Update 2: This comic strip has been officially labeled as “lame” by Wired. The article highlights, “it is nice to have the Apple product be the humble and earnest one instead of the snide device with all the features”. Role reversal.:)
Having a little fun…
Dialog adapted from tao muon’s post on the Neowin forums.
Before you all start shouting, I’m quite aware the iPhone does mapping too. But it’s viewing maps, as opposed to GPS mapping which is a whole lot smarter. Sure, you could plot from A to B on a mapping service, but it takes more to get updated traffic information, voice control and feedback, as well as navigation.
Correction: The iPhone can do push-email, but currently only limited to Yahoo email.
Rogers iPhone Apple in Canada
Comments for "Hi I’m an iPhone. And I’m a Smartphone."
Oscar
First intelligent ‘ad’ from you ever, Long. *sob* Your parents and I are so proud!
Adrian
It’s good to see someone showing that the iPhone isn’t all that great!
The Apple Fan boys will get moody…but it’s the truth.
Master William
The iPhone has push email capabilities.
Long Zheng
@Master William: Apparently, you can only get push-email with Yahoo email. Not from your own email server or your corporate email servers. For other services, you can only do POP3 or IMAP.
Matt Sharpe
Fantastic
I fail to see what makes the iPhone so special. My HTC Wizard does everything I need, and I am developing my dissertation on it in C#. From what I’ve heard it would be a lot harder to do any sort of development for the iPhone.
Master William
@Long Zheng,
Thats not the point. It has push email capabilities, when the cartoon implies it doesnt. And if it can handle Yahoo Push, then im certain there will be a way to do so from your own server.
The iPhone isnt aimed at the corporate market. Its abundantly clear to see that. The comparison to ’smart phones’ was on a technical and interface basis. Its aimed at a market that currently isnt catered to properly in my opinion (high end consumer multimedia phone phone), but is one where a lot of money can be made. And these are people who couldnt care less about editing Word documents on the road. Its all about the internet and ease of syncing and enjoying their music, movies and photos. Arguably, the iPhone appears to do this very very well, and doing so in a form factor andf UI that is just gorgeous. Sex sells in this high margin market. My younger brother wouldnt be seen dead with that Samsung Windows Mobile phone.
So to sum up, the phones you compare are in completely different markets and should be compared as such.
iBenshi
Great ad!
Long Zheng
@Master William: This is a “Something vs Something” ad. Not everything has to be entirely true
You wouldn’t happen to “Cancel or allow” posting this reply would you?
ikyouCrow
@Master WIlliam:
apple is marketing their phone as a smart phone, and by that label alone corporate users will be looking at it as a replacement for what they have already. it would be really sweet if they can quit being apple-y and do stuff that other manufacteres do like push from exchange and stuff like that.
bottom line, apple said smart phone, and this is a smart phone comparison. as for aesthetics, i heard a korean company already has an iphone look alike available that’s smaller and comes with a broader feature set than what the apple currently offers.
it’s still in ‘beta’ so lets all wait to see what they do; in the meantime, i’m going to enjoy apple getting a taste of their own medicine for a change.
Darren
I liked it, and I got my cap today. Thanks Long!
Zim
haha! It’s great!
oscar
Push technology. Whoaaa that is so advanced! The last time I used it was 1999 when I worked for a large consulting firm. This is so advanced man. No, No it’s so SMART. Yeah, SMART. And man, the quality of the music playback is so smart 2, it tricked me into buying yet another mp3 player with Microsoft’s technology. Na that is even smarter. Smart-phones are so smart.
Forrest
Christopher Price
iPhone is not “only limited to Yahoo mail”. It supports any P-IMAP server, as well as Apple’s .Mac service. Apple has not commented on support for POP/IMAP standards.
