“Although the recent unveiling of its iPhone was stunning, Apple Inc.’s radical mobile device is already generating a lot of questions as the company prepares for its big sales push in June, industry observers say,” Ryan Kim reports for The San Francisco Chronicle.
Kim reports, “Neil Strother, an analyst with the research company NPD Group, said customers last year paid, on average, $63 for a cell phone and $200 for a smartphone. He said that could be a problem for Apple as it tries to sell beyond its rabid fan base.”
MacDailyNews Note: We told you people to get your shots. Rabies is not a game.
Kim continues, “‘Consumers are not used to paying another couple hundred bucks more just because Apple makes a cool product,’ Strother said. ‘Some fans will buy it, but for the rest of us it’s a hard pill to swallow just to have the coolest thing.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, iPhone is just “cool.” That’s it; no UI that makes it possible for people to actually use their phone’s features or anything else, just cool. No wonder Strother can’t figure it out; he doesn’t understand the product very well at all.
Kim continues, “AT&T’s Glenn Lurie, president of wireless national distribution, acknowledged the iPhone will appeal to more high-end users, but he said consumers will find considerable value in the device. ‘It’s such a leap past other things; it will make innovations. That’s great for customers,’ Lurie said. ‘I think it has the opportunity to change the game.'”
Kim reports, “The iPhone has one battery that is not replaceable. It is designed to provide five hours of talk time, video playback or Internet browsing, or 16 hours of continuous music playback. Rob Enderle, a technology analyst, wondered if that’s enough for consumers who might not get enough juice in one day from Apple’s iPhone battery. ‘If you’re going to be doing a lot of stuff on this phone, you really have a five-hour window,’ he said. ‘But if you listen to music and then the phone doesn’t work, that’s serious. The phone always has to work.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Has the so-called, self-described “analyst” Rob Enderle ever heard of the TunePower Rechargeable Battery Pack for iPod from Belkin or any of a hundred other similar solutions already on the market? Such devices connect to iPod via the Dock connector and double, triple, or multiply even more the play time of iPods. iPhone features the same Dock connector as iPod. Extrapolate.
Kim continues, “Palm spokeswoman Marlene Somsak said the iPhone does not appear to be aimed at business and sophisticated customers because it lacks a physical QWERTY keyboard, which she said is essential for text entry.”
MacDailyNews Take: Now let’s hear from someone who’s actually used the iPhone’s keyboard instead of some FUD-spewing spokeswoman whose company is about to be steamrolled by Apple: “I have used the Apple iPhone. I had a private briefing the day after Steve Jobs’ keynote and spent about 45 minutes noodling around with the device. I think the iPhone’s virtual keyboard is a huge improvement over the mechanical thumbpads found on the Treo and any other smart phones of its size. The buttons are significantly larger, you don’t have to hit them dead-center, you lightly tap them instead of punching them down, and the software is smart enough to know that you meant to type ‘Tuesday’ instead of ‘Tudsday.’ After 30 seconds, I was already typing faster with the iPhone than I ever have with any other phone,” Andy Ihnatko reported for The Chicago Sun-Times last Thursday.
Kim continues, “Apple’s Steve Jobs, for his part, doesn’t look worried. He said at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco earlier this month that he feels he has the competition beat by five years, with all the software advances and design touches on the iPhone. ‘We’re going to enter a very competitive market, a lot of players,’ Jobs said. But, ‘we think we’re going to have the best product in the world.'”
Full article here.
“If you thought that iPod and iTunes was subject to FUD, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet, my friends. You’ll have to look to the Mac to find a threat of such magnitude that inspired such a FUD campaign. The reason for such a campaign against iPhone? Money. Lots and lots of money and the fear of losing a good portion of it to Apple,” SteveJack wrote in our opinion section on January 10th. “So, keep this in mind whenever you read about Apple’s iPhone and you see an article slanted against the iPhone: the real Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt is being felt by all of the companies that Apple just humiliated… They are very scared and rightfully so.”
Related articles:
Ihnatko: Hands-on with Apple’s iPhone (which runs Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) – January 18, 2007
Apple’s Phil Schiller gives CBS News hands-on tour of iPhone – January 12, 2007
David Pogue: hands on preview of Apple’s iPhone, ‘gorgeous and so packed with possibilities’ – January 11, 2007
PC Magazine hands-on test of Apple iPhone: multi-touch UI ‘takes the breath away’ – January 11, 2007
RealMoney: Apple just blew up the whole damn mobile-phone supply chain with its new iPhone – January 11, 2007
ZDNet: Hands on with Apple’s iPhone: ‘elegant, ravishing, simple, sleek; impeccable & intuitive UI’ – January 11, 2007
Hands-on with Apple’s iPhone – January 10, 2007
The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 2007
Analyst: ‘iPhone’s willful disregard of global handset market will come back to haunt Apple’ – January 18, 2007
Microsoft CEO Ballmer laughs at Apple iPhone – January 17, 2007
Street Insight: Apple iPhone faces a number of potential obstacles – January 16, 2007
IDG News Service: ‘Reality might tarnish iPhone’s shine’ – January 16, 2007
The Times: Apple’s brand of corporate hubris is almost always damaging in the long run – January 16, 2007
Hackers ‘salivating’ over Apple’s iPhone – January 15, 2007
Bloomberg writer: Apple iPhone won’t make long-term mark; will only appeal to a few gadget freaks – January 15, 2007
Dvorak on Apple iPhone: ‘I think Apple can do wrong and I think this is it’ – January 13, 2007
USA Today writer: Apple iPhone is an ‘ordinary, average product’ at heart – January 12, 2007
FUD Alert: Analyst – I am pretty skeptical Apple’s iPhone can succeed – January 11, 2007
The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 2007
The Register’s Ray: Apple ‘iPhone’ will fail – December 26, 2006
Analyst: Apple iPhone economics aren’t that compelling – December 08, 2006
CNET editor Kanellos: ‘Apple iPhone will largely fail’ – December 07, 2006
Palm CEO laughs off Apple ‘iPhone’ threat – November 20, 2006
5 years ago, the world looked at my “white rectangle” with earphones and said, “What the F is that?”
