In case you haven’t been paying attention to tech news for the past couple of hours, this morning Apple announced it’s long-awaited and much-anticipated iPhone at Macworld San Francisco. I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t been too excited about the idea of Apple making a phone. Sure, Apple has all the technology and talent to put together a kick-ass mobile product, but the main question for me was what would set it apart from the other smartphones on the market.
I’ve looked at the current crop of smartphones available through various carriers, and I haven’t been too impressed. From a functionality standpoint, all of them offer pretty much the same things — voice calls, text messaging, PIM, basic multimedia junk — but none of them have really inspired me to dump my cheap Motorola flip phone. I’ve never really liked Windows Mobile nor the whole Blackberry system, partially because I think they look like ass and partially because I’ve heard nothing but horror stories about getting data to sync on a Mac.
However, iPhone changes things completely. It’s got the functionality I would look for in a mobile device, and it appears to take things up quite a few notches. I won’t bother going down the list of features and whatnot, since I figure people are smart enough to actually look at the iPhone website. I’ll just go down a list of some of my initial reactions on some of the features and potential drawbacks of iPhone.
First, the pros:
Kick-ass UI
I’ve always loved Apple’s approach to UI design, and it looks like the best has made it to iPhone’s interface. Just looking at iPhone’s screens makes you want to use it. It’s not intimidating. The buttons and widgets are nice to look at and make sense. I feel like everything I’m used to seeing and using on a normal desktop system has made the transition to a mobile device.
Multitouch
Remember all those cool touch-screen panels and gadgets you saw in those sci-fi movies? Looks like Apple’s made the first step in making it a reality in daily life. Sure, touch-screen tech isn’t new, but Apple’s implementation is incredibly sweet. Just use your fingers to tap, double-tap, scroll, and zoom on iPhone’s 3.5″ display. No physical buttons needed to do anything (other than the Home button), and that makes more room for a huge display.
Complete suite of mobile lifestyle apps
Voice calls. Text messaging. Music and video support. Built-in camera. Web browser. Email. Widgets for weather, stocks, traffic, maps. It’s all there. These are things that I would use on-the-go and during times when I don’t want to carry a laptop.
Syncs with Macs and Windows machines
This is a huge kicker. Syncing with a Mac is a given, but allowing syncing with Windows really opens things up. That’s what made the iPod so universally popular, and I can see this making iPhone a hit as well.
Multiple wireless protocols
Quad-band GSM, EDGE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth. Pick one and use it.
And now, the cons (or, rather, some questions/issues that could pop up):
Battery life
Apple quoted 5 hours of talk time and general usage and 16 hours of audio playback. How true will that be under normal circumstances? Admittedly, I don’t talk much on the phone, but I could easily see myself draining iPhone’s battery with less than a day’s worth of internet usage, music and video playback, and text messaging.
Lack of physical buttons
As cool as the multitouch tech is, sometimes it’s just easier to have physical buttons. Touch screen interfaces require you to look at the screen at all times to do anything with the device. With physical buttons, you can go by feel. Some people are going to absolutely love the multitouch interface; others are going to hate it. I’m kind of undecided right now.
Syncing process
How exactly will all the data on the phone get synced with the computer (and vice versa)? Obviously iTunes will be main syncing application, as shown in the demos, but is that the only way to do it? Don’t get me wrong, I love how iTunes works with my iPods, but it seems a bit odd to use it to manage a phone. What about using iSync on a Mac? Will that be supported for things like iCal, Address Book, and other Mac-specific apps?
Camera image quality
Apple kind of breezed past this little detail. There’s a 2 mega-pixel camera on iPhone, but what do the images look like? My gut reaction would be no better than other camera phones. There’s very little space in iPhone to cram in an image sensor, so I anticipate fairly average looking photos.
MacOS X
Yes, it’s cool that iPhone runs a most-likely trimmed down version of OS X, but I wonder how that will affect daily performance. It’s possible that iPhone could try to do too much in such a small device. It’s possible that there might be security issues with a relatively normal OS running a modified version of Safari for web browsing.
