“One of the single best potential features of the iPhone is that won’t be tied to a specific mobile phone carrier,” Jason D. O’Grady blogs for ZDNet. “One of the commenters yesterday said it best: Even the best and most popular phones on the US market are always a political compromise between makers and carriers. Everyone pulls in their direction; carriers want features that will squeeze more money (sending pictures and videos; text messaging, etc); makers want more and more features, so that they can charge more. Ordinary users are ignored.”
“Locked phones are heavily subsidized by the carrier so that they can be sold for almost nothing – with a two year contract and significant early termination fee. The best part of a carrier-free (also called ‘unlocked’) mobile phone is that Apple doesn’t have to cripple its features because the greedy carriers want to charge for every picture, text and ring tone,” O’Grady writes.
“A perfect example of this is how Verizon Wireless forces handset manufacturers to disable all but the Bluetooth headset profile. Another example of carrier compromise is the Motorola ROKR’s artificial 100 song limitation and inability to purchase and download tracks from iTunes Over The Air (OTA). Hopefully Apple’s carrier divorce will mean that the iPhone has features that users want, like BT syncing,” O’Grady writes.
O’Grady writes, “Another iPhone issue that came up in the comments is how many GSM bands (if any) it will support and whether or not it and will ship with Cingular 3G from the get go. I agree with the commenter, I would like to see it ship as a quad band phone and not have different phones for different countries.”
O’Grady covers more potential iPhone features (button-less modular design, battery partitioning) and includes a wish list (light version of Mac OS X and Mac apps) in the full article here.
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I want 2 iphones.
one candy bar type a little bigger than the nano complete with ichat video capabilities
and one pda style also with ichat video capabilities
I want the iPhone/iPod to crush the Zune completely!
As long as i get one with a built in HD instead of a little bit of flash…
I’m mainly concerned about sleek style and keypad. Camera, bluetooth and maybe 1000 song capacity is all I want
My wish list? More market share for Apple. More Mac users. I’m so damn tired of waiting and hoping. I’ma prolly drop dead just from waiting if they don’t or can’t get the dang show on the road pretty quick here. heh.
An interface that doesn’t suck out loud.
A decent camera.
a stylus and touch screen to replace my Palm
version without a camera – not everybody cares
keypad that doesn’t suck (I looked at a razor and laughed – what a cheap peice of junk)
a decent headset – not this one eared – don’t know which end is what crap there is now-a-days
Two versions:
1) Keep it simple and cheap – iPod that’s a phone.
2) Smartphone, powered by Mobile Darwin OS X.
The Apple iChat will be the only piece of kit in my pocket.
c’mon ichat video!
OMG ichat AV would be the shit.
People People!!!
Let’s think here! If you can hook into a network with a phone think about the possibilities! I was running last night and I thought about this and it brought a smile to my face. Please tell me if this is a farce or just too hard to do.
1. Mobile iChat. Viedo on cellular service seems to be the new rage. Why not a direct conversation iChat style? That would be insane and also fit into somehting that apple would do for sure.
2. With having that why not also have your songs stream to you from the iTunes servers? They have your purchase info. Screw loading your phone. Why not just be able to stream the songs that you have purchased already no matter what ther amount. It just hits the server for the song that is playing and maybe buffers that 1 song as it plays. So you can carry your entire music collection anywhere ( purchased, a big selling point for apple and a huge leap ahead of any competition )
3. Of course home sync. for all your calendar and bookmarks, and contacts.
4. Oh, and my realistic want is it to be a flip phone for damage and scratch reasons.
The Pi has thought, the Pi has spoken!
-Pi
What I do need to have to have: iPod functionality
What I do want: iCal, WLAN for iChat etc, 2 MP Digicam with HDTV resolution of 1920×1080, a GPS receiver with digital maps.
Top few items on my list?
1) Seamless syncing with my mac. For a short period of time a few years ago all the stars aligned with me. I had a bluetooth capable phone that was compatible with isync, and isync had the automatic syncing feature still. So whenever I would enter a contact on my phone it would at some point be automatically and wirelessly synced with my computer.(or vice versa) That was sweet. I want that again.