StephenC_IRL
Sweet, i like it, i shall be buying an iPhone but until i can write my own software and get UMTS my i-mate JasJar shall remain my primary phone
dunk
… and it will still outsell the blackberry, blackjack and treo combined. what none of you nerds understand (and i say that with respect and admiration, because i too am a nerd) is that 95% of people don’t know, need or care about push imap or 80% of the other features of smart phones — i want push imap so i’m installing it on my mail server — the average person couldn’t care less. and it’s not because these people are “brain dead, morons who buy in to flashy advertising” — the simple fact is, consumer electronics are way too confusing for the average person.
apple understands this and adheres to one of 80/20 rule with almost ruthless efficiency. they recognize that 80 percent of the population uses about 20% of the features hence the relatively feature lacking ipod has a 90 million user installed base while the feature laden creative zen has an installed base of considerably less.
forget steve’s prognostication of 10% of the cell phone market, if apple were to capture 10% of the existing ipod market they would exceed RIMs entire installed user base accumulated over the past 8 years.
Neemer
They said the iPhone supports Push-IMAP, which is a proposed standard (and in reality has existed for quite a while now). I don’t see why any server which wishes to support push imap (which many do!) couldn’t take advantage of this. The Treo has supported this for a while as well.
Certainly Exchange doesn’t support it, but most Unix mail programs do.
Unless I’ve missed some info, this is hardly limiting push email to just Yahoo.
JB
“Outsell the blackberry, blackjack, and treo combined….”
Huh?? Not at $500 a pop it won’t, especially if the battery life is as bad as I’m hearing it will be.
95% of the people DO care about price and battery life. iPhone is DOA unless those things are fixed.
Windows Mobile will always suck
Moto Q—Sucks!!
Samsung i730–Sucks!!
Blackjack—Sucks!!
No matter what smartphone you guys keep listing, they all use Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile is horribly at handling the voice function of the phone, the 3rd party apps are always short of being somewhat reliable and productive.
The iPhone is the next big thing in phones and smartphones and the people that cant see that have not had a smartphone long enough. So, keep making your (somewhat funny) ads and be overshadowed by the iPhone.
RRRT
which one doesn’t look like nerdy middle management shit?
D
I think Apple will sell a lot more than many of you think. You are self-described nerds and appear to not have a lick of business sense:
1. Most consumers don’t want push email (indluign spam) and don’t want to be charged for it. (hint: its not free) they use their phone fro talking, texting, and soon they’ll have a real browser unlike today’s cr*p phones (something the comic fails to mention.
2. There is a bell curve of market adoption. the $500 price tag is just the price for early adopters. You nerds forget the entry price of the Razr nearly the same or even more I think–with far fewer features. On waht planet did the Razr fail because of price. Not this one. Moto skimmed the market and lowered price methodically to optimize revenue and profitability. Apple will do the same–they are even better at it than Moto is.
John Lens
Umm, seriously… just buy a friggin Samsung then. Why do fanboyz always have to discredit something to feel good about their purchase. Geesh, grow the f up.
A.G.
You’ve convinced me. I NEED TO GET the Samsung SQP-552 so I don’t waste Cingular’s bandwidth! I want to be the best Cingular customer ever!
(Cingular obviously doesn’t have a problem with bandwidth, or they wouldn’t have approved the iPhone…)
Push email = push content on the web circa 1997. Lame and unnecessary.
But it reassures the suits, because it leaves you without the excuse “I didn’t get that email.”
BTW, I’m not going to get either of these phones.
drBOBgobot
Re-inventing the invent of inventation!
Apple cleans it up, puts pretty icons on it, allows it to function with Macs only and tells the world that they’ve done only what Cell Phone carriers have been able to do for some time…..Rape the user!
$500 is a steep price for something that’s going to get dropped, hit, spilled on or around, handed to others, and pulled out of pockets in random situations. More or less, only insurance companies, doctors, lawyers and the US Government can screw me!!! So get back Steve and offer something that’s not copied off something else!
People will buy this but not because of the functionality; it will be to put in the ever stylish collection of materialistic goods. You’ll add this to your current collection of 5 different iPods, Macbook, Prius, stack of Paris Hilton magazines and purses, and coffee table reading books that you’ve purchased but never opened. Sure, the pretentious schmucks will buy them and love telling their friends (also fake materialistic uppity pricks) how great their new iPhone is, but come on, who is really ever happy after throwing that much money done the shitter??
