple with it. There are too many factors to judge. Our guess is that it's going to take version 2.0 before it becomes the next iPod.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
iPhone! iPhone! iPhone! (Ok shuddap already)
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
iPhone Buzz: 19 million people want it?
Critics blast it for not having 3G network capabilities, the cost ($500-$600), and battery life. Critics also claim that the touch screen keyboard will be more of a hassle than a benefit. However, Apple announced some upgraded specs today. The battery has been upgraded to 8 hours of talk time, or 24 hours of music playback. Apple also replaced the plastic touchscreen with a glass one.
The iPhone, to me looks very much a mixed bag. I'm not a fan of the touch screen keyboard, or touch screens in general as they tend to turn into a greasy mess of distortion. They also never seem to be as accurate. Although I am a fan of the "real" internet viewing, larger memory and some of it's interface stuff, the real killer for me is the AT&T/Cingular network, which is slightly more reliable than a Yugo around these parts. I'm more interested in the new HTC Mogul.
Will 19 million people snap the iPhone up? I doubt it, especially when the aforementioned problems come up. I don't doubt that the iPhone will sell very well for a phone, it may end up outselling the Razr, but I'll hold my breath. Of course, I also can't give my real opinion on anything I haven't used.
[Read] ZDnet
[Read] PCWorld