2) Built in bluetooth headset. It doesn’t even have to be the best headset… right now I carry around a $90 ear plug. Why? Because I always forget to charge the stupid thing. Or sometime I just forget to bring it. Or I lose it because it’s so small. I want something built in to the phone that will always be with the phone, and charge with the phone so it’s always ready. Heck even if it were not wireless it would be an improvement over my current situation.
3) kick ass reception. I am sick of owning phones with incedible features but horrible reception. Remember that nokia phone that came out about 8 years ago. Everyone had one? It’s was on the largeish bricky side but I could get a signal in the subway.
thats pretty much it..
I dont care too much about how good the camera or music player are. I’m sure, knowing apple, that it will be great. There are all sorts of other features that owuld be nice… like WiFi and iChat video chatting built in. But that would just be icing…
Seamless integration with any version of OS X and hardware configuration, and, VERIZON COMPATABILITY, locked, unlocked, whatever, just make it compatible with more than just T-Mobile and Cingular – PLEASE.
Remember, I despise Verizon as much as the next person, but that’s not the issue. Verizon is the only cellular provider that I can reliably use in the entire southern part of the state I live in.
Uh, how about good reception and a loud enough speaker so you don’t have to turn on the speaker-phone to hear the other person?
I couldn’t care less about a camera. I have a digicam for quality photos. How many people have printed out a 5×7 of their camera-phone pics? Almost nobody.
How about less buttons? I think the iPhone will be just like a lot of other phones if it does not have some dramatically different UI, or uses the iPod click-wheel design. The click wheel would be cool. Or perhaps an almost completely voice-driven interface?
What’s on your Apple ‘iPhone’ wish list?
It should be a PDA with all the great features of a laptop, Firewire 400 and 800, USB2. No cd. iTunes purchases “over the air”. GPS w/navigation software, 8 mega pixel zoom camera. iSight/ichat integrated.
It should have some sort of customizable autobackup to a .Mac account. So one doesn’t need to clog their hard drive, err make that plenty of flash instead.
Great battery life, easy to plug into wall.
I could sorely use a device like this, a laptop is just too big.
Imagine iChating on a mobile phone.
Hey jason! Where’s the Apple big screen TV?
That it vibrates so I can stick it up my bum!
I hate my Zune!!! It keeps freezing when I try to transfer songs!!! Plus, there’s no one to use the WiFi with. I was on the bus this morning with it on hoping that someone else would be there with a Zune. 🙁
Has anyone else experienced the freezing? I have to power it off and start over each time. Any suggestions?
The number one without-a-doubt item on my iPhone wishlist is mobile broadband connectivity—something that is basically unavailable to Mac users who subscribe to the main cellular carriers in the US unless they are willing to figure everything out themselves with no tech support whatsoever.
I realize that an unlocked, full-price iPhone will not be tied to any mobile carrier. This is not a benefit if none of the major carriers support mobile broadband on a Mac!!!
Oh
It should have optical digital outputs too and definatly flash based drive.
Hard drives are just to fragile and really obsolete.
I just want to make and receive calls. If it can do that, that’s good enough.
How about:
1. Something that works great as a phone.
2. An interface that lets me put the features I want, not the feature the phone company wants to push, in my base screen.
3. Easy syncing between my phone’s contact list and Address Book.
4. No limit on the size of the contact list, other than memory/storage.
5. No limits on music, number of songs, other than memory/storage.
6. ITap input that makes sense.
7. The ability to put shortcuts where I need them.
8. A 2mp camera.
9. The ability to Sync everything: pix, music, video, addresses, calendar events, text messages, call lists, etc. with my computer.
10. Stereo sound.
11. Choice of wired or Bluetooth headphones/syncing so I can determine for myself whether battery life or convenience is more important.
12. Standard USB connector so I can use my current accessories.
13. USB 2.0 so I can sync quickly.
14. Ability to check email.
15. Useful web browser.
16. I hate candy bars and like flip phones. I know other people feel the opposite. How about making both form factors so we can all be satisfied.
17. At least iPod Nano functionality.
My wish list: One in my pocket!