Scott
Who cares what the hell kind of features a smartphone has? They’re goddamn eyesores. All of them. If you’re the kind of guy that walks around with a bluetooth headset, then enjoy your smartphone and don’t forget the belt-clip, you big dork!
Deepthi
Great ad, good to see someone show that iphone is not that great and it just does what other smart phones have been doing since years!!! Keep it up!!
Adam
I love reading angry mac fan boy posts. “I’m a apple fanboy and i eat whatever jobs shits”. Face it fan boys, the iPhone is just a pretty blonde that has nothing new to bring to the table.
Chuck Pelto
TO: Whomever, et al.
RE: Clever
Cute send-up of the I’m a Mac, I’m a PC commercials being run, effectively, by Apple Computer.
RE: iPhone vs. SmartPhone
iPhones run on Mac OS X.
There are SCADS of programmers already familiar with how to program in OS X.
Given time, I think we’re going to see a LOT of new software being generated to run on the iPhone and interface, effectively, with Macintosh platforms. Much more effectively than the way most other cellphone/PDA/cum-whathaveyous do.
Actually….I’ve got a couple ideas I’m working towards that activity, myself.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Imitation is the highest form of flattery.]
blahblah
““Outsell the blackberry, blackjack, and treo combined….”
Huh?? Not at $500 a pop it won’t, especially if the battery life is as bad as I’m hearing it will be.
95% of the people DO care about price and battery life. iPhone is DOA unless those things are fixed.”
False, good sir. 95% of the people care about what’s new, what’s hot, what the celebrities have, what looks cool. 5% care about battery life. I’d guess that about 2% care about push fing email.
Drew
I just don’t get all the iPhone haters. $250 for a nice cell phone, $250 for an iPod, but Apple asking consumers to pay the same amount for a BETTER version of both in one package is greedy?
TizzyD
As a Smartphone (T-Mobile Dash), a Treo (680), and–when available, an iPhone user–I can comment on this one from a unique perspective.
First, tech wise, yep, the facts seem just about right. Since the platform has been around, they’ve added some nice features. But, that rampant use of features is exactly WHY the Smartphones I use are just not up to snuff.
. . . drum roll . . .
It’s about the UI.
It’s HORRIBLE to actually use a Smartphone. I do at least twice as many keypresses/clicks as my Palm to get anything done.
The comic mentions “do spreadsheets, etc.” Been there, done that on both. Yet, I have to say that anyone doing spreadsheets on a phone is in for pain. Squinting, poor visibility, and just plain aggravation. I avoid doing anything but the most simple viewing on those screens. Same goes for reading documents.
I’ve actually discovered the reason that you need 3G. Not for video. It’s for those stupidly large Office files. Remember when a word processing file was 2K. I mean really, who thinks a Word document (hundreds of K just to save mind you) is made for anything like a Smartphone. That’s why you need 3G, just to get the data down.
As for pushing email, well, that is a techical feature that would lock me into MS Exchange, a server that frankly is another dog with fleas. Talk to sys admins at big installs–they hate it. I’d like to see a more flexible approach, say a POP scanner that texts me when a message is there. Then I can pull it if _I_ want it.
But again, it all comes down to UI. And what I have seen of the iPhone, well . . . sweet.
Jesuslover
You all need to get lives and set down the hunks of metal and actually care about things before you all get tumors, that’s all people care about now a days is cell phones, these new Iphones and smart phones with be obsolete in a couple months and new technology will come out.
Oddbjorn
Oh, I get it, you nerds wont buy it. But the masses will. Bummer for Apple…
David Geller
As others have said…It’s not about the features - it’s about the user interface. I’ve tried several Windows Mobile devices and have found them almost all to be terribly difficult to use. Wifi config for most of them was terrible. The three Blackberry devices I’ve had have all performed much better due to their simple, very focused UI. And none, up until the Pearl, had the same features as the Windows devices I played with (like the MDA, the Dash, the Q, etc.). But, for what they did do, they did extremely well.
