Oh my.
Oh my oh my!
I think I already know my position on Apple and the marketplace. I’ve been testing it with a few people this evening.
I think we’ve witnessed a watershed. A turning point. That’ll do it.
All I need to say is look at the N95, the pinnacle of Nokia’s engineering prowess. Stick it next to the iPhone. It just doesn’t compare. Symbian and the N95 just isn’t in the same stratosphere.
Gosh.
And it’s got OS X on it.
I just…….. can’t………..gosh it’s exciting isn’t it? 😉
So if you’re a mobile phone operator, there’s one of two ways you can react.
First of all, walled gardens, £3 quid 30 second ringtones, £3 quid 150 pixel photos, useless music stores — all dead. Game over. Nice. Yes there’s a few years before it’ll actually start to hurt, but let’s be clear, a device like the iPhone completely removes the need to ponce about with your operator’s shit. And I do mean shit. Don’t even think of trying to keep your data charges where they are. So, yes, thanks for coming. You’re now a bit pipe.
Second, if you’re lucky enough to be already marching down the path to unlimited data a la T-Mobile and Three, the future is possibly a little brighter. You can afford to embrace such devices and open standards. (I mean open in the context of the suddenly hugely limiting existing mobile operating systems). I can actually visualise Three offering an iPhone on contract and inviting users to download the X-Series pack, a series of valuable, useful and exciting programs to your iPhone. Whether Apple will tolerate devices being hawked in this fashion, who knows. T-Mobile’s web ‘n walk strategy fits beautifully with the iPhone and iPhone-style devices.
Oh, and if you’re quick, maybe you can convince Apple to give you an exclusive in your geographic area; a) to strangle the market and drip out the iPhones to maximise profits and b) to try and control an immediately completely uncertain and fast developing strange new landscape.
If you’re a handset manufacturer, well, the word ‘handset’ says it all. Next. Thanks for coming. There’ll always be a market for your £3 quid Nokia ‘handset’ but the future is — and always was — devices much like the Apple iPhone. There’s simply no excuse. The iPhone components are public. Apple didn’t engineer them, as far as I’m aware. They went out and bought’em. Got’em knocked together where appropriate. As the phrase goes: Designed by Apple in California. But not MADE in California. They’re knocked together in the Far East. Which is precisely where Mr & Mrs SonyNokiaSamsungEricsson should have been. Where the hell were they? They’ll need to catch up pronto. I mean pronto. Question is: How can you easily chop and change when your biggest customers are shitscared mobile operators desperate to try and control a marketplace that they simply can’t hope to ever control.
Oh dear yes, the E90 is going to be laughable. The N95, as commented by nadnad earlier, nice handset, shame about the fact it’s obsoleted before even launched. Symbian itself, the lauded and flexible operating system, looks absolutely ridiculous compared to a functional OSX on board. Don’t get me started on the possibilities with Apple developer communities and capabilities that this offers users of the device.
I don’t think the iPhone is the be all and end all. It’s simply just the beginning. Even Mr Gates predicted something similar in his book, Business at the Speed of Thought. Only, his Windows Mobile system, which, by the way is neatly consigned to the dustbin this evening, couldn’t quite compete.
All of the above is conditional, to an extent, on the Apple iPhone device performing as spec’ed. As long as it doesn’t suffer from Windows SLOW Mobile rubbish delays and performs consistently without ugly surprises, it looks like Apple Computer have done a very, very good job.
This is Mobile 3.0. or 10.0. We jumped quite a few stages.
Yes it’ll be a while before we can verify it actually works. Yes it’ll take some time for the devices to hit the market.
I’m confident that 100% of Apple iPod customers will demand the iPhone. Whether 100% can actually afford one? Well that’s a different story. However, pricing at or near the top end cost of an iPod guarantees some phenomenal sales, I’m sure.
Tons more in my mind….
