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Give Steve Jobs
credit: He's managed to get the entire tech community--and much of the
rest of the world--talking about a pricey gadget that only a handful
have seen or touched.
Apple's
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iPhone finally goes on sale June 29, and for many potential buyers, the
only issue is whether they'll be able to get their hands on one, as
it's certain to sell out immediately. But whether you are a music
lover, a business e-mail addict, a mobile power-user or just a normal
consumer, there are several good reasons to think twice about dropping
$500 for the first-generation iPhone.
Will that be enough to slow
iPhone sales after the initial rush? There are, after all, plenty of
other options for consumers who want a smart phone, which is
essentially a high-end phone with the ability to do other functions,
like e-mail. Previously just expensive toys for information technology
nerds and executives, smart phones are gaining mainstream appeal.
Research firm Yankee Group projects that smart phones will grow from
11% of this year's mobile-phone market to about 20% of phone sales in
2010.
In Pictures: Five Reasons To Think Twice About The iPhone
Jobs hopes to pick up 1% of the market by the end of 2008. But
consumers are finicky and have options. If Apple's iPhone doesn't stack
up, numerous competitors, like Samsung, LG Electronics, Nokia
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Windows Mobile platform, will be happy to take their business.
(Elevation Partners, the private equity firm that has invested in
Forbes Media, has announced plans to buy a 25% stake in iPhone competitor Palm
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)).
The
iPhone's battery is one example of a feature that could flop. By all
indications--Apple is still being mum about almost all details
regarding the device--the iPhone's rechargeable battery is sealed
inside its case. That's what Apple does already with its iPod devices,
presumably to save space. The company says the battery will last up to
five hours of talking, watching video and browsing the Internet.
But
it's not clear how those claims will measure up in the real world. What
happens if you use the phone's wi-fi connection heavily? Or a Bluetooth
earpiece? Without a midday charging pit stop, iPhone owners may have to
consistently choose between using its Web and multimedia features or
saving battery power for phone calls.
Other smart phones have
similar battery drawbacks. Palm, for example, says the battery in its
newest Treo 755p will last for up to four hours and 12 minutes of talk
time. But when that's up, you can easily swap out the Treo battery for
a charged replacement. Many people carry a spare, especially while
traveling on business. With the iPhone, it seems you may be tethered to
a backup-battery accessory, which is far from ideal.
Making
matters worse, rechargeable batteries have a limited lifespan and can
be charged only a finite number of times. This number varies, but Apple says
a properly maintained iPod battery--whatever that really means--can
retain 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charging cycles.
Eventually, it will hold a charge so short that it must be replaced,
which could at best mean a trip to an Apple or AT&T
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The
iPhone's stripped-down data features could also provide incentive to
wait for a better offer. Apple's boilerplate is that the iPhone is a
"revolutionary" device for browsing the Internet on the go. To an
extent, it has a point: Apple's Safari is arguably the most powerful
mobile Web browser. And the iPhone's large display will surely make
surfing the Web more enjoyable and functional than on a tiny Motorola
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But
for whatever reason, Apple decided not to allow the iPhone to work on
AT&T's fastest, "third-generation" (or 3G) wireless network, opting
instead for its slower "EDGE" network. The difference is apparent even
on a small-screen device browsing scaled-down, mobile-edition Web
sites. When you're surfing full-size Web pages, as Apple touts on the
iPhone, the slow speeds could be a deal breaker.
During Apple's
first-quarter earnings conference call, finance chief Peter Oppenheimer
said the company is "very much sold" on the slower network because it
is more widespread in the U.S. This is a valid point, sort of. AT&T
says it has 3G coverage available in 165 major U.S. metro areas, with
dozens more on the way, and EDGE coverage in 13,000 cities and towns.
But a 3G device can seamlessly hop between the faster and slower
networks. And many of the iPhone's competitors, like the 7-month-old
Samsung BlackJack, do just that. So why did Apple skimp?
One
reason may be the iPhone's built-in wi-fi capability, meaning it can
connect to local hot spots and avoid AT&T's data network
altogether. This is much faster than using the cellular Web, but
imperfect. Wi-fi access is not as universal as you think, and often
it's not free. Spending $10 to use a faster Internet at Starbucks
doesn't sound practical on top of a $40-per-month, all-you-can-eat EDGE
data plan. You may already have a wi-fi hot spot in your home or
office--but chances are, you have a computer there, too, with a screen
larger than 3.5 inches.
