CEO Ed Colligan was interviewed by Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona regarding Apple’s upcoming (June 2007) iPhone.
Our best translation from German:
“In my opinion it looks rather like a highly developed media player, which happens to include a phone,” Colligan said.
“The iPhone could be interesting for people who like music and films with occasional phone use, but for businesspeople the touch-sensitive screen without a physical button keyboard will be a challenge.”
Apple has supplied “nothing at all” regarding iPhone to date, according to Colligan. There’s a huge difference between giving a keynote speech and actually developing and shipping the devices, Colligan said.
Colligan said, ” I have great respect for Apple, but won’t be easy to create a good smartphone that will functions on networks worldwide. Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung have worked on this for for 25 years and have only partially succeeded today. Our Palm Treo already has 90% of Apple’s iPhone features at a much lower price… By the way, if this is an interview about the iPhone, you should talk with the Apple people instead.”
Full article (in German) here.
Yes, the iPhone will be interesting for people who like music and films and occasionally use the phone. Keep telling yourself that, Ed. Maybe it’ll just go away (along with some other things).
In regard to Colligan’s use of one of the anti-iPhone FUD camapign’s major talking points: The Chicago Sun-Times’ Andy Ihnatko – who has actually touched and used the Apple iPhone – reports, “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… After 30 seconds, I was already typing faster with the iPhone than I ever have with any other phone.”
Related articles:
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The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 2007
How Steve Jobs played hardball in iPhone deal with AT&T (Cingular) – February 17, 2007
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eWeek: Apple iPhone fallout: ‘They must be crying in Nokia-ville and other telephony towns today’ – January 10, 2007
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I for one – in a zillion – will step right up and buy an iPhone – contract and all with Cingular- and take photos and send them to Ballmar – Gates – Colligan – Dell and whomever is running HP at the time and indicate that not only will I be using it but all of my staff in the USofA, Australia, Singapore and Europe (as they come on line) and that we will have completely switched to all Apple, Inc. products from Admin and Design and IT and Marketing & sales and Manufacturing for our entire company. One small step for a growing and expanding business (mine – and the stockholders) and one more great big stomp for Apple!
And the I will watch Ballmar, et. al step in it – over and over again – there is a reason why brown is the fav coulur of these three dinasaurs and off spring = six dinosaurs…
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MDN = step
Ed Colligan needs to study Creative’s business model. He’s set to follow the same path towards being an accessory.
Love the “6 dinosaurs” title.
I’ve been a Palm user for about 9 years. When I first heard about the Treos, I was excited… wow, just think… ONE device!
I finally got my hands on a Treo 600?
The screen was small, compared to my Sony Clié NR70V.
The keyboard? HORRIBLE. I mean I have ADULT hands, how on earth do you hit only ONE of those teensy weensy keys at a time?
And what? NO graffiti? Palm COULDN’T have been serious about that one… could they?
No SALE!
Had Palm actually taken Treo phone capabilities and merged them with a Palm TX… well. that would be something.
I FINALLY realized… Palm is NOT Apple.
And then Apple announced the iPhone!
But, we know NOTHING is perfect… Cingular/AT&T? Oh no, no no NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
But, it’s got all these walkie talkie makers quaking in there loafers!
“You don’t want to have to look at the phone to enter a number.”
I must have missed the Palm advertising campaign when they boasted that Palm devices end the misery of having to look at the phone when you use it.
All the numbers I use more than once are pre-programmed into my phones. Apart from some speed dial numbers, they all have to be selected from menus. I don’t have a problem with looking at a menu and had never heard it mentioned as a potential problem prior to the announcement of the iPhone.
90% of iPhone’s features?
The iPod, when it first came out had 100% of the features from other devices (maybe excluding the click wheel).
When will these idiots learn it’s not about features, it’s about how they’re implemented.
Is it my imagination, or does Bill Gates look like Chicken Little? He’s getting mighty skinny… so think his clothing is too big. Methinks he’s been metabolizing a lot of stress lately.
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> Wie Apple sein Handy positionieren will, kann ich nicht beantworten.
Best I could make out is: Wherever you position your Apple, the worms won’t eat out of a can of beans. So I tripsed over to Altavista Babelfish and caught some pearls:
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Sie it explained recently that no PC manufacturer would vibrate to emerge and a decent mobile phone from the sleeve. Apple has it done…
Steve job states that IP-HONE to every other mobile phone by five years ahead is. Is it over-snatched? </i>
– No, but I bet the iPhone has the same effect on Colligan as eating three-months-old refried lima beans with chilli and jerky. MW: volume.
Babelfish seems to turn German into the kind of English that would be spoken by a Japanese Yoda:
“That IP-HONE as a Treo killer is acted. From Palm fans Apple fans could become.”
Change the game, it will. Much danger for Treo. Begun this phone war has.
“Our Palm Treo already has 90% of Apple’s iPhone features at a much lower price”
Doesn’t get it.
Boy, that photo of Gates shows why he doesn’t need to wear a turtleneck. He’s a natural turtle-neck.
