“I am in fact truly in awe of what I witnessed Tuesday. Steve Jobs is the Salesman of the Century–nothing wrong with that. And Apple and Jobs have done everything right with the iPhone–so far. I certainly want one, and am rooting for Apple to dominate and transform the handset industry,” Mike Elgan writes for Computerworld.
Elgan writes, “However, I fear that the iPhone vision and the keynote were so flawlessly executed that Apple may have raised expectations that will be hard to fulfill. The things that might shatter this wonderful iPhone illusion are the things we do not know.”
Elgan’s 20 unanswered questions about the Apple iPhone:
1. How much will it cost to own an iPhone?
2. What will be the “unlocked” iPhone price?
3. How much will it cost to replace a lost or damaged iPhone?
4. How fast is the iPhone?
5. What did Jobs mean when he said the “iPhone runs OS X”?
6. How well will the iPhone sync with Windows applications?
7. Will businesses be able to use the iPhone?
8. Will the iPhone support Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents?
9. Will you be able to use your iPhone as a modem for your laptop?
10. Will the iPhone scratch or peel?
11. Will the iPhone be called the iPhone?
12. Will people hate the on-screen iPhone keyboard experience?
13. Can you use the iPhone to make VoIP calls?
14. Will people accept iPhone’s slow Internet connection?
15. Will third-party software vendors be able to create applications for the iPhone? If not, why not? If so, what are they?
16. Will iPhone’s single-carrier model wreck the product for most users?
17. Will there be any way to wirelessly share files with the iPhone?
18. Will the iPhone kill sales of iPods?
19. Will Apple be able to fill iPhone orders accurately?
20. Will the iPhone really “change the world?”
Elgan writes, “The iPhone vision Jobs unveiled was bold, risky, and amazing. Now we can only wait and see what Silicon Valley’s master magician really has up his sleeve. If Jobs and Apple can produce the right answers to these 20 questions, they’ll make a believer out of me.”
Full article here.
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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
Mossberg’s initial take on Apple iPhone: ‘radical and gorgeous’ with ‘brilliant new user interface’ – January 11, 2007
NewsWeek’s Levy interviews Apple CEO Steve Jobs about iPhone – January 11, 2007
Why Apple’s iPhone doesn’t do high-speed mobile phone networks (yet) – 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
Apple iPhone FUD campaign begins – January 10, 2007
Nine ways Apple changed the face of consumer electronics yesterday – January 10, 2007
Analysts and investors applaud arrival of Apple iPhone – January 10, 2007
Top 10 things to love and top 10 things to hate about the Apple iPhone – January 10, 2007
How Apple kept the iPhone top secret for 30 months – January 10, 2007
Hands-on with Apple’s iPhone – January 10, 2007
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Is Apple building ‘The Device?’ [revisited] – January 09, 2007
Analyst Bajarin: Apple’s iPhone and Apple TV are industry game changers – January 09, 2007
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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
FUD Alert: Analyst – I am pretty skeptical Apple’s iPhone can succeed – January 11, 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
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“what if i didn’t cut my nails for a few weeks, could i still use it?”
Since I always wear acrylics I was seriously thinking about this. I use my nails to type, but of course that won’t work on a touch screen. Will the pad of my finger be too fat (your fingers..are too… fat… please contact Apple for a… crappy… stylus…)
Answers, Apple, the women of the world want answers.
-c
Ya know… the Mac community used to always get pissed that no one paid attention to us. Now we get pissed when they do. There is nothing this guy said in his article worthy of some of the venom I see in these comments. Does the guy have to masturbate with the product to make everyone happy?!
Enough with the questions already!
Show a little patience. Have these guys considered that perhaps there’s a reason there was no mention of Leopard or iLife ’07 at Macworld? Think an iLife application or two end up on the iPhone? And what about those secret Leopard features? If Steve had said in August that Skype was included, what would people have thought?
No, there’s more than meets the eye in the amazing transforming iPhone. Mark my words…
“Does the guy have to masturbate with the product to make everyone happy?!”