While I can appreciate the value of CDMA, EVDO and UTMS, I can’t say I’d ever be happy with a Windows Mobile phone. I tried to like them, I really did. That’s why the iPhone is, potentially, appealing. Let’s see if Apple can pull it off. I liken it to the TiVo. Everyone knows how to make a DVR. Only TiVo has been able to make the experience so easy, so elegant. And we know what Apple has done for the MP3 market.
Tarzan
Haha, who on earth would walk around with that monster of a phone. Is that a weapon or something? Like the iPhone though, looks good.
nichampagne
i’m buying an iPhone when it comes out.
drBOBgobot
I’m buying a midget and a pterodactyl! I tell the midget my message/email/voice/internet request and he in turn communicates to the bird in a highly sophisticated midget/pterodactyl subconscious communication method that the bird translates in high speed flying to the end user. Brilliant!
Zhule
I’m buying an iPhone when it comes out too.
tom
wheres the touchscreen? wifi? disk space? i dont want a phone thats 60% keyboard, nor do i want 1/4″ memory cards that i can lose. i may not buy an iphone, but i definately wont buy any other “smart” phone.
tom
“but come on, who is really ever happy after throwing that much money done the shitter??”
i can recall several times ive been happy after spending a lot of money on a quality item. like when i went from playing cheap guitars to a usa made gibson, and a ‘real’ amplifier, and realized that quality instruments while they dont make you play better, do make you sound better. and when i was younger and bought my first ‘real’ skateboard, even though it was 4x more expensive than the kmart board i previously had, it was stronger, lighter, and faster. i was happy to have saved up money for it, instead of blowing it on video games. like when i got fed up with my crappy record player and got a real technics turntable. when i got my powerbook, it felt so good to have a laptop that worked. after i bought a top of the line nikon digital camera, after being fed up with low end consumer models, the professional cameras are a joy to use instead of fustrating and capable of what i need. after i bought my volkswagen, i was and still am very happy to have a car that doesnt break down like my old cars did. if you are that unhappy after spending money on something, you didnt buy it for the right reasons. you didnt need it. would you buy a cheesburger if you werent hungry, just because everyone else was? if youre not going to buy an iphone, youre probably not one of the many people fed up every phone that theyve ever owned or tried out.
Justin
And which one will be available in Australia in the next 12 months.
NEITHER OF THEM.
Australia telcos totally suck and behind the times.
media_lush
trying to compare the iphone with a “smart phone” is like trying to compare a Ferrari with a fully loaded Chevy truck - something destined to be an iconic classic with something that, well, does the job …..but what would you rather drive
jbelkin
Yea, that’s how the smartphone people sees the iphone. But of course, based on their clumsy interfaces, the only smart thing about smartphones is trying to brand the word ’smart.’
The ’smartphone’ shown above is apparently the culmination of 10 major cell companies, bilion of of R&D, 10 years os pda and cell phone technology and to that - we say bawawaahahaha - no wonder hardly anyone owns one.
So, as a iphone waiting list person, I say, that’s right - you keep on buying a device that requires you 15 hours of instruction reading, that requires you loading 5-10 better versions of the apps included on the phone to get it into reasonable usability and of course, a magnifying attachment to see the screen and an add-on keyboard so you can actually type on it - good of you to support the weak and old school technology. You are way more patient and have more free time to learn a device - yep, I’m lazy, all I want is a phone to sync and start using in 2 minutes - and thanks for not clotting up the iphone waiting list!
Loweded Wookie
The e-mail on the Samsung is hardly beyond that of e-mail in the late 80’s early 90’s.
Music playback is an addon and as such is pathetic compared to the proper iPod in the iPhone.
CDMA/GSM/UMTS etc are NOT in the same phone. CDMA and GSM make two different models. Having both in the same phone would make it a monster, of course looking at the photo above maybe that is true.
Oh yeah, and what about Google Maps running in full resolution on the iPhone?