MDN let this douche off lightly. From TFA:
but for businesspeople the touch-sensitive screen without a physical button keyboard will be a challenge.
why? what are the unique business activities which require physical buttons?
Apple has supplied “nothing at all” regarding iPhone to date, according to Colligan
er … Apple has supplied a shipping date, demoed a working product, advertised specs and prices, and submitted the relevant info to the FCC for approval.
Our Palm Treo already has 90% of Apple’s iPhone features at a much lower price…
other have nailed this point already.
i vote for an updated MDN Take. Shine your evangelical light on this man’s lies.
/6 dinosaurs was pretty funny.
in “The Departed”, Matt Damon wouldn’t have been able to surreptitiously call Jack Nicholson on an iPhone in his pocket from a room full of feds to warn him not to use cell phones during the illegal cpu sale to the Chinese, because of the lack of tactile feedback. So this thing is not going to work for organized crime moles in the police department.
Bill Gates the evil spawn of Frank Perdue.
Six Dinosaurs indeed! LOL
“Our Palm Treo already has 90% of Apple’s iPhone features at a much lower price”
Too bad its the other 10% that people really want.
“I have great respect for Apple, but won’t be easy to create a good smartphone that will functions on networks worldwide. Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung have worked on this for for 25 years and have only partially succeeded today.”
And nobody could make Unix accessable to the masses for over 25 years. Apple does the really hard stuff and makes us all wonder why nobody else could get it right before them.
Colligan says, “I have great respect for Apple, but won’t be easy to create a good smartphone that will functions on networks worldwide. Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung have worked on this for for 25 years and have only partially succeeded today.”
This is not a technical issue, this is a corporate-political issue. All the phone companies want the very latest tech. and they beg, plead, bribe, and sell their collective souls to the devil to make sure they exclusivity until the next amazing new tech. comes along.
“The iPhone could be interesting for people who like music and films with occasional phone use, but for businesspeople the touch-sensitive screen without a physical button keyboard will be a challenge.”
How exactly will this be a challenge? Has this guy even used a Treo? You can’t type on the thing without using two hands and looking at the keyboard. This guy’s been listening to Ballmer, with the whole keyboard, and network “issues”.
“but for businesspeople the touch-sensitive screen without a physical button keyboard will be a challenge.”
Once again, the “little physical button manufacturing” cartel rears its ugly head. For all I’m hearing about how important these little keypads are, they must be one powerful force in the electronics industry. Who makes these, Halliburton? Why is it that we just can’t seem to live without them?
-c
MW: ‘leaders’ (only look back when they’re tired or scared)
NOT FUD:
“By the way, if this is an interview about the iPhone, you should talk with the Apple people instead.”
He admits he’s talking out of his ass and doesn’t know a damn thing. If it was FUD he wouldn’t have admitted as such!
Give him some credit.
Foxxed:
“I’m not saying the iPhone isn’t sleek, but i think there is a grain of truth to that. You don’t want to have to look at the phone to enter a number. Being able to feel the keys is a plus. And people with fingernails…how that going to work with touch screen?”
I think this is one where you’ll have to actually use the device before you speculate on how well the virtual buttons work. People that have actually used it find it to be very usable. The screen display is higher resolution than anything else on the market at 160 ppi. Expect the touch sensitive resolution to be high as well. I expect it will be easier to enter numbers than you expect.
This is Apple we’re talking about after all.
February is almost over and that puts the MW keynote almost two months ago. The iPhone is going to be here before you know it. Remember how it was half a year away? Now it’s just 3 months and change. Then it gets truly interesting.
“There’s a huge difference between giving a keynote speech and actually developing and shipping the devices, Colligan said.”
That is true, in general, but does not directly apply to Job’s MacWorld keynote. If I am not mistaken, Job’s demoed a very polished product. So the “developed” part of Colligan’s objection has already been largely addressed. That leaves manufacturing and shipping.
These people are living in denial. I can’t wait for the iPhone to ship along with variants including the next gen large screen iPod. These people will then have to add shock to denial.
I said this before, and I’ll say it again. The iPhone has the potential to support robust voice recognition functionality including voice dialing. The dock connector offers the potential for tie-ins to automobile hands-free systems. I do not necessarily see the lack of a physical keyboard as being a problem for most people.
We will have to wait and see how the iPhone fares when it hits the real world.
Features does not equal usability.
There’s far more to the Apple iPhone than Steve Jobs has thus far revealed. And although I would love to see Steve succeed in his plans, hopefully his ego hasn’t placed him in checkmate already. It might be too late even though it hasn’t really begun yet. (Sorry but that remark is something that only Steve Jobs and a few of us in certain journalistic circles will understand.)
If he knew what Apple was “up to” Ed Colligan wouldn’t be sleeping that well at night.
Bill Gates knows, and that is why he is so desparately trying to kill the iPhone by any means available to him.
There’s a good news article here:
http://blogs.business2.com/apple/2007/02/iphone_patent_f.html