Now The Apple iPhone Sucks? Please
This is probably the way things work in the tech blogosphere, but I find it kind of strange that the iPhone, a product that many people drooled over and hoped for all of last year, was finally created by Apple in a hugely unique and awesome way (it’s basically the full-screen iPod Video and a cell phone combined), yet not even a day later, it seems to have a target on its back. Where’s the gratitude?
Anyhow, some gripes are the iPhone being a closed system, underpowered (4 GB storage), overpriced, no keyboard buttons, a scratch-prone screen, etc.
I think technophiles should take a step back at look at an article like this one about how most (average) people use their cell phones.
A US poll revealed:
“75 per cent didn’t send any form of data other than text messaging, the cheapest data service.”
A Canadian poll revealed:
“15 per cent said they text message, 11 per cent download ring tones, 7 per cent use e-mail, 3 per cent download music, and 3 per cent said they watch TV or video”
So I strongly doubt the vast majority of cell phone users are going to care about many of the aforementioned technologcal issues. They just want to make phone calls, and if this is easier with an iPhone, everything else is icing on the cake. I don’t think the average consumer thinks about specs in much detail. People showing photographs to their friends via the large, bright screen will probably do more to sell this thing than any tech spec.
Plus, the market for cellphones is even larger than that of iPod. Everyone from teenagers to grandparents has or wants a cellphone. Apple doesn’t even have to dominate the cell phone market to sell scads of iPhones.
In the past, people have always doubted Apple and underestimated its products for superficial reasons. The iMac was underpowered and had fruity colors. The iPod was a music player coming from a computer company. The iPod Shuffle had no screen. The iPod Nano didn’t have enough storage. You’d think this would be enough proof that underpowered doesn’t mean much as long as the product gets the job done for a fair price.
Yes, the price for many Apple products always seems $100 - $200 too high. But Apple is a brand that people trust. A product’s price can’t be summed up just by the hardware that’s in it. A brand can drive value for no logical reason at all - these Jimmy Choo shoes and bags make an iPhone look like a relative bargain.
I stand by my previous opinion that the iPhone is a paradigm changer. The iPhone is certainly the first in a long line of incredible Apple products that will take computing to the next level.
For a saner, big picture perspective, I think BusinessWeek has the iPhone dialed.
[tags]Technology, Apple, iPhone[/tags]
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