Exclusive to Cingular
I’ve been a T-Mobile customer for nearly a decade now and have never had any reason to switch networks. iPhone is exclusive to Cingular and is now tempting me to jump ship. Being a GSM phone, it’s possible that iPhone could work with T-Mobile for voice calls and SMS, but I doubt any of the internet apps would work. If they do, there will definitely be no tech support.
Cost of services
iPhone is a pretty spendy device at $599 for the 8 GB version. I wonder what type of plans and charges will come with it. Will Cingular go with its current internet plans or create a whole new one just for iPhone users? $599 + 2-year contract + month phone charges + internet service charges can add up to whole boatload of money.
iPhone won’t be available until June 2007, so hopefully some of the questions and concerns I (and probably others) have will be answered. Until then, I’m just going to ogle the pretty shiny toy I can’t touch yet.
I’m kind of interested in the Apple TV gizmo, especially since I’m thinking of canceling my cable TV and TiVo but I still want to be able to watch some shows from my computer on my TV.
matildaben: I imagine Apple TV (terrible name, IMO; that implies it is a televion…) is very easy to use. But, I already do this (although getting the content is not legal right now) via an original Xbox (running XBMC). It has disadvantages (no HD, can’t use iTunes bought stuff), but I have two of them in my house and use the hell out of them. You can get an xbox for cheap these days, and you’re set.
I realize this is very geeky and takes +average knowledge, but man is it fantastic. I have been watching video podcasts on a 52″ TV for over a year now; much better experience than a ~19in. monitor.
As for the iPhone; wow. Amazing product (like you said, danny), but the price! People bitch about the PS3 (that plays blu-ray, games, and runs linux; i’m saying that and I HATE sony) being 600 bucks, but they will praise this phone for ever.
Apple TV is an interesting device. I think it’s a great consumer-level device for people wanting to send content from their Macs to their home entertainment systems. Sure, it’s not a new idea, but I think the implementation and perception of ease of use that are key here.
Trevor is right in the fact that it does take a bit extra technical know-how to even consider setting up an Xbox for media streaming. Most users are intimidated by that or don’t even realize you can do it. Apple TV is pretty obvious about what it does — stream media to your TV.
Another advantage of Apple TV is that it is truly cross platform. As long as you use iTunes, you can stream from Macs and PCs. Connecting a Mac to an Xbox is basically a hack, and most Mac users I know don’t even bother with it.
Regarding the iPhone, I don’t think it’s fair to compare the price of the iPhone to the price of a PS3. They are two different products that serve very different markets. PS3 is targeted specifically at high-end gamers and technophiles and people who generally understand the underlying technology of the system. It is also competing with Xbox and Wii, products that typically cost no more than $300 and that actually have content available for them. Compared to those systems, the PS3’s relatively high cost and lack of content doesn’t seem like a good value.
The iPhone, on the other hand, is geared towards a mobile technology lifestyle crowd (IMHO). It’s designed to be a tool in daily life to get stuff done while still being able to offer a bit of entertainment along the way. People using the iPhone most likely won’t understand or even care to understand how it works and what the underlying technology is. They just want it to work. Compared to the other smartphones on the market, the iPhone does offer a lot for its premium price, namely usability, connectivity, integration, and, of course, style.
Given the right service plans, the iPhone could be a great device for me. I spend a lot of time out and about, and it would be sweet to be able to get general net access in a sleek, attractive, and easy-to-use device that syncs (hopefully, easily) to my Mac. I’m very picky about user interaction and user experience, and, so far, all of the currently available smartphones have failed on that front.
It’s a lot like the success of the iPod. Feature-wise, it’s not all that different from other MP3 players out there. What sets it apart from the rest is how easy it is to use the iPod and how simple it is to sync music and videos from iTunes to the iPod. The iPhone looks to be on the same path.
This is pretty much what I imagined Danny’s reaction to be:
http://www.pvponline.com/article/3075/tue-jan-09