Then again, wi-fi may be a cool feature
if Apple opens the iPhone up to developers to write interesting
software like network or peer-to-peer games, on-the-go photo sharing
software or any other mobile-friendly apps. Jobs is particularly fond
of the iPhone's Google Maps software, which he says "blows away" any
previous version, and the iPod music software, which he says is "the
best iPod we've ever made." But it's not clear if Apple will let other
people write software for the iPhone, at least right away, and that
could be a reason to stay away.
For example, if you're looking
to check your corporate e-mail with any ease, you may have to wait.
It's not clear if the iPhone's e-mail software will initially--or
imminently--support "push" e-mail from Microsoft Exchange e-mail
servers or Research in Motion
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) BlackBerry servers. Apple has a deal with Yahoo!
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to support real-time "push" e-mail delivery. But CrackBerry addicts
should be iPhone-hesitant, at least until we get more information about
compatibility. (RIM did not immediately return a request for comment.)
Jobs said recently that Apple is "working to find a way to allow developers to build applications" but that security is a sticking point.
Rabid
e-mailers or texters may also be skeptical about the iPhone's
keyboard-free design. Jobs dislikes the tiny QWERTY thumb keyboards on
many of today's smart phones, with good reason: Typing is slower and
less accurate than on a normal, full-sized keyboard.
But it's
not apparent that typing on a touchscreen will necessarily be any
better. Many BlackBerry users, once familiar with the keyboard, can
type without looking. Can you thumb out a text message on an iPhone
screen without undivided attention? Will it work in the rain? Or if
you're wearing a bandage? Will it scratch, as the iPod screens have
been infamous for?
Lastly, one of the most anticipated, unknown
iPhone features is its real price tag. We already know that it will
cost $500 to $600, depending on storage capacity. But AT&T's
contract requirements could easily quadruple that price. To qualify for
the lowest pricing on many smart phones, carriers require that you
subscribe to an all-you-can-eat data plan for around $40 per month, in
addition to a $40-or-more-per-month calling plan.
So much for
getting the cheapest calling plan and just using the wi-fi feature for
the Internet. Add text messaging and taxes, and you're looking at a
bill near $90 per month. Over the two-year contract period, that's more
than $2,000.
Businesses manage that expense for executives'
BlackBerrys, but will consumers happily pay that much? AT&T says
existing customers will get the same deal as new customers switching
from Verizon Wireless or Sprint Nextel
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)--but
subscribers will have to extend their contract for two more years. Will
AT&T offer a version for prepaid service subscribers? Many
consumers can justify buying a $500 smart phone/iPod hybrid. But
AT&T's service terms could break the deal.
Tags: Apple Inc. | iPhone | mobility
My lovely wife bought her computer, a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv1207us notebook, in August 2005. It was the first computer she could call her own, and she loves it.
It also was an impressive enough notebook for the money -- she paid $850 for it at Best Buy -- that I recommended it to a lot of other people who were looking for a decent portable at a good price. As a result, a lot of my friends and colleagues carry one now.
Over the last year or so, my wife's been eyeing some of the Tablet PCs I've reviewed. She's a psychotherapist who's always looking for ways to cut down the amount of paper she has to touch, and the notion of being able to handwrite case notes on a computer appeals to her.
So, when my buddy Ed Bott wrote on his blog that he was selling an Acer TravelMate C314 Tablet PC, I mentioned it to her.
After two days of pondering, researching, reading reviews, checking finances and general agonizing, she's decided to take the leap. She's buying the tablet from Ed at an excellent price. The specs:
? Intel Pentium M 760 processor, running at 2 Ghz.
? 1.5 GB of RAM.
? 100 GB hard drive.
? 14.1-inch screen, powered by an nVidia GeForce Go 6200 video adapter.
? DVD-RW drive.
? 4-in-1 memory card reader.
? 802.11g Wi-Fi adapter.
? Gigabit Ethernet.
? Bluetooth.
It was interesting watching her decision-making process. I didn't push her one way or the other, but rather answered her technical questions and described for her the Tablet PC landscape -- its capabilities, how others use them and how this particular model compares.
I also happened to receive a Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablet PC for review, and I let her play with it for a while. That reminded her of a tablet's potential, though I did catch her hear snickering a few times at how the text recognition translated her handwriting.