Only if he also wears a clown suit and brings me a good bottle of wine. This will be on YouTube tomorrow.
Why isn’t the iPhone telepathic, free and loaded with cancer fighting nanobots?
Slackers.
WE NEED AN UNLOCKED PHONE!
Actually the 1st Gen won’t be available; but 2nd gen and other models will
be offered unlocked.
Apple will do it.
It will change that loser mobile phone biz in the US.
FINALLY.
Patience my friends, patience.
I think it will be able to open word and excel files. Why not, after all?
Since it uses WiFi, I am sure you will be capable to transfer files wirelessly. It’s just a matter of the software allowing you to see the computer nearby.
I have a few more questions that need answering:
1) Will the iPhone let me call other people? (“i” Phone . . . get it? …ha ha)?
2) Will the iPhone be able to provide screens on both sides?
3) Can I place it in my back pocket and still sit down without damaging it?
4) Will it send information back to Apple Inc. whenever I use the washroom?
5) Will it be of any use to me if I sprain my fingers?
6) Will it be available in white?
7) Can I attach my own keyboard?
8) Will it be possible to play “Cisco Kid” by War on it without getting sued?
9) Will it still work if I drop it into the toilet by mistake?
10) Can I get a keyboard in Swahili built in?
Frequent iPhone usage will thicken some bones and strengthen some muscles of your hands.
#21- Will the iPhone be able to “Squirt” songs to my Zune?
WILL IT BLEND!!!
WILL IT BLEND?
ROFL!! That is just perverted!
A few more unanswered questions…
21. Given that the iPhone contains a FULL WORKING VERSION of OS X (as stated in Steven Levy’s interview with SJ), is the device in fact a tiny Macintosh – in which the full OS can be utilised when the phone is connected to a ‘dumb-terminal’?
22. Is the recently rumoured ’10 inch MacBook’ in reality the ‘dumb-terminal’ for the iPhone to run its full version of OSX on? – A super-thin (eg: a quarter-inch thick) fold-out device containing little more than a screen, a slim keyboard and some flash memory?
23. If the above is true, will the iPhone connect wirelessly to it and its multi-touch screen become a scroll pad – in the way a MacBook scroll pad is traditionally used?
24. Is the recently rumoured ‘Keyboard with built-in iPod Dock’ that was mistakenly delivered to 10 Mac users (Think Secret/November) in reality a Keyboard with iPhone connector? – which can be used as above but with ANY modern screen that is to hand (for example: in TV in hotel rooms, back of airline seats, etc)?
“2. THERE WILL BE NO UNLOCKED IPHONE.”
Yes there will. Outside the US.
What a brainfart!
> 20 unanswered questions about Apple’s iPhone….
You’ll know the answers at Apple’s convenience, not yours. Full stop.
norm e.
To JackSpratt,
I like your questions the best of all.
While some questions do make sense (insurance replacement etc and cost of plans) some are really stupid. What will it be called? If its not called “iPhone” is that a deal breaker??? LOL
Hey, they call it an Apple Phone, I want my money back.!!!! Actually some of these writer questions that I am seeing in print are quite funny, once I quite complaining about the writer being a moron. LOL
N.
i think this article raises some very good questions. i am a mac user and have been for quite a few years. but the reality of the matter is the iPod didn’t make – and wouldn’t have made it – with mac user’s alone. they needed windows user’s and so will the iPhone. this is a brilliant phone, and i plan on purchasing it, and switching to Cingular from Verizon in the process, but i do it with a very nervous heart. i’ve tried phones with touch sensitivity before and haven’t been very successful at keeping one. i have pretty big fingers. anyway…gotta wait for it to come out to answer these very applicable questions. Some i hope will be answerable early on in the positive include 3rd party apps (even if worked out thru iTS), using as computer modem on the EDGE/3G networks (once it becomes 3G capable), and hopefully the keyboard can go horizontal for those of us with fat fingers. Eagerly waiting for June!!
Ok what the heck is an ‘unlocked iPhone’?
Oh and whats it gonna cost?