Matt
Hey Tom, I have a 2002 Passat, it died Sunday on the way back from California… and you don’t have low ego emissions.
David
This is well, simply lame.
Looks like a winblowz fanboy has his pannies in a twist.
Jeremy Toeman
Great comic, really great.
I just don’t get the demographic here. It’s NOT for business people, right? Everyone seems agreed on that.
So now there’s the “lifestyle” argument, but who has $500 to buy a phone YET ISN’T a “business person”??? Struggling artists? College students?
Furthermore $500 crosses the line into a non-casual purchase, so targeting a market that sees turnover as often as 3-4 times per year seems odd as well.
To whomever argues it’s “good for Web browsing”, not at EDGE speeds it isn’t.
As I blogged about here: http://www.livedigitally.com/2007/01/19/iphone-appeal-drops-daily/ I just don’t think the reality of this device is going to treat it as well as the vision of the device…
Proper Smartphone User
Chuck Pelto:
“iPhones run on Mac OS X.
There are SCADS of programmers already familiar with how to program in OS X. ”
Wrong. The iPhone runs OSX. Jobs did not say Mac OSX. There is no public SDK for the iPhone, and a number of companies are partnering on developing for it, and the plan is for the iPhone to be a closed platform.
If Apple take this line, there will be a limited number of applications for the iPhone.
Johnny Appleseed
Again, the Apple bashers are hung up on comparing features. What makes the iPod revolutionary is the Multi-Touch interface. But as with the iPod, people will have to try it themselves to “get it”.
And the smartphone might do music, but does it do touch-screen Coverflow and widescreen video? In iPod mode, the iPhone is an even better iPod than the latest one available.
Johnny Appleseed
Sorry, obviously that first reference should have been “iPhone” not “iPod”
His Divine Shadow
You’d be wrong. But that’s okay.
His Divine Shadow
I just don’t think the reality of this device is going to treat it as well as the vision of the device…
Same was said about almost everything Apple ever did. After 20+ plus years of every critic on the planet predicting Apple’s imminent demise, you will forgive Apple supporters if they stopped listening to detractors a looooong time ago….
Adrian Abraham
Thanks for all the sharing, I’m buying the iPhone
modern demagogue
not all artists are starving, the new york art community is thriving. plus its called media, entertainment, advertising, public relations, and fashion. these are all highly profitable advanced consumer producers and advanced producer services industries where we have no problem dropping $500 to have the latest, greatest, stylish, etc
trendsetters, early adopters, people who can generally afford cingular. there are a lot in new york, la, london, tokyo, dubai, etc.. and apple really doesnt give a crap about everyone else; they’ll follow in the years after, just like they did with the ipod- remember, when it came out it was $4-500 too.
and all your little comparisons are stupid- if one did an assessment im an iphone / im a smartphone, the iphone would win. widescreen video, os x, superior memory, multi touch, not being a big behemoth, and actually looking suave and cool, maybe the screen resolution as well?
go buzz off, we apple afficionados are tired of your crap, admit you suck and go program some linux because windows cant hack it
andy
“As I blogged about here: http://www.livedigitally.com/2007/01/19/iphone-appeal-drops-daily/ I just don’t think the reality of this device is going to treat it as well as the vision of the device…”
29 diggs after a whole month. Apparently not the most popular article.
“If Apple take this line, there will be a limited number of applications for the iPhone.”
Yep. Which is a good thing once you consider all of the garbage apps out there for windows. Apple is and always has been about quality control over their product.
His Divine Shadow
in the meantime, i’m going to enjoy apple getting a taste of their own medicine for a change.
What the heck does that even *mean*?
Microsoft fanboys have been denigrating Apple products for over 20 years, and predicting Apple’s death as a company for just as long. The reinvented Apple under Steve Jobs has produced winner after winner in the market place while Microsoft has shepherded failure after failure. Apple has the pulse of the consumer, and Microsoft does not.
The iPhone will be a huge hit for Apple, and the fact that Apple bashers still won’t “get it” pleases me to no end.
