“Apple is slated to come out with a new phone. Reports say that it will have a slide-out keyboard, 4GB or 8GB of storage, and work on CDMA or GSM cellular networks. It will start at $249 before subscription rebates,” Michael Kanellos writes for CNET. “And it will largely fail.”
“Initially, of course, it won’t look that way at all. As with any Apple product release, it will be ushered into the world on a wave of obligatory gushing,” Kanellos writes.
“Sales for the phone will skyrocket initially. However, things will calm down, and the Apple phone will take its place on the shelves with the random video cameras, cell phones, wireless routers and other would-be hits,” Kanellos writes. “Why won’t the Apple phone succeed? It will be a great piece of hardware that, if I wasn’t the cheapest man in North America, I might buy. The entire strategy, however, is based on what I call ‘iPod magic.’ Apple succeeded with the iPod, the theory goes. Therefore, they can break into other categories and turn them upside down.”
“But the iPod looks like it may turn out to be a non-repeatable experience. Look at the historical record. When the iPod emerged in late 2001, it solved some major problems with MP3 players,” Kanellos writes. “Unfortunately for Apple, problems like that don’t exist in the handset business. Cell phones aren’t clunky, inadequate devices. Instead, they are pretty good. Really good.”
Fans of insipid blather can read the full article here.
The phones that the vast majority of people have today suck. Kanellos’ amazingly incongruous point that they call the Blackberry the “Crackberry,” so it must be good and therefore nobody will want the iPhone, could only have any chance of working if: a) it actually is good and b) if the vast majority of people have Blackberry smart phones, which they don’t. Kanellos also thinks that because Apple hasn’t sold 100 million Mac minis that the iPhone will be a failure. No, really, he does. With that kind of “logic” in play who needs nonsense?
While a requiem for vapor is yet another interesting way to waste bandwidth, we’ll wait for the product to actually be released before we comment further, thanks. In the meantime, you can bet your Mac that Kanellos’ article has been iCal’ed here at MDN for future reference.
Michael Kanellos You’re an idiot!
The cell phone experience sucks. The menus are hard to navigate and not very self explanatory. I don’t see how Apple couldn’t make that experience better.
How many of you who are slamming this guy now poo pooed the Zune before it was out and called it a failure?
— Don’t get me wrong, the Zune is pretty much failing but there is hypocrasy (sp?) in you busting this guys balls when you didi the same thing.
My worry is Apple can’t control the Cellphone experience. They can make a GREAT cellphone/Ipod
But they cant make a GREAT cellphone carrier.
Plenty of people get a cellphone and think it sux when in reality the Carrier is the problem. Especially since Carrier service varies so much in differing parts of the country.
Bad carrier service will result n many unjustified but complaints against apple.
Dark Side of The Moon:
The difference between slamming the Zune before it’s release and postulating on the Apple phone is the fact that most of the details of the Zune were know prior to release and were easily compared to the iPod. That comparison showed that the Zune was nothing special, and that is putting it nicely.
Nobody knows ANYTHING about the iPhone because there are about 10 people at Apple that know about it, and they are not on this board.
Let’s wait and see.
It should be good knowing Apple’s track record lately. That is the only speculation anybody can make.
What I want out of a phone: RECEPTION, LOUD EARPIECE, LOUD AND CLEAR SPEAKERPHONE, and of course iSync support. It seems lots of phone manufacturers have forgotten what a phone should be all about!
I have a Nokia e61 and while it is a very capable device given its size, the interface is not good, the battery life is OK, and the buttons are too small. The volume is poor. The browser kicks butt, that is about it.
Best phone I have ever had was probably my SE Z600 as far as reception and battery life.
I think the best part of this iPhone will be the fact that Mac users will not be left fending for themselves in the software area.
Actually, Steve Jobs DOES walk on water.
Listen here, Kanallas, it’s not about design [“Samsung…Motorola…KDDI”] nor how big an LCD screen [“Sharp”].