5 years from now, everyone will be enjoying their iPhone Nano. lol
Everyone who complains about lack of keyboard is a moron. Why is that most self-proclaimed experts ONLY know Windows (but “used a Mac once”).
It’s only those people downplaying the phone. Windows “experts,” go back to what you know best – keeping your anti-malware software up-to-date. Stupid morons!
TimD; Where did you hear or read that the iPhone has a GPS receiver in it? I have read the opposite.
Summary:
Random self-proclaimed analysts (and/or PR people for competing companies): The iPhone might be a failure because it’s not like every other phone already on the market.
“beyond its rabid fan base”
The article starts right of the bat insulting people who like Apple products.
Well maybe they are right.
Perhaps appreciating and liking Apple products is a bad thing for the world.
Perhaps being an Apple user might even be a crime of some sort in some places.
Even in the U.S.A. it might not be correct to like Apple.
We might be Applephiles or worse.
If it’s a crime to like Apple products then I am here to confess.
Take me away and throw away the keys.
I am guilty as can be.
I guess I’ll have to take it in the neck. If I must hang, I’ll hang.
Proud to go with honor defending the company who’s products I like.
No need for a hood. Thank you.
I want to see Ballmer (MSFT) and Ed Colligan (Palm CEO) as I die for my crimes.
Our family is standing by to purchase 6 iPhones.
it looks cool as all get out, but i can’t do the 600 dollar price. sigh.
You have to think about more than just the cost of the phone. How much are you having to pay for a two year contract on that $200 dumbphone? I bet at the bare minimum it’s somewhere in the $2400 range. So, let me see. I pay $2900 (including the price of a $500 iPhone) over two years for a device that will actually has more functionality than any phone out now, or I pay $2600 over two years for a piece of crap that will probably break after the first 12 months and has an inelegant POS operating system like Windows Mobile 20 (or whatever it’s called). Um, I’m sticking with an iPhone.
>> Rob Enderle, a technology analyst, wondered if that’s enough for consumers who might not get enough juice in one day from Apple’s iPhone battery
Can’t you just plug it into your Mac or PC to charge it up!?! It is an iPod after all.
First there was the iPod.
Then we kept hearing about the iPod killers.
When it really should have been: iPod, killer!
Now we have the iPhone.
So we will be hearing about the iPhone killers.
When it will really be: iPhone, killer!
mp3 player companies never saw the bus until it ran them over.
Phone makers can see it coming, but are like deer in the headlights!
They, and their software providers, are scared shitless, as they should be.
The Price thing – Well, why would someone buy a Beamer over a Hyundai when they both have 4 wheels and a steering wheel? Though unlike the Beamer, I don’t think the iPhone will break the bank of the average consumer.
The Battery thing – Of course you can hook up an external battery pack when needed, but these people only see what is directly in front of their faces – this is why they are analysts and critics, not product designers or creative thinkers.
The Keyboard thing – Once again, they look at it and ask themselves, why no 30+ mini buttons? Someone please come up with a dock connector keyboard to shut these people up, they obviously can’t grasp the idea of a touch screen.
The FUD may be in direct proportion to the hype. I’ll leave that to a mathematician.
Good FUD or bad FUD…FUD is exposure and will create curiosity and knowledge
that it wouldn’t create otherwise if there wasn’t any FUD. Free publicity and money in the bank for Apple and more sales of iPhones. The whole planet already seems to know something about this device. Still, anyone know what Michael Smell talked about at his keynote? I’ve been waiting to hear?
According to Rob Enderle the iPhone is so bad and so expensive no one will want it:
“It comes in at a nosebleed price, it has really lousy [fill in the FUD here] …”
and he knows definitively that the LG phone – which I doubt he’s even seen – is better in every way.
However, at the same time the whore is claiming that the prospect of the iPhone will cause people not to buy iPods:
“… many who might have otherwise purchased an iPod in the first half of the year will likely hold and wait … “
IOW, Enderle is claiming at one and the same time that the iPhone is undesirable and too expensive but that the prospect of it will stop people from buying products which have been proved to be highly desirable and which are cheaper.