NOt
” If Apple take this line, there will be a limited number of applications for the iPhone.
Yep. Which is a good thing once you consider all of the garbage apps out there for windows. Apple is and always has been about quality control over their product.”
…which explains the popularity of Firefox add-ons and Myspace widgets.
Johnny Appleseed
On the subject of third-party apps, I’d like to see Leopard’s WebClip feature compatible with the iPhone, so users can make their own widgets from any web page they like. If surfing the web with Safari isn’t too big a security risk for the iPhone, widgets clipped from web pages shouldn’t be either.
Vincent Nguyen
The creator of this ad is clearly misinformed or in denial. It’s pretty obvious many features of the iPhone were left out…
http://www.myiphone.com/hi-im-an-iphone-and-im-a-smartphone-26468.php
Goofy
Its not what it can but how it is done!
And the Apple rules in that category.
Its like office programs that can do a zillion things
in a zillion ways or a program that can do
what you need in a few cool ways!
sdlvx
I think everyone neglects that open source phone that runs linux. It will be unmatched in features.
themacthinker
OK so what’s the point of this home made commercial?
Why is the iPhone mute about finger scrolling, seamless integration with itunes and so on?
What the designer of this commercial dumb or what?
————-
http://www.mostofmymac.com
tino
I think Long’s post was about the way Apple did advertising there products with these TV spots and not a comparison between two phones in the first place.
So, after reading all the commants: it worked great! He did say ‘Jehova’!
For me, the iPhone is no revolution. Its the same as for all Apple products: great interface and cool look but with reduced features (or call it simplicity). There is nothing wrong with that but with the way Apple (or only Jobs) advertise it. At the keynote, Jobs didn’t mentioned that there are phones with touchscreens and with the same features (and more). Everyone should choose themselfes between simplicity or freedom (sometimes freedom is the opposite of simplicity).
the other Mark
I don’t understand all the criticism.
The product is not even available for purchase. All that has been shown was a demo or a prototype with the final product beginning to ship in 4 more months! That means there is a span of 6 months between when the product was first demoed and when it is finally released. Let’s try to save our attacks until after the product comes out.
His Divine Shadow
Jobs didn’t mentioned that there are phones with touchscreens and with the same features (and more)
That’s because there aren’t any. Did anyone critical of the iPhone actually watch the Keynote? There are no phones on the market with a multitouch user interface, a real web browser, and a real mp3 player.
Repeat what you thought you read on other blogs ad nauseum. It doesn’t change the fact that the iPhone’s interface changes everything.
Long Zheng
@the other Mark: That didn’t stop the Microsoft bashers with Windows Vista
Sosuke
@Chuck Pelto
“iPhone will not allow third party applications to be installed” says Jobs
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/12/0430200
kofster
First of all, when people want to make comparisons with products that are categorized in the same groups, facts must be used. All phones that use Post Office Protocol 3 will ‘check’ for emails in a specific period designated by the user. Also, IMAP technology, once implemented by anyone’s company will support the PUSH e-mail feature and that is most definitely not limiting it to Yahoo! users.
Also, if the creator of the strip meant to imply that the current smartphones on the market are compatible with all those different networks, without further clarification, is very misleading. Everyone knows that GSM and CDMA and EVDO are not manufactured in any one phone at this time- different networks people. Thanks Loweded Wookie for addressing that.
@ drBOBgobot- “Apple cleans it up, puts pretty icons on it, allows it to function with Macs only and tells the world that they’ve done only what Cell Phone carriers have been able to do for some time…..Rape the user!”
That is utter rubbish (pun intended.) Steve clearly made it known in the keynote and during the expo that the iPhone will be available for Mac and Windows users and it will be managed in iTunes. Also, people who use Exchange accounts will also be able to use it in there and if your Exchange supports PUSH e-mail, you will be getting that feature also.
There are a lot of people in the discussion that have made very interesting points as to why they believe the iPhone may be a superior phone.My good friend, Matthew may give a few reasons why we fanboys buy into Steve’s, ‘reality distortion field.’