MDN: I want to “meet” one in person!
Why do all Mac users have this 8ft stick perpetually up their asses?
If the iPhone does have a mobile version of OSX installed (and I hope it does.) I think it would be in Apple’s best interest to call it something other than mobile OSX. Only because I think it may turn off the majority of Windows users and could potentially hurt sales.
Quad-band.
Airport built-in.
VoIP capabilities, so I can use it with Skype seamlessly.
UNLOCKED!
Candy bar form factor.
Swiveling camera, like the old Sony Clié Palm OS PDA. Use it to take pictures or swing it around to use as a Skype/iChat video phone.
Standard phone mic/ear jack so I can use standard headsets when the battery dies on my Bluetooth headset. Love those little Jabra boom headsets, with the jelly ear insert! I put one on my Jabra JX10 Bluetooth headset. No ear clip! Cool!
Monitor covers entire unit, so I can use either a virtual numeric keypad or virtual full keyboard for text messaging, which I don’t use now, because it’s such a pain in the ass.
@Just Long
Because they can pick their teeth with it.
I’d like a phone to be a phone.
What’s the deal with Mobile Operators in the US? I’m in the UK, so it’s completely different, ie: you can buy any phone and use it with any network. What do the US carriers do to disable this?
Just a curious Brit looking for answers…
A Pony! I want a Pony!
I’m gay.
It needs a keyboard. A real honest-to-God Treo/old-Blackberry keyboard. Or I’ll look at it lustingly and stick with my Treo. Sad but true.
When Asked about what the best thing Apple had ever developed that it had never released, Steve Jobs said a PDA. When asked why, he said hat the market just was not there. That could all change if Apple steps into the smart phone space.
I can see Apple going one of 2 ways, should they decide to plunge in.
1- Market the device directly as an iPod. Brand extension rather than a new product. Instead of marketing it as a Phone with iTunes capabilities, market it as an iPod with a phone built-in.
2- Go after the high-end PDA/Smartphone market with a built-in mobile version of OS X running on an ARM or similar processor.
One thing is for sure- MWSF 2007 should be interesting, although they might wish to wait for a separate ‘Special Event’.
1. Easy to use
2. Easier for my PARENTS to use
3. Great Connections, clear communications
4. Easy to use
5. No so hard to use as the phone I have now
6. Bluetooth
7. USB
8. Easy to use
9. Nothing should be more than 3 clicks away
10. Did I metion easy to use?
11. Intutive, so you can do everything w/o looking at the manual
12. last, easy to use
The ability to use my iTunes songs as my ring tone and shove it to those $1+ ring tone/quarter song bastards.
iPod Nano — Music, Video;
4 Gb:$149
8 Gb:$199
12 Gb:$249
iPod — Music, Video, PDA, Camera;
40Gb:$299
80Gb:$399
iPod Pro — Music, Video, PDA, Camera, iChatAV/Phone,
80Gb:$549
(Pardon duplicate post on separate article).
Give us Mac-only killer features!
Full face touch screen for numerical or alphabetical input; voice calling; speakerphone; bluetooth; hard drive.
One thing that I would like to see from the proposed iPhone is a complete interactivity and synching between the iPhone and the Macintosh computer. I’d love to see the iPhone be my Macintosh on-the-go; taking all of my Mac’s Address Book, iChat AV (Screw the camera, how about an iSight?), Mail, Safari-style web browsing information along with me.
Not just the idea of having access to my Mac’s iTunes stuff but a Macintosh version of Microsoft Mobile. We Mac users have been left out, because of Apple’s dropping the Newton PDA and Microsoft is ahead of the mobile game. I’d like to see Apple catch up with this.
Also, Tethering is a must. This is the biggest rip-off from all of these mobile carriers and I think once Apple gets this going, everyone will follow.
Another thing that I’d like to see is a clam shell version of iPhone. I love folding up a phone to half it’s size and protecting the innards. I hope that Apple would consider this for the future.
Finally, to have a decent mobile phone that’s powerful, has a lot of memory, battery power, and is easy to use, so my Mom, or Mother-In-Law can use a mobile without being too confused with how to work it.