LOL! – I’m never going to get away from using “nadnad” in my username am I? 🙁
I hope this move by Apple convinces the other handset manufacturers to concentrate more on the user interface and experience…. the best example I keep referring to is how Apple and Nokia’s browsers differ even though they are both based on Apple’s open source Webkit project (www.webkit.org).
Sure this phone looks good. Perhaps even, dare I say it, very good. Oh what the hell, it’s bloody awesome.
But if they seriously expect a whole lot of users to shell out THAT much money for a 2.5G phone in 2008, well, they might be in for a surprise.
If a 3G version comes out, or the price drops dramatically, I might just be in it, though.
I may be missing something… What is SOOO revolutionary about the iphone? I don’t get it? Is it because it runs OSx?
As I said on Techcrunch…
Before you ask questions like “why is it so revolutionary” you MUST go to the apple website and watch the “introducing iphone” KEYNOTE video. Goes on for over an hour, watch it ALL the way through, and you will see why it is different and revolutionary.
It is funny, this is exactly the kind of comment ipod got. E.g. “Its just another mp3 player with a different control and interface, so what.. it doesnt even have a radio”, yet they now have around 200million of the things sold! 🙂
The networks will be the problem over here, but the phone will sell around world in the millions, no doubt! 🙂
Dave
http://www.mikafanclub.com
It looks easy to brake – I wonder how many are gonna get stolen?
“It looks easy to brake – I wonder how many are gonna get stolen?”
You mean like most every other phone and electronic device on the market? 🙂
OK after all the hype I reckon the following issues may raise its head.
1) Is it true that you can’t download tunes direct like say you how you can on a Sony ericcson. Does one still have to synchronize with iTunes?
2) Are a generation of Nokia/Sony fans in Europe/Asia really going to give up a keyboard for a touchpad?
3) Are T-Mobile, Vodafone, Three, etc going to modify their infrastructure just to accomodate Apple. Well maybe if the technology could be copied but being patented to the hilt. I doubt it.
It looks nice. Has created seamlessness between apps, and runs on Os X. And like most Apple products is comparatively expensive. I reckon it will be a nice to have but Nokia and Sony Ericcson will kick their but in Europe, Africa and Asia for the foreseeable future.
I wouldnt mind getting Apple TV though!!
I must say the announcement of the iPhone has left me with a few questions like:
-What processor does it have (maybe they’ve ported OSX to arm?)
-What’s the battery life going to be like? Bearing in mind the big hi-res screen and no doubt powerful processor. Symbian OS is also extremely power efficient compared most operating systems, will OSX be as good?
-How much memory (RAM) does it have? Bearing in mind OSX isn’t exactly frugal with it. My N73 has 48Mb – but I could easily see OSX needing 5-10 times this. That all adds to cost and power consumption.
All together a pretty neat looking device. I’ll believe it when I get to play with one though ^_^
Hmm….. The N95 may not look *quite* as sexy, but it can do far, far more. From DVD video recording to 5mp stills to built-in GPS, I’d MUCH rather have the N95. Oh, and it’s smaller and will arrive sooner and probably be cheaper.
Steve
I don’t really understand what you’re saying here.
Statements like “Symbian itself, the lauded and flexible operating system, looks absolutely ridiculous compared to a functional OSX on board” are simply not based on fact. Even Apple have admitted what should be obvious to every developer, that when they say it runs OS X what they really mean is that they used a lot of code and design principles from OS X. The APIs are, of course, different. It will not run applications designed for the desktop, even if the phone were open to third party applications, which it isn’t. “It runs OS X” is a meanless statement, pure marketing.
The iPhone is nothing more or less than a phone with a premium interface at a premium price. Nothing about the rest of it hasn’t already been seen on other phones. Even the feature set is somewhat disapointing. Why can’t you buy music or sync with a desktop over wireless? That’s the kind of thing you’d expect Apple to excel at. All we know about the iPhone is what Apple’s marketing department have shown us. If they release it, and it drops calls, crashes and does other bad things, is it still revolutionary? What if the touch screen is annoying and slow to type on, because it offers no tactile feedback? What if it’s a triumph of form over function that gets greasy and the touch screen shatters when you put it in your pocket, or breaks when you drop it on concrete?