One of the factors in her decision was that she would be making a major change in the way she works, and it would likely be a permanent change that would affect her future computer purchases. Once she began using documents generated by Tablet PC-centric applications -- such as Microsoft's OneNote note-management software -- she would be tied to the tablet platform. The computer she buys to replace the Acer will almost certainly have to be another tablet.
She's decided the features of a tablet make it worth relying on the platform, the smooth inking and the ability to search handwritten text chief among them. I wrote the chapter in Larry Magid's and my Windows Vista book that features Tablet PCs, and as a result I've got a lot more respect for what they can do.
I'll be curious to see how she adapts and changes the way she works. And I'll also end up learning a lot more about tablets, because I'll be her technical support and software consultant on it.
Also, Ed has details about the circumstances of others who expressed interest in the tablet.
Apple's iPhone is a little bigger than you'd expect, and a little heavier than you'd expect. It feels substantial, and it looks beautiful.
The Object of Your Desire is a little bigger than a Samsung BlackJack, and a little thinner. Its edges are curved, its back is polished chrome and its front is dark glass. There's only one button on the front, at the bottom, used to bring you back to the home screen.
I got to play with it for about 15 minutes today. Ken Fisher, AT&T vice president for sales in Houston, gave me an initial demo and then handed the phone to me. Understanding how its touchscreen works comes easily -- it is as intuitive as you've heard it is. I was able to navigate most of its functions quickly, without any help or explanation.
Here are some thoughts on its primary features:
? Its multi-touch features are very impressive, and something you pick up quickly. For example, you can scroll through photos by flicking your finger side to side, or up and down. Zooming in and out is a matter of simply pinching or spreading two fingers over the image. Moving around on Google Maps is effortless -- so long as you have a fast connection -- by just dragging your finger across the screen.
 Dwight Silverman : Chronicle Chronicle videographer Lindsay Meeks, captured via iPhone. |
? I got to try the iPhone on a Wi-Fi network initially, and using features like Google Maps or watching YouTube videos was a joy. Then, I got to see Google Maps on the iPhone of a friend while it was connected to the Internet using AT&T's EDGE data network. It was, in a word, painful to watch.
? The virtual keyboard would definitely take some time to get used to. As you press a key, a larger image of it appears above your finger. You still have to make contact with the correct key, but having the larger character helps correct your aim. The keyboard does a good job of predicting the words you're intending to type, but if you make egregious errors, it offers no help at all.
? The camera takes decent pictures -- you can see one here of videographer Lindsay Meeks -- with its 2-megapixel camera. Sending the picture via e-mail was the only part of figuring out an iPhone function that had me stumbling. Once I walked through the process once, though, it made sense.
? The iPod part of the phone is slick. I spent most of the time in its Cover Flow view, scrolling through songs via album covers. You can play songs without a headset through the iPhone's speaker, but the sound is tinny and almost irritating. I didn't listen to music through a headset, but if it sounds like other iPods, it should be fine.
? Video resolution is excellent. I've seen reviews that complained about how poor YouTube videos look on the iPhone's screen, but that wasn't my experience -- they looked great and played smoothly.
Of course, this was only a cursory glance at the phone. I didn't get a chance to dive into its features in depth, and I didn't have time to touch some major features, such as e-mail.
But the true test of a device like this is to actually live with it. Smartphones, PDAs, handheld computers are extremely personal and need to become a part of your life. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to do that with the iPhone soon.
Apple's iPhone is a little bigger than you'd expect, and a little heavier than you'd expect. It feels substantial, and it looks beautiful.
The Object of Your Desire is a little bigger than a Samsung BlackJack, and a little thinner. Its edges are curved, its back is polished chrome and its front is dark glass. There's only one button on the front, at the bottom, used to bring you back to the home screen.
I got to play with it for about 15 minutes today. Ken Fisher, AT&T vice president for sales in Houston, gave me an initial demo and then handed the phone to me. Understanding how its touchscreen works comes easily -- it is as intuitive as you've heard it is. I was able to navigate most of its functions quickly, without any help or explanation.
Here are some thoughts on its primary features:
? Its multi-touch features are very impressive, and something you pick up quickly. For example, you can scroll through photos by flicking your finger side to side, or up and down. Zooming in and out is a matter of simply pinching or spreading two fingers over the image. Moving around on Google Maps is effortless -- so long as you have a fast connection -- by just dragging your finger across the screen.
| Dwight Silverman : Chronicle Chronicle videographer Lindsay Meeks, captured via iPhone. |
? I got to try the iPhone on a Wi-Fi network initially, and using features like Google Maps or watching YouTube videos was a joy. Then, I got to see Google Maps on the iPhone of a friend while it was connected to the Internet using AT&T's EDGE data network. It was, in a word, painful to watch.
