“[Yesterday], I had meetings with with Steve Jobs and then Phil Schiller, Apple’s director of worldwide marketing. I basically played with the iPhone the entire hour,” David Pogue blogs for The New York Times.
Pogue mentions some of the things you can’t tell without actually handling and using the iPhone:
• It feels amazing in your hand. Not like an iPod, not like a Treo — but something new. It’s so thin, and the rounded stainless-steel edges are so smooth, you can excuse its larger-than-Treo façade. When you’re on a call, it’s so cool how the screen turns off to save power, thanks to its proximity sensor.
• The phone won’t be available until June, so some of its software isn’t finished yet. As I tapped my way into obscure corners of the phone, Mr. Jobs pointed out a couple of spots where only a placeholder graphic was available.
• I tried out the camera. It was really cool to frame a shot using the HUGE 3.5-inch screen; it’s rare to find that big a screen on any camera. The refresh rate felt typical of a camera-phone to me, but Mr. Jobs said that it would be much smoother by the time the phone is done.
Much more in Pogue’s full blog post here.
iPhone’s home screen sure has lots of space left for more things, doesn’t it? 
Related articles:
The only thing really wrong with Apple’s iPhone is its name – January 09, 2007
Is Apple building ‘The Device?’ [revisited] – January 09, 2007
Analyst Bajarin: Apple’s iPhone and Apple TV are industry game changers – January 09, 2007
Time: ‘iPhone could crush cell phone market pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority’ – January 09, 2007
Analyst: Apple iPhone should be given its own category – ‘brilliantphone’ – January 09, 2007
Cingular to use Synchronoss Technologies’ platform for Apple iPhone – January 09, 2007
iPhone photos from Apple’s Macworld Expo booth – January 09, 2007
Enderle: Apple’s iPhone is going to do very well – January 09, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
Expensive? 5 years ago, I think I paid $500 for a 5gb iPod the size of a Zune! I just paid $300 for a new RAZR. So I think it is just about right. Anyone want to buy a sligtly used RAZR with iTunes in June?
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Magic Word…no joke: PAY
Where is the iSight camera for video chat? What about VoIP??
I think the price is a bit high considering that you have to sign a two year contract. I think a $600 retail price with a $450 price tag after signing a 2 year Cingular contract would be much more reasonable.
I think a lot of people arguing the price are really just seeing the one big number and perhaps forgetting what it represents. As Steven said, a lot of people are willing to buy a phone, iPod, point & shot camera which, if added together would be more expensive. But when faced with that large number we think “for a phone?” without remembering it does all the other things too. I think $600 actually is affordable for the average consumer – basically a cup of coffee a day, but I agree on first look it is a large number. I fully believe Apple will sell a lot of these, and not just to the Treo / BlackBerry totting either (in fact, I’d say those people would be the minority of iPhone buyers).
@UKJim Even if they priced it at $200 it would be out of range for some peoples pockets.
As it is it represents great value for leaping out of the monstrous, ugly, mostly unuseable smartphones that exist today.
As someone said, Treo and Blackberries and Sony’s with Win CE all look like Commodore 64’s as of yesterday.
What price to not use yesteryears technology??
@sd
I dont see many business people buying this at all, IT Dept wont want iTunes installed everywhere. And it doesn’t really support all exchange/blackberry/domino features.
NOt really aimed at business or average consumers.
@Roberto
Podcasts are the new radio. ie what ‘broadcast’ you want, when you want it!
I own a BB 8700 Cingular now. I will buy this device ASAP with 2 concerns. I believe typing on the keyboard without tactile feel will be a major problem as David Pogue points out, and the ability to navigate my BB with one hand will be eliminated as the functionality essentially requires 2 hands.
“It seems radio is so old fashioned these days, why no radio tuner build in?”
Because you’ll be listening to internet radio through iTunes.
Duh.
@Macaday
Isnt a ‘Smartphone’ defined as a device which you can install 3rd party apps on. There appears to be a lack of that with the ‘iPhone’.
Can I read attachments on the ‘iPhone’, whether it be Word, pdf, open office etc?