I think I could have been a little more eloquent with my perspective Chris, you’re quite right to challenge.
I view Symbian as extremely restricted in the context of an Apple device (or, actually, a linux based ‘properly-open’ device) that would enable you to easily develop and deploy applications and services to the handset. Right now, the whole process of getting an application on to a mobile phone is 1,000% ridiculous. I’m not just counting Symbian, I’m including the other major systems too.
It’s certainly accurate to question the OS X issue. I think I gave the benefit of the doubt. I’m sure there will be issues.
As for the iPhone being a premium price. Sure thing. My interest is in pushing the manufacturers and operators toward more and more innovation. I really do hope that Apple cause them to redress their modus operandi, pull up their socks and do a little bit more innovation and development.
The iPhone itself could be a hunk of shit 😉 We shall see!
I still don’t think I really understand you. How, exactly, is a totally closed Apple device less restrictive than the average openish Symbian device? Are you saying that the way to make the phone application situation better is just to not have applications?
Ewan appears to be saying that Symbian is restricted in comparison to a theoretical, open device. Based upon the limited information in the marketplace, that device isn’t the iphone.
Rescued by John. And agreed, it’s most probably a Linux based alternative. Still have high and probably misplaced hopes about the iPhone…
thinking about this a bit more….we can be pretty sure that apple will only want itunes to by the sync gateway to the PC or mac, and we’ve been told that it won’t sync with outlook. It might therefore be a reasonable assumption to conclude that if 3rd part widgets WERE allowed, they won’t have access to the phone’s address book, in the same way that java apps don’t, because if they did, then building an outlook sync tool would be an easy* job.
Is that a reasonable assumption? If so, you could also conclude that you won’t be offered much in the way of 3rd party email clients, or at least ones that integrate with the phone’s address book. Not much fun..
Which, if true, will turn out to be a massive disappointment – fully integrated address books have still be be exploited in the mobile space, IMHO.
*easy for someone who knows what they are doing, not me. I’m not a programmer
This is a joke yes? You really stand by what you’ve writen here? Sorry but I think you’ll find the iphone can’t stand by the n95 not the other way around.
The simple fact that the iphone is a CLOSED system, ie you can’t install your own software for me ends the topic. Never mind if we start compairing hardware..
I.e.
1. 2MP crappy cam vs high end 5MP on the n95 (and please look at some of the images this phone is taking as they are stunning).
2. Wifi 54G on the n95 vs.. oops.
3. Almost DVD quality video, again I’ve got an n95 and watching it via n95s tv is just amazing.
4. High speed 3.5G data. I just downloaded a 10meg mp3 over my phone in under 1min. Lets see you try that with you 2 year old out of data EDGE connection.
5. GPS vs google maps. Yeah google maps is great if you know where you are.. but erm. If you don’t you’re in trouble. The n95 has GPS built in, and I can run google maps if I want (at a speed where it’s useable).
6. 8GIG HD vs unlimited Orb streaming. Who cares about the mem size. I can playback and media file from my home media server over 3.5G.
7. 3D gfx chip for next gen gaming on the n95 vs.. oh wait, sorry doesn’t really count as you can’t install any apps on the iphone. Enjoy that card game you get.
8. I’ve got a keypad. Enjoy looking like a muppet tapping away on your touchscreen, and enjoy that screen getting dirty everytime you want to do anything (can anyone say scratches?).
I could go on but too be honist if you really think the iphone is a better device than the n95 I’m guessing all this will just fly over your head. Really you have NO idea just how amazing the n95 and it shows from this rubbish you’ve typed.
Good day to you.
Simon