? The virtual keyboard would definitely take some time to get used to. As you press a key, a larger image of it appears above your finger. You still have to make contact with the correct key, but having the larger character helps correct your aim. The keyboard does a good job of predicting the words you're intending to type, but if you make egregious errors, it offers no help at all.
? The camera takes decent pictures -- you can see one here of videographer Lindsay Meeks -- with its 2-megapixel camera. Sending the picture via e-mail was the only part of figuring out an iPhone function that had me stumbling. Once I walked through the process once, though, it made sense.
? The iPod part of the phone is slick. I spent most of the time in its Cover Flow view, scrolling through songs via album covers. You can play songs without a headset through the iPhone's speaker, but the sound is tinny and almost irritating. I didn't listen to music through a headset, but if it sounds like other iPods, it should be fine.
? Video resolution is excellent. I've seen reviews that complained about how poor YouTube videos look on the iPhone's screen, but that wasn't my experience -- they looked great and played smoothly.
Of course, this was only a cursory glance at the phone. I didn't get a chance to dive into its features in depth, and I didn't have time to touch some major features, such as e-mail.
But the true test of a device like this is to actually live with it. Smartphones, PDAs, handheld computers are extremely personal and need to become a part of your life. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to do that with the iPhone soon.
AT&T says it has spent an additional $50 million in the months leading up to the iPhone launch to upgrade and add more capacity to its 2.5G EDGE network, but a company official said that subscribers shouldn't expect to surf the mobile Net any faster.
"We don?t want to set unrealistic expectations," said Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T. "We have been upgrading the network on an ongoing basis, and we've made an additional investment in anticipation of demand for the iPhone."
AT&T has spent over $16 billion since 2005 upgrading the EDGE network.
The iPhone has been criticized for the fact that it works on AT&T's 2.5G network instead of its faster 3G network. But in the last few days, some AT&T subscribers have been reporting noticeably faster data speeds using their 2.5G handsets. And there has been speculation that AT&T gave EDGE a "boost" in the days and weeks leading up to the launch, which happens today at 6 p.m. local time.
But AT&T's Siegel said that what customers are likely experiencing are bursts in speed.
"The connection speed depends on so many things," he said. "It depends on the site you're connecting to or the size of the file you're downloading. And sometimes users experience bursts that are above what is typical."
He said the company has not changed what it cites as the average data rates for the EDGE network. He said on average subscribers should expect between 100 kilobits per second and 130kbps.
But even if some users get bursts of faster speeds from time to time, the EDGE network is still much slower than a 3G network. AT&T's 3G network, which uses a technology called HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), gets average data rates of between 400kbps and 700kbps. Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, which use a 3G technology called EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized), also offer data rates between 400kbps-700kbps.
So unfortunately, for all the soon-to-be iPhone users, AT&T hasn't magically increased the speed of its network. For truly faster speeds, iPhone fans will have to wait for the next generation device that will work on a 3G network.
Source: CNET News.com - Business Tech
I've been holding off doing a full swan dive into the iPhone swimming pool, but I don't think I can avoid taking the plunge any longer. When there's this much rumor, innuendo and raw, raucous hype about something this geeky, there's only one thing to do . . .
Aggregate!
We're kicking off iPhone Watch, a daily TechBlog entry that will continue each day this week through Friday, when the Object of Your Desire is actually available.
I'll troll the Net for the most interesting, insightful, funniest, outrageous or just flat out stupid iPhone nuggets -- and I suspect before this hypefest is all over, there will be a lot of the latter.
This will work like the Linkpost, with a new entry each day and additional items as I find them posted at the top.
Buckle your seatbelts, kids. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
? MacInTouch has a nice iPhone FAQ going. It appears to be eschewing rumor for fact. Imagine that!
? CNet's Tom Krazit looks at how Apple's generating the buzz for the iPhone, by relying on its horde of fanboys:
Traditional ways of reaching potential customers are changing rapidly, as any newspaper employee will tell you. Some companies have plunged headlong into a new media frenzy, setting up shop inside virtual worlds such as Second Life or trying to create "grassroots" viral video campaigns.