It’s about:
a) If you want to carry an iPod and a phone, you can choose to have both in one device;
b) Software.
And it’s the latter that you’ve discounted – understandably so because of a lack of information and/or imagination. (a) is a big enough market by itself, but (b) is where Apple has a track record eclipsing the abovementioned companies’ strong points.
Apple has disappointed before because users’ wish lists can be pretty extreme, but it would be foolish to discount the product development team’s ability to come up with some pretty attractive functions on the software side. Design-wise, we take it for granted that it will not suck. Technology-wise, we take it for granted that it will be advanced even if expensive. The interface will be elegant. Music? We take that for granted too. What are we missing here? What else will it do and how will it do it. Even if you have some information on the latter that we don’t have, you have no basis for predicting a flop.
Good troll article though. Happy birthday, kid.
The author forgets to mention that Blackberry’s history is in the corporate market. RIM just came out with a consumer-oriented Blackberry (the Pearl) and it is still far from “iPod revolutionary”.
I used Sony Ericssons for a long time and they weren’t bad. Never had everything I was looking for, always had to compromise on some feature. I am now using, gasp, hold your breath, a WM5 Smartphone. It’s has been a horrible experience with the only bright spot being the Missing Sync for OS X. It’s even better than MS’s own ActiveSync (I have a PeeCee at work).
I for one can’t wait for the iPhone.
While I agree that current cell phone HARWARE is generally okay (keep your accursed flip phones), the software & interfaces SUCK! I’ve owned Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Nokia phones and have been appalled by them ALL!
The Treos are as good as it gets today, but I HATE the Pygmy keyboard and small screen. Palm needs to release a Treo TX… a Palm TX with the same big screen, WiFi, Bluetooth, SD card slot, audio jack… PLUS, Quad-band phone capabilities and with full screen SOFTWARE virtual keyboard. You could even use graffiti, too! For me, THAT would be perfect!
If for NO other reason, I look forward to see what Apple will do with the phone user INTERFACE.
Could Apple possibly make them USABLE? With all the functions easily accessible and logically arrayed? Well, if ANY company could, it’s Apple. The author is clearly clueless and lacks any sort of imagination, in that regard!
Can you imagine a phone running Mac OS X Lite?
OMFG… I’d buy one in a SNAP! Adios Sony Ericsson…
Kanellos, aren’t you schedule to go on Vacation or something soon? Like the mountains…….
There’s nothing more entertaining than reading the postings of pissed off Apple fans. Did Kanellos tweak your little noses too hard? Boo hoo. Everything he wrote made perfect sense. What exactly is THE VOID that the iphone will fill??!! Answer: None. It will just appeal to shallow, got-to-have-the-latest-thing-with-an-apple-logo-on it-sect.
I don’t trust GYPSIES!
I keep asking this question, but nobody has answered it:
Don’t these ignorant twirps have editors? Do they write any hare-brained thing that pops into their empty heads? The tech press is starting to give journalism a really bad name!
“Cell phones aren’t clunky, inadequate devices. Instead, they are pretty good. Really good.”
This motherfscker probably doesn’t realize that Nokia for example has the most complicated menu system in mobile phones or mobile thingys. That is an achievement.
And they change the menus every time they change the model (twice a year), probably just to make sure it feels “new”. It’s the same crap every time and the phone lasts 18 months max.
Hmmm… Kinda reminds me of one big corporation from north america. What was the name, it was some ___shit or ___suck or something like that. Started with M, I think.
LOOK ABOVE – They said it – MDN actually said they will “not comment” any further on an iPhone until it is actually released by Apple.
Does this mean they’ll no longer post any stories about this “rumored” iPhone? Because, after all, any post is a comment in and of itself.
Here’s hoping.
THIS GUY IS SO WRONG!!!!
But actually he does make me think. And I think I should buy shares in Apple even though they are already up 100% this year.
I have another thought…. If the iPod gave the Mac a reasonable halo effect, then a well executed iPhone is going to set Mac sales on fire.