Apparently Apple hasn’t learned from the iPod 3G mistake.
For the price point, considering that this could replace the laptop for some of us who have a desktop at home, it could be considered a bargain.
Not that I would mind if it were only $250.00….
Too expensive?
Go to Palm’s web site and compare this to the Treo 700.
It’s not just a phone/iPod. If that’s all it was then I would agree.
It’s a phone, iPod, Palm, 2MP camera and many other little technologies. It runs OS X and has a big color screen. This initially is to compete with the SmartPhones and Blackberries. Down the road I see it being priced to compete with just the regular camera phones.
One can only imagine what Apple has in store for this phone in its present form-factor.
It boggles the mind to think of all of the third-party apps and widgets that are just over the horizon. Not to mention the hardware peripherals such as docks that extend the iPhone’s capabilities when parked at a desk.
Who knows, maybe a second generation iPhone will come equipped with a tiny iSight camera for face-to-face communication while on the road.
Instead of lugging around a laptop I could use this as a proxy Mac.
Touch sensitive screens are all over incar GPS boxes, my TomTom 710 has a touch keyboard, its not as ‘friendly’ as a proper keyboard, but it works and I get better and better with it. This will work, no doubts, it’s just a learning curve, compared to a Treo keyboard, it has to be better.
@TowerTone
How could you replace a laptop with this, do you only browse the web and send and receive email’s everyday?
In 9-12 months, expect there to be a true video iPod with the same form factor as the iPhone sans the cell phone capability that will be priced more in line with the current iPod lines (~$350). Apple is very good at designing new products that are revolutionary that then taking the great aspects of that line and migrating them to other products. Apple has an incredible amount of positive feedback between all of it’s design teams. Good designs get moved around and new products add other new great features.
Roberto this thing has wifi capability which means you shoud be able to stream your favorite terrestrial radio station and if you have a satellite radio subscription you should be able to listen in on this device as well So add the XM Nexus as another device this thing might obsolete.
@UK JIM
MS-Word .DOC is NOT a file exchange format. PDF is a file exchange format. This thing does run OS X so perhaps applications which can decode this unholy scourge of a format could be installed. We’ll see.
.DOC 01?
.DOC 02?
.DOC 03?
It doesn’t matter how many Microsoft Office users there are out there if the .DOC format is not independently sanctioned as an industry approved standard.
Large market share ≠ standard.
Yea, we will definately see a Mac, OS X and other software show. Theres no doubt in my mind about that. So relax everyone who keeps saying Apple is abandoning the computer market, jeez. I think they are right to wait until after Vista to release Leopard. Mafiasoft have to have Vista out by February according someone I know who works for them otherwise some people will be getting fired. This rush release (if it can be called that
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” /> ) may leave it prone to some silly mistakes. Msoft will look foolish, then Apple will come out and blow them away with some features we didnt even know were going to be in Leopard imo.
@Myron P. Nerdlinger
Thats why I included Open office format
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument
@UK JIM…
Obviously, the iPhone can’t replace the entire functionality of a MacBook Pro, but I carry my laptop in my briefcase almost everywhere so I have access to internet and mail apps. If I’m going where this connectivity is desired, yet real “computing” is not, then I can leave my bulkier/heavier MacBook Pro at home or office. This is what I think TowerTone meant by replacing a laptop.
I think investment people are targeting Apple at far too low a price. The really exciting news isn’t the iPhone, it’s MultiTouch. When Apple licenses that technology out, they will make huge royalties.
Good article here – http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/10/iphone_where_is_the_market/
“the iPhone will face an uphill battle in Europe, where 3G communicators are supplied for free. From this perspective, the iPhone looks like an expensive iPod that locks you into a utility contract you might not want. This year’s phones will run at 3.5G-speeds, (HSDPA) and several, like Nokia’s N95, will feature GPS mapping built in. Stuck on 2.75G, the iPhone begins to look like a rich man’s toy.
(We don’t know the level of Cingular’s subsidy, but it could be disguising a $1000 boondoggle).
The question then becomes, is the price right?”