Enderle isn’t even self-consistent. Enderle just tries to shit on Apple to please his masters in Redmond.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/HVAhhFkVwabdgC/2007-Apples-Bad-Year-Vista-Launch-Countdown-CES-Cool-Stuff.xhtml
In this same article Enderle plays Gypsy Rose Lee the fortune teller, asks us to cross his palm with silver, looks at the tealives and claims Apple “will have a bad year”. Then he adds that Vista is the best thing since best things have been in existence.
Just try asking someone with some *real* technical knowledge and credentials about Vista:
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
Enderle is a joke – a boil on the backside of the industry, an IT hooker for hire, Redmond’s bitch.
“…some FUD-spewing spokeswoman whose company is about to be steamrolled by Apple…”
damn that’s harsh, MDN. true, but harsh.
As soon as Kim said the Enderly word you know the article would be BS⁄
As an IT Admin who has users who use both Treos and Blackberries, Apple’s announcement couldn’t have come at a worse time. Just a few weeks ago we gave all our partners “shiny” new Treos to use (I hate plastic that is painted to look like metal!!). Miserable things, they are. Using the plastic QWERTY (READ: CRAPPY) keyboard nubs (one cannot call these things keys or buttons, they’re just too small to qualify) is an horiffic experience. I wish SO MUCH that I could have rolled these out to our users using an IMAP/Exchange combination. Guess I will have to act as guinea pig! Can’t wait to get my hands on one!!
Gypsy Rose Lee wqs a stripper, not a fortune teller!!
I’m going to coin a (possibly new) phrase now, so get used to reading it:
Blood on the touch screen!
I predict the iPhone will have as much (if not more) blood on the touch screen, just like it’s sibling, the iPod, has blood on the click wheel!
-DM
Enderle assbleeds his comments.
It will be interesting to see how the touch-screen works in sub-freezing temperatures. (I’m in Stockholm, so I think about such things.)
Certain friends of mine have said that they can only buy phones that sync with MS Outlook, so it looks like it may be a no-go for them.
No Tim, it doesn’t have a built-in GPS, but it would be nice if one could link it up with a variety of Bluetooth GPS units (even just one would be better than nothing.)
Lots of Widgets need to be available, and development hurdles can’t be too high for adaptation of existing OS X widgets. Apple has a good thing going there, I hope that they don’t screw it up by allowing themselves to be too controlled by Cingular (and/or other providers.)
Release Safari for Windows concurrently with Leopard and allow Windows users to sync their favorites and access other functions via a low-cost version of .Mac for Windows with functionality optimized (restricted?) for Safari only. The resulting market traction might eventually convince my bank to open up to allow online banking via Safari, and possibly Safari on the iPhone. (Yes, I know and use FF regularly, but I doubt that it will be showing up on the iPhone soon.)
Other questions that I have include:
Voice commands.
Speed dialing.
Dual (or rotating) camera implementation on the 3G versions to allow videoconferencing (iChat, anyone?)
Google Earth for iPhone (with real-time uploading of paths or waypoints noted via BT GPS?)
Video Out, as currently implemented on the Video iPods (or better).
Salling Clicker-esque functionality when it comes to driving presentations or controlling iTunes or other actions from Macs. I can do that with my old T68i and my K700i, it should also be possible from a new iPhone.
Doubles as a Front Row and/or AppleTV remote?
Even if prices stay as announced, look for storage to be higher by the time the US model is released, and if not then than by EU release for sure.
“Blood on the touch screen” doesn’t even begin to describe the incredible loss of blood (and other bodily fluids) that will certainly be suffered by the cell phone/electronics industry as a direct result of the Apple iPhone and the even more amazing gadgets that are sure to follow it.
At the same time, it is remarkable that the new LG Prada, while by no means as technically advanced (or as gorgeous) as the iPhone, has made its debut in the same week after a presumably lengthy development period and, one must also assume, without prior knowledge of the details of Apple’s design. Personally, I take this as a sign that the electronics industry in general may eventually begin to catch fire as a result of Apple’s innovative leadership. It stands to reason that if one tree bursts into flame, the trees around it will eventually catch fire and, slowly, the fire will spread.
Meanwhile, Apple is on such an incredible roll that many competitors will be weeping (or gnashing their teeth) for the next couple of years at least. Their half-baked, imitative products don’t look so good next to Apple’s glowing product line. Serves them right for selling crap to the masses. Even the most humble laborer knows the difference between a diamond and a dungheap.
It has a fscking keyboard.
“That’s a huge challenge,” said Roger Entner, vice president of wireless telecom for Ovum, a consulting firm. “The reason we have keyboards is because there is much less input confusion. It’s much easier to determine what key is pressed and what isn’t than with a touch screen.”
Roger Entner, you are a fscking douche. How do you have input confusion when you can see the result of your touch on the screen? Personally, I look at the screen for information on what I just pushed. I do not look directly at the keyboard or keypad. I am sure that it will take some getting used to, but the QWERTY microkeyboards do, as well.
Oh oh oh! Sorry – maybe Entner had a QWERTY microkeyboard for his desktop computer already! In that case, he’s totally fscking right.