EVERYONE I KNOW HATES THEIR PHONE.
“How many of you who are slamming this guy now poo pooed the Zune before it was out and called it a failure?
— Don’t get me wrong, the Zune is pretty much failing but there is hypocrasy (sp?) in you busting this guys balls when you didi the same thing.”
Well part of the difference is, the Zune was a real product announced my MS. The phone he’s blasting has not been announced by Apple, so you do not know if it’s real, or what it’s features are.
Kind of a big difference I’d say.
If there is an iPhone – and all evidence points to that – the only reason it might fail is if it eschews the high quality of software integration previously adopted by the iPod.
What Kanellos seems to ignore is that just as iTunes is actually the cause behind the iPod’s success so the enhanced version of iTunes will be the reason why the iPhone will succeeed; a few more switches in iTunes will be the most that some people will see once the music-only iPhone is released and probably another tab in iTunes (for Windows) and iSync (for Mac) will be the limit of the new software for the “executive” smart-phone.
Anyone who has used the entry-level Blackberry services provided by most of RIM’s network partners will know that they are criminally underdeveloped and prone to malfunction. As for Blackberry’s enterprise version, it is unrealistically priced for any SME.
I’ll lay odds that Leopard Server will come with hooks for iPhone’s smart-phone model; which means that you could acquire a full copy of OS X Server for $500 and get a complete platform for remote access as opposed to Blackberry Enterprise which costs several thousand dollars to buy and set up.
If my bet is accurate, iPhone’s corporate model will probably be as much of a trojan horse for Apple into the SME and enterprise marker as iPod was into the previously brainwashed Windows community; add in some of the functionality from the latest version of Parallels Workstation (some of which borders on the disturbingly surreal) and Apple can deliver a universal “Swiss Army Knife” client, a phenomenal value-for-money server offering and probably the best and most complete user experience in the computing mainstream.
Kanellos writes “Cell phones aren’t clunky, inadequate devices. Instead, they are pretty good. Really good.” – Um has he used a cell phone ever in his lifetime? I have dozens of them, buying the newest latest and “greatest” right when they come out – there’s nothing not clunky about them (Sidekick) they don’t work well at all (anything by motorola, have you seen the reception on them – horrible), and as far as not being inadeqate, unless you have a windows mobile phone you have to pay $50.00 plus a cable to integrate you contacts, dates, etc. I hardly find anything “really good” about cell phones thus far. Apple will do to the cell phone what it did for the MP3 player, there is no doubt.
This time last year, we were all sitting here talking about the exact same thing, minus a few dreamed up details. I put off my Ericson purchase until after Christmas last year. No one really knows anything about the possible iPhone! All this speculation and dreamed up facts, but again, no one knows nothing!! In the back of my mind, I am preparing myself for the iPhone to already be the existing Razor and Sliver with iTunes.
You archive with iCal, eh? I was kinda wondering about that. How’s the referencing and retrieval handled?
I have head of a shitty review of a product that the writer has never seen in person but to write off a product that may not even exist, that takes the cake.
Even if the first generation is gonna suck, I’m not gonna be able withstand the attraction. I expect others feel similar. (Though normally it would be wise to wait for the second generation of a new product.)
Apple will sell millions…
“‘ll lay odds that Leopard Server will come with hooks for iPhone’s smart-phone model; which means that you could acquire a full copy of OS X Server for $500 and get a complete platform for remote access as opposed to Blackberry Enterprise which costs several thousand dollars to buy and set up.
“
going against RIM. makes alot more sense than a ‘normal phone’…
This guy is OUT of touch with reality, simply put.
I have NEVER seen a cell phone that I can say I really like, and certainly never seen one I would want to buy. I guess I’m kinda like Steve Jobs in that respect.
I’m not in the market for one yet, but I bet my Mac that the Apple phone will be the nicest looking (and nicest to use) cell phone I’ve ever gotten my hands on if/when it is released.