I wish for a touch screen virtual interface that morphs into the internal device I choose, whether it be iPod, phone, camera, PIM, syncing, etc.
One touch and I only see the phone interface with everything else out of the way as if it is just a phone.
Another touch and I only see the iPod interface with everything else out of the way as if it was only an iPod.
Yet another touch and all I see is the contact info stuff, and again, everything else is out of the way as if it was only a calender.
I will call it iMorph, because the device virtually becomes only what I want it to become, yet it is integrated under the hood.
The Sony Ericsson M600i looks like it could be a sibling of the iphone. Its touch screen and comes in black and white.
No one has mentioned the ‘less is more’ application to phones. I understood my first phone. Gradually they have added 1000 functions in a complex menu structure so that I use virtually none of them. It is the phone version of MS feature-creep.
Apple is good at hiding the complexity and putting the common functions closer and the less common items further away.
I don’t WANT an iPhone PDA/everything. The iPod is music FIRST and other things next. while the iPhone should be a fantastic phone FIRST and a music player, etc. second.
Anything less visually stunning than a RAZR V3 phone will be disappointing. It’s got to look great with a compact form factor. It has to be a departure from all other phones. It has to shock the industry. Oversimplification in terms of features is my biggest worry. Apple has a propensity for dumbing down products. Also, a price above $199 will hurt. Regardless of the result, I’ll be the first in line to get one (make that two).
“What’s the deal with Mobile Operators in the US? I’m in the UK, so it’s completely different, ie: you can buy any phone and use it with any network. What do the US carriers do to disable this?”
Two things, the US uses a retarded mix of different cellular technologies, so in some cases the radio side of the phone will only work with one carrier. I don’t see Apple being able to address this except by different versions of hardware for each carrier EXCEPT the GSM ones.
Now with GSM, the provider locks the phone to his network so that you can’t swap in another provider’s SIM, buy a prepaid card when overseas etc. This is a software setting in the phone.
In almost all cases, phones can be unlocked.
With some phones, unlocking is as simple as punching in some numbers on the keypad.
With others you need to connect a data cable to unlock it.
You can already purchase unlocked GSM phones in the USA, so Apple producing an unlocked phone will be nothing new.
But hardly anybody buys unlocked phones because they cost more than the ones bundled with service, they are exactly the same phone, and unlocking is usually easy.
So my bet is that for some networks Apple will partner with the provider, because the phone just wouldn’t be usable on another provider’s network anyway. With GSM phones, they’d probably do both, provide phones through the cellular providers and provide an unlocked one for anybody who wants to upgrade their handset and hasn’t yet had the phone long enough for the carrier to give them a discounted upgrade.
I want a complete replacement for my Treo – only one that is reliable, intuitive, and integrates seamlessly with the Mac. Oh, and running OSX so I can import spreadsheets, Word docs and PDF’s, modify them and export them again – or better yet sync them reliably with .mac and my macs.
Come on Steve, I am waiting with my Visa card in hand!
Thanks Phones, that a great post.
As above, easy sync is critical. Moreover, I want a software interface to take care of everything, a la iPod with iTunes. If it is in iTunes, so be it. That would make music & video syncing easy. I don’t want to jump around from app to app doing stuff. The new tabbed organization for iPods in iTunes 7 is the kind of thing I want.
Even if it doesn’t have an OSX mobile, I want a fucking menu system that is easy to use, which the majority of the current ones are not.
8 GB flash memory.
Removable battery (unlike iPod).
A flip and a non-flip (candy-bar?).
I don’t need a camera, but if they do put one it, 1 megapixel is just useless. 2 MP at least, IF they put in a camera. I just do not want a useless appendage.
Unlocked. I do not want carriers fucking up the thing by diabling features.
An a-hole nullifier ray. That zaps anyone without anything useful to say. It just incapacitates them for 5 minutes.
Seriously. Unlocked, sleek form factor, use any of my music from iTunes as a ringer, at least 200 minutes of stand-by time, easy functionality with iCal and maybe Google Calendar, and crime deterent.
