Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2007 > January > 10 > Entry
iPhone: some sobering truths
Now that the euphoria has worn off just a bit after Apple’s bombshell iPhone announcement yesterday, let us address some of the criticisms and shortcomings that a fickle tech industry is already lobbing at the product five months before it is set to become available:
Price: $499 and $599. Steep, yes. Even if you use Steve Jobs’ justification that the price of an iPhone is comparable to buying a rival smart phone and an iPod, $600 (plus tax!) is still a tough one to swallow. When Sony announced that pricing for its PlayStation 3 game console, many in the game industry thought Sony must be high. But, for all its power and mass, the PS3 is still a game machine that plays Blu-Ray DVDs. You can’t carry it around with you and it doesn’t do all the things the iPhone supposedly can do. So, for $600, would you rather have a PS3 or an iPhone? I think I’d get more use out of an iPhone. Whatever the case, Jobs was smart to let Sony fall on that sticker shock sword before announcing iPhone prices. And, yes, prices will probably fall as newer versions of the iPhone are introduced, perhaps as early as next January.
3-G: Some are concerned that the iPhone doesn’t use Cingular’s higher-speed 3-G network. This does seem odd given that the phone is being initially lobbed at the high-end customers, typically business travelers who need that speed on the go. The phone may blaze on a Wi-Fi connection, but when you’re using it outside a Wi-Fi area, you’d think the Web functions are going to be pretty sluggish. We’ll just have to see about this one. I can’t imagine we won’t see a 3-G version by next January, especially if early adopters complain about data speeds.
Expandability and space: Here’s where I come in. I use a 30-gigabyte iPod (I’m listening to Weezer’s “El Scorcho” on it right now), and I don’t relish having to cut my tunes and videos back to cram into 8 gigabytes of space. Does Apple expect existing iPod users to chuck their music player and consolidate? Those 8 gigabytes (if you opt for the higher-end iPhone) will also have a chunk of space devoted to the operating system, photos and whatever other non-iPod content you need to carry around. A slot for expanded memory, say a mini-SD card slot, would help. But it’s very likely that Apple is nervous about having purchased music and movies transferred around on removable media. Which brings us to…
No wireless docking/syncing!?: What’s up with not being able to purchase iTunes content directly with the iPhone or using Bluetooth to wirelessly sync up with iTunes? Very likely this has to do with security. Apple doesn’t want your credit card info floating around in the digital ether, and having all those personal contacts and info transmitted by Wi-Fi or Bluetooth might be a hacking nightmare. Still, since all this is based on Mac OS, I expect some smart Mac person will figure out a way around this and introduce a hack for users to transfer their info to and from iTunes sans USB wire.
No user-replaceable battery: I don’t like this much, either. iPod batteries go soft over time with repeated use and you can expect this phone’s battery to wear down in a year or more, too. Not having an easily replaceable/swappable battery is annoying, but not surprising given that hasn’t happened with the iPod. What’ll be really annoying is sending in your iPhone to get the battery replaced. Being without your iPod for a few days or weeks is annoying, but doing it for an iPhone is going to be disastrous for people who don’t have an Apple store nearby. I wonder if they’ll train employees at Cingular stores to be able to handle that.
“Jesus phone”: I’m not sure if it was Gizmodo that coined the term Jesus phone, but I’ve already seen it on Defamer today and only expect the name to spread. I can’t imagine Jobs will be thrilled about this since he’s the one who usually gets deified.
Did I mention price?: $600. Wow. It still seems like a lot of money, no matter how many times I type it. I bet sometime between now and June, Apple will throw in one more thing to push those on the fence over. “Did we say 8 gigabytes? We meant 16. You’re welcome!” Five months is still just enough time for Apple to market this thing to death and make some last-minute enhancements to sweeten the deal.
So, while we pontificate about all this, peep this Bluetooth headset accessory. Maybe this is just enough to push us over the edge (from Gizmodo.com):
Permalink | | Categories: Gadgets, Phones