But a passionate, almost evangelical base of supporters makes any marketing campaign easier. Apple's reliance on a horde of loyal fans thirsty for information is the catalyst for its marketing.
Keep them thirsty, and every drop will feel like a gallon of information.
? Want to bet that the iPhone will be a hit -- or a dud? You actually can. LiveScience reports that BetUS.com -- a gambling Web site based in Costa Rica (online gambling is illegal in the U.S.) -- has odds on whether the iPhone will fly or flop. You can also get odds on:
? AppleInsider reports that the first shipment of iPhones have arrived in the United States:
People familiar with the matter say the intrinsically valuable freight was carried inbound by a certain Hong Kong-based air courier, which services Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. The early arrival is to assure the cargo can clear customs with enough time to handle unexpected delays, those people said.
? TechDigest has a list of the top 10 funny iPhone-related videos found on YouTube, including Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laughing about it.
? The Boy Genius Report, which has been pretty dead-on about the iPhone for the past two weeks, says the AT&T data plan for it will be called -- you guess it! -- the iPlan.
No, we're not kidding. Although iPlan might simply be used internally to refer to the Apple iPhone data plan, this streak of info came from a pretty high up source of ours, and it looks to be accurate. The iPhone data plan will be around $34.99-$44.99 and feature unlimited data, and either 2000 text messages, or unlimited text messages (we still have not confirmed which, but unlimited text messages would be awesome).
? Don't miss Philip Elmer-Dewitt's roundup of features visible in the 25-minute iPhone guided tour posted last week on Apple's Web site. And he's also got a look at the true cost of an iPhone over the lifetime of a 2-year AT&T contract. ($2,218.12 plus tax, for a 4-GB model with 450 minutes a month)
? From Bloomberg: Can the iPhone ever possibly hope to meet investors' expectations?
? Cult of Mac says Apple employees are no longer being coy about whipping out their iPhones in public, and that people are being hired to wait in line for an iPhone. Is this a strange planet, or what?
You've gotta be someone special to get an iPhone early. How special? You have to either be Walt Mossberg or David Pogue, of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times,
respectively. So while the rest of us writers wait like baby birds for
mommy to come back to the nest with a little bit of pre-chewed worm in
the form of a reviewable iPhone, we get to see what the big guns have
to say about the thing, officially and on the record. The verdict:
These guys love it. What else did you expect?
Mossberg is the more enthusiastic of the two.
He calls it a "beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer" (note: not
a phone), "sets a new bar," and has a whole thesaurus full of
superlatives for the phone's various features, all of which he says are
the best he's ever tested, etc. etc.
Mossberg initially had
a lot of trouble, as I expect many people will, with the virtual
keyboard. After three days he says he was ready to "throw it out the
window," but after five days he had grown to love it. Did Steve Jobs
visit on day four, I wonder? His only "real drawback" is that it's an
AT&T-only device. It's locked so that you can't even put in your
own GSM SIM card. And AT&T's EDGE service, he complains (and as I
have pointed out repeatedly), is just too slow for hard-core use.
Pogue is a tiny bit more critical,
but has many of the same points as Mossberg, only amplified. The glass
screen doesn't scratch as has been feared, and it's fast and beautiful
and he wants it to bear his children. He loves the voice mail system,
but complains that doing simple things like making a call still require
a lot of button presses. Like Mossberg, he adores the web browser, but
Pogue complains that battery life isn't as great as Apple has promised,
especially with video. He also complains about the lack of voice
dialing, instant messaging, and a memory card slot (which is odd,
because no Apple product, ever, has had a memory card slot).
Pogue
notes, interestingly, that when you buy a 4GB or 8GB iPhone, remember
that 700MB of that will be consumed with the iPhone's operating system.
Funny, I never thought about that... And like Mossberg, his big
complaint is the keyboard, only magnified: "The BlackBerry won't be
going away anytime soon," he says. And apparently Pogue absolutely
hates the AT&T wireless network.
So there you have it. Oh, and if you want the full review with fewer long words, you can see what USA Today has to say.
No
big surprises in any of this, to be honest. Looks like the two big
sticking points will be the things that have worried people all along:
The pokey AT&T network and that next-gen keyboard. Either you're
going to get the hang of it, or you're not. But give it a week before
you give up on the thing. The impatient may be better off waiting for
iPhone 2.0.
And yes, I'm still waiting for mine to review... stay tuned.
Tags: Apple Inc. iPhone mobility
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