I for one know that I will be getting my hands on one as soon at it will be available. I mean, what smartphone is available today that anyone here knows can play full length movies at 640×480 resolutions running at 1.5 Mbps?
There are even people clamoring: Oh the iPhone does not have expandible memory…. How much more does one want and let us be practical. What is the largest capacity in a memory stick one can purchase? An 8 GB stick costs US $300.00!
Worth noting, someone here stated that a lot of people will buy the iPhone not for functionality but because of its aesthetics and so forth… The iPhone is beautiful, it is thin. The hardware and those 3 sensors are strokes of ingenuity! The screen is sweet and at 160 PPI, I can care less for what the Chinese bring out, or what Prada may claim they had first or for what Sansung’s so called iPhone killer can do. They do not have multitouch. Their OS does not have the strength that the optimized version of Mac OS X has. Core Image on a cell phone? Full html internet on a cellphone? Syncing bookmarks between a cellphone and a computer? Widgets/gadgets/Konfabulator/callitwhateveryoulike on a cellphone? Cover Flow on a cellphone? …I think i’ve heard about it somewhere…
It’s the iPhone!
…now go do something useful like edit a spreadsheet on your smartphones with all that screen real estate!
Sosuke
@His Divine Shadow
http://www.meizume.com/showthread.php?t=720
Oh, the iPhone isn’t on the market yet, and out of your list, only the multitouch user interface is unique to the iPhone, phones have had real browsers and mp3 players for a while now
chandler
Iphone-Did i mention i have a ****ing ipod in me?! owned.
KirinDave
It’s cute to see the current smartphone owners bellyaching about how their new toys are about to be invalidated.
Time and time again, intelligent companies come along and realize that there is more to a product than a bullet list of features. Presentation, interface and experience are key for any quality product. The iPhone doesn’t need more features to succeed. It can just be competitive and succeed because it provides the groundwork for a whole new paradigm for device interfaces.
fred
Apple engineers write excellent user interfaces. People like good UI’s. Apple didn’t create anything new with the iPod or the iPhone (in tech terms), but their UI’s are great and that’s what sells their products. I’m not an Apple KoolAid drinker, but this is fact.
Oh yeah, do lots of bong hits. Weed!!!
Bitsy
The iPod was five years late to the DAP table, with a smaller feature set.
Look what happened.
Nick
well they’re both offered by cingular, so it’s no diff than 2 phones offered by say qwest, they have phones in different ranges of sophistocation. maybe you dont NEED all the added features of the smart phone. maybe you prefer the looks of the apple phone, i do. when it comes to the majority of the people who purchase these phones they will probably do all they are needed to do.
smart phone user
I’m really quite bored of “my software/hardware (and be extension, my life) is better than yours” argument. Actually, all options have benefits and problems, it’s better to choose what is right for you, or the application that you are using.
Please allow me a minor diversion: I’m a computer science PhD student, I use GNU/Linux and FreeBSD for code development. I have recently used Solaris on Spark hardware. I regularly use windows for recreational reasons, and I use Mac as I am a part time sound engineer. They all have strengths, and they all have weaknesses - anyone who regularly uses more than one system will be able to work these out for themselves.
The same is true of “smart” phones. Palm, Blackberry, Windows for Smart phones, and OSX will all provide individual strengths, and weaknesses. This is life.
To the community at large: This argument is about as sensible as the following conversation:
You want to buy a truck, because they carry loads of stuff.
No you want a car, cause they get places quicker than a truck.
How can you say that, you can carry much more stuff in a truck!
You are stupid because a car is quicker!
etc.
etc.
Please can we accept that different people will choose different solutions - inevitably with different metrics of worth than yours. These choices, although potentially different from yours, are valid - they have different needs to you, which is why they have different metrics. Feel superior if you must, but please don’t use dumb arguments to “prove” a subjective point. There is no accounting for taste.
