“Apple’s new smart phone, the iPhone, stands a fighting chance of becoming an ‘It Object,'” Alice Rawsthorn writes for The International Herald Tribune. “That’s one of the elite cadre of products, that have such a strong impact on so many people’s lives that, decades later, they’re remembered as icons of their time.”
“It doesn’t have to sell more than its competitors… Nor does the iPhone need to be more expensive than other products… And the iPhone doesn’t have to win the news media’s approval, at least not at first, as another Apple “It Object,” the iMac computer, demonstrated in the late ’90s,” Rawsthorn writes.
“What then does the iPhone need to do to ascend to “It-ness?” The first step is to be more alluring than other smart phones, and to achieve that it must do two things: 1. Look and feel great. 2. Enable us to do something that we couldn’t do before, or couldn’t do very easily,” Rawsthorn writes.
“Apple pulled it off six years ago with the iPod. There were plenty of existing MP3 players, but they looked tacky and were irritatingly over-complicated… And it didn’t just look good. The iPod’s refreshingly simple user interface design… and the launch of iTunes as Apple’s online music store made it much, much easier even for the technologically-challenged to download music from the Internet,” Rawsthorn writes.
“Can Apple do the same with the iPhone? Well, its competitors have helped, albeit unintentionally, by producing smart phones that are as tacky and irritatingly over-complicated as pre-iPod MP3 players,” Rawsthorn writes.
Full article here.
Rawsthorn gets “it.”
Well. That couldn’t be much less interesting, could it?
>There were plenty of existing MP3 players, but they looked tacky and were irritatingly over-complicated… And it didn’t just look good. >
Where did these people learn English?
Alice is not in “Wonderland” with that article. She’s in “Realtyland”.
This week is going to be awash in iPhone-“related” stories that mean nothing and ultimately say nothing. Yay for making a buck off a good thing.
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Gosh, five days before launch and she’s just figuring that out now??!!
You don’t know the history of “It-ness”. I do.
You don’t know the history of “It-ness”. I do.
You don’t know the history of “It-ness”. I do.
You don’t know the history of “It-ness”. I do.
Eh! Isn’t this what Steve Jobs said when he unveiled the iPhone. The 3rd revolutionary product he’s worked on (4 if you could the Apple II).
This is what all the fuss has been about. I don’t know about others, but when Steve Jobs speaks I listen carefully. Clearly she didn’t. But at least now she gets it…
“What then does the iPhone need to do to ascend to “It-ness?”
1. Look and feel great. 2. Enable us to do something that we couldn’t do before, or couldn’t do very easily,”
3. Play well with existing IT infrastructure. MS, RIM, etc.
4. Aggressively counter anti-iPhone FUD. Don’t let IT departments get spooked.
5. LISTEN to the customers. LET THEM KNOW when solutions are available.
6. Leverage existing AT&T/Cingular customers.
7. “Seed” high-profile areas with iPhone users. Give every Apple employee a iPhone with one year’s service.
What’s this bullshit about the phone needing to play well with IT infrastructure to be a cultural icon and hit product? The Motorola Razr doesn’t do that stuff and it’s been a huge hit. People are still thinking of smart phones in terms of business users only, but the market for cell phones in general, and the iPhone in particular, goes well WELL beyond that. No 15 year old girl is asking her parents for blackberry. But she is asking them for an iPhone. And there’s more of her than there are stuffy baby-boomer executives who love MS crap.
Jooop, well said.
Even me, who has avoided ever owning a mobile phone until now (never needed one, still don’t) is now thinking well, I’m gonna have to get one one day, may as well be iPhone.
If it is Apple it must achieve the highest of all standards.
It must do ALL things for ALL people or it is FAILURE.
Luckily the people at apple know that to please themselves is the greatest joy, and will bring them great success.
More power to you Apple!
The meek SHALL inherit the smoldering remains…
M$ and most of its IT-people are beginning to feel Apple again. Most of them know: half of them, perhaps even more, can lose their job. At homes Apple is comfortable in business not yet, but … !
This iPhone Fall special is gonna be fun to watch. I’m getting my popcorn ready…
This article got me thinking. The author mentions the tight integration of the iPod and the iTunes music store as a key to the iPod’s success. This is so true. Never before had a music player been tied so nicely to an online catalog of music (for that matter, any catolog of music).
soooo
What’s the piece of internet software that’s key to the iPhone. What’s the one feature that would make it a slam dunk? Skype functionality. What if apple has teamed with ATT to provide skype functionality through .mac?
Apple gets a cut of the Cell Phone subscription.
ATT gets a cut of the .mac subscription.
WIN—-WIN.
Oh, and a slam dunk. 10 million sold by the end of THIS year (if they pull this off). Why else would they have a “back to my mac” feature in .mac, where .mac keeps track of all your IP’s? Not so much for file sharing, but for skype functionality on every computer you own, every iPhone you own, via .mac
What do you guys think?
“by producing smart phones that are as tacky and irritatingly over-complicated as pre-iPod MP3 players,”
And POST-iPod MP3 players!
@ ron
read the original article before criticising it.
“That’s one of the elite cadre of products, that have such a strong impact on so many people’s lives that, decades later, they’re remembered as icons of their time.”
You know, Apple products have been doing this for decades. It’s only now that these writers are beginning to understand this company.
1. Look and feel great. —— DONE.
2. Enable us to do something that we couldn’t do before, or couldn’t do very easily—–DONE.
This is Apple’s DNA for every product that comes out. Another writer who’s late to the party and realizing only now what Apple users have enjoyed all those years. Apple’s reason for being is to bring technology products to ordinary people and solutions to make their lives simpler, easier and more fun. It’s not to be “it”, “trendy” or “fad-like” as some of these writers and pundits like to propagate.
ha, as if…this thing is so big that we haven’t even begun to see the benefits caused by the iPhone..
http://web.mac.com/wolfiemac/iWeb/iPhone/Track iPhone /Track iPhone .html
MDN Magic Word: far ..as in, Zune is far from ever reaching 10th place on Amazon.com.
more of a sh-it object imo
I agree with you to a point but you totally miss the mark when you make comments like, “It’s only now that these writers…” blah blah blah. Like you were ‘born’ enlightened.
What’s wrong with a writer suddenly discovering a remarkable product that succeeds a long line of noteworthy products from a company for which she perhaps has only had a peripheral knowledge? I welcome her discovery and would encourage her to investigate and write about other Apple products. Not hold her head in shame because she was “late to the party” as you’re implying.
Not everything Apple makes has been iconic in scope. The Apple ][, the Mac, the iMac, the iPod have had a profound impact of the industry and so too will the iPhone when its price point drops and sales reach critical mass. But, Apple has made some stinkers with ADNA too.
IMO, the author wasn’t prescribing a formula for Apple’s success for achieving iconic status for the iPhone, she was merely describing the process from a consumers POV as they embrace new technology and let’s face it, it will be the consumer who decides what matters most. Giving products away, at a loss * cough * Zune * cough * won’t compel people to embrace them if they are unusable and kludgy.
However, she forgot number 3 which is attributed to products that can change the industry as well as business models.
The iPhone changes everything!
G4Dualíe
The iPhone is an “it object”, just as the Zune is a “**it” object. I get it, now.
Bet you $1.00 the analysts won’t comment on this article. No FUD intended here. Who’s paying the anti-Apple pundits to sprout drivel but ignore sensible and responsive commentary like hers.