Make a good phone #1
Palm funtionality minus email on the go. I don’t neet it.
3 inch touch display, stylus data entry, bluetooth, maps for gps use but that doesn’t have to gps included.
iCal, address, iTunes. bla bla bla.
Just make it a MobileMac and it should be good.
This phone could show its mac side by having wigets that fill the screen when you click over too them. Pick the ones you want to have preset and click wheel through them. I hate my little treo 650 browser thing (slow slow slow). It takes so long get it going then find the info I need. These iPhone wigets should update info as you click-wheel to them (it would act like a roledex or choose from a ipod like menu. So when I’m sitting there at a restaurant having dinner and my wife says lets see a movie…I just click through to my movie wiget without going to a very very slow browser thing. These wigets should fill the screen and have all the eye candy just like on Tiger. Have your most wanted info a click wheel away.
Everything my SLVR isn’t! Sublime GUI, scroll wheel, keypad that doesn’t feel like it was an aterthought and make it sync with mail, itunes, iphoto, imovie etc.
pc2mac:
What are you complaining about? No product in the history of high-tech has been as mocked and criticized (prior to release even!) as the Zune. What were you expecting: an iPod???
Ok, the most important thing to me is that it is a great phone. I prefer a great phone and carry a separate iPod than have a garbage phone that happens to be an iPod.
Right now I carry around two phones: a T-Mobile Dash (my personal phone) which syncs to Entourage on my Mac through an Exchange Server (somethings Microsoft does very well)), and a BlackBerry Pearl (business phone). Both are outstanding phones with everything I could desire: Quad band, Bluetooth (mostly enabled), excellent RF response, EDGE, etc. etc. They are both nearly perfect. And then I have a 5G 80 GB iPod. I’m pretty set!
So, if the iPhone could replace my Dash (my business phone will always be a Blackberry because of the security offered by it) AND my iPod, then I’ll be happy. But it can’t have Nano-level memory, it needs to be around 80 GB, because, well, I have a few thousand songs all ripped in the Apple Lossless format.
So, unless the iPhone is an outstanding Phone (and hopefully a PDA), it won’t meet my needs.
I want the iPhone that has my name on it. Now.
wrist strap so it attaches like that of predator
transhumanism ftw!
by the way it wouldnt be an ipod (light version), it would be the full featured macpod. In keeping with the rest of the range
I want A Zune so I can squirt… uhh,, I drank too much I guess…
” I want a software interface to take care of everything, a la iPod with iTunes”
For email, contacts, appointments etc, transparent, set and forget over the air syncronization like Blackberry, Windows Mobile etc is much better than having to manually sync stuff.
“I want the iPhone that has my name on it. Now.”
Relax, hipster, we’ll tell you when it’s ready.
What Apple won’t deliver, the ability to customize the sucker’s commands so I can eliminate items I don’t intend to use from the menus, and reduce unnecessary command confirmations.
But I’m hoping it’ll be better than the rest.
Mr Apple
Thank you. I feel the word of God has spoken. With an attitude.
I believe that Apple will go the way of integrating two features into this “iPhone” device, if it is indeed an “iPhone” and not something totally different like a PDA or video-enabled device.
You’ll have:
a) iPod nano functionality
b) Voice calling and text messaging functionality
That is IT. Apple keeps things simple. The reason everyone hates most phones out there now is because they are COMPLICATED. Most MP3 players out there now, except the iPod, are COMPLICATED and never work right, or require much more work to perform the same task. Apple knows this, and they know this is why the iPod is so successful. The phone market is much the same as the rest of the MP3 player market. So Apple will come out with a new device that does two things, and does them both well:
a) iPod nano functionality
b) Voice calling and text messaging
That is it. All you people wishing for the nth degree of “features” are missing the most important reason for the iPod’s success. A bazillion “features” will not differentiate the “iPhone” and will not make it sell well. All the other crap phones on the market have that already. And Apple can see past it. Lots of you can’t, and that’s why you’re not running Apple.
–mAc
Another thing not mentioned is the price.
This is Apple, remember? The price is likely to be $300 to $500.
How many of you want an Apple phone now?