Great ad though … nice that people can still see irony
Calibration263
“To whomever argues it’s “good for Web browsing”, not at EDGE speeds it isn’t.”
*cough* Wifi *cough*
I mean, okay seriously, you probably arnt going to have a Wifi network 24/7.
But please, tell me one phone that gives you fast internet anywhere? I mean, like, you know, good internet, thats visible, shows the full page, doesn’t lag the phone running…..?
none!
as for speed, i would say edge is more then enough. If you NEED data, you have those widgets, im sure there will be some form of RSS, and you get your emails and texts, as well as other special built in services. That web browser is a handy, “i need to just look up something quickly” sort of feature. Or if need be, you can resort to Wifi, for example, you go somewhere, for a short-ish period of time, and dont feel like brining along a laptop, but know there will be wifi.
What iPhone brings to the table in terms of internet, is alot more then any smartphone. Have fun searching through your web pages, that are either to far zoomed to know what you are looking at, or to small to read, while i click my widget, get all my important data, then toss the widget to the side, and a new one slides into view…… dont worry, i will wait for your next page to load, need some reading glasses?
AND by the way, dont get me wrong, had iPhone just been a phone, not a smart phone, i would have most likely picked up a smart phone.
iPhone just, puts everything a smart phone has in, leaves out a few things here or there, and then works hard enhancing those features, making them easy to use. Its a device intented to be wipped out, do what needs done quickly, and put away, not out 24/7 doing whatever…. quick, everything you need, easily accesed and viewed.
/dev/null
As a user of a treo, and a blackberry at one point… These phones suck ass. They don’t do music well, they don’t do photos well, they don’t connect me in an ssh session to my 100 unix machines(without a bunch of BS). They don’t even do a fucking phone well? These things are heavy, have a shitty battery life, crash and need to have their batteries pulled out to reset them. The OS is winblows - which is probably why the damn things crash so often.
WTF - people - WHY do you put up with CRAP and then try to say how great it is!
I am a Unix sys adm, a professional photographer, a musician and honestly I am looking forward to a little apple competition, so I can put my life into one device that I can sync easily with my multiple macs at work and at home, that also doesn’t look like ASS.
Andrew
kinda missing the whole next-generationmulti-touchscreen interface there, which is what impresses the heck outta me. Those wee keyboards are a total pain, unattractive, and hard to keep clean!
MrG
And there were a lot of MP3 players before the iPod came along, too. It’s all about the interface and ease of use.
LKM
What most people fail go grasp is that it’s *good* to have less, but well implemented features. My P990i does a quazillion things, is slow, buggy, and the user interaction was designed by a drunken monkey after a lobotomy. I actually missed appointments because it takes 14 steps or about a minute to enter a new appointment into the P990i, and sometimes I just couldn’t be bothered and eventually forgot to do it.
I’m going to gladly give up 90% of the features in the P990i in order to get those features I actually need in an interface that actually works. In other words, I couldn’t care less about all the stuff the iPhone can’t do as long as it does what I need most, and doesn’t constantly annoy me whenever I have to use it.
irblinx
Interesting point about all those programmers for Mac OS being able to bring out their wares for the iPhone, I assume that the iPhone has the power to run all these apps then? Also, the primary way of programming for Windows Mobile is to use Visual Studio, now there really are a LOT of programmers familiar with that tool. As for it all being about the interface, the smartphone interface is highly configurable as many people have already demonstrated with their iClones.
Of course Apple will sell loads of iPhones, although outselling Palm, Rim & Samsung is hardly going to worry Microsoft who are firmly targetting enterprises. Incidentally, there is very little chance of them outselling HTC, the largest WM manufacturer. There are better MP3 players on the market than the iPod (and certainly less fussy software than iTunes) but Apple have established themselves as a fashion brand and we should all applaud them for making gadget fever so popular.
But overall, the Pro apple brigade essentially miss the point that the one item of functionality that it would appear an iPhone owner will be without is a sense of humour!! Come on guys, we’ve been fighting the mine is better than yours battle for years, it’ll never end, and neither should it because it’s a right good laugh