“Most people would agree that the iPod rejuvenated the digital music market and, by the by, restored the fortunes of Apple,” Mark Ward writes for BBC News.
“With the launch of the iPhone, Apple is looking to do the same again – set the trends, corner the market and leave everyone else looking like also-rans,” Ward writes. “But selling phones to people is very different to selling them a portable music player.”
“To begin with, most people already have a mobile phone. In the UK, upwards of 80% of households have one. Worldwide, more than one billion handsets were shipped in 2006. By comparison Apple, which has a more than a 70% share of the mobile music player market, sold 39 million iPods in 2006,” Ward writes. “And with the iPhone, Apple will not be creating a market, it will be muscling in on a lot of very established companies.”
MacDailyNews Take: The iPhone certainly will be muscling in; take that prediction to the bank.
Ward then spends a lot of time trying to convince the reader that Nokia, Samsung, SonyEricsson, LG and others have devices that resemble, share features, and/or some looks with Apple’s iPhone.
MacDailyNews Take: More nonsense from The Beeb. Actor John Goodman resembles, shares feature, and/or looks somewhat like Babe Ruth, but Goodman couldn’t hit a major league fastball out of the park if his life depended on it. Apple’s iPhone is The Babe, the others are pretenders or worse: they have a laundry list of “features,” but none of the usability of Apple’s iPhone. This is iPod redux. People who don’t use or who are competing with Apple products make this mistake routinely: only comparing feature lists and ignoring the usability (UI) of the device. The iPhone hits home runs; the others hope that by looking like they can go yard, people will think they actually can. They can’t and they know it.
Ward continues, “Gilles Oriol, product marketing manager for Western Europe at SonyEricsson, declined the opportunity to talk directly about Apple’s iPhone. ‘We do not comment on rival products,’ he said. But, he told the BBC News website, that he ‘doubted’ that SonyEricsson would ever make a phone that only had a touchscreen. ‘It must remain a good telephone first,’ he said, ‘consumers are more willing to dial a number with the keyboard than they are to do it with a touchscreen.'”
MacDailyNews Take: The iPhone is a “good telephone” and where’s the proof that consumers are “more willing” to use plastic keys over a touchscreen? There is none.
Ward continues, “‘Also,’ [Oriol] added, ‘the point about a touchscreen is that it affects battery time. You need a powerful battery because to use the touchscreen means it remains on all the time.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s iPhone battery offers up to 5 hours of Talk/Video/Browsing and up to 16 hours of Audio playback. iPhone’s proximity sensor detects when you lift iPhone to your ear and immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent touches until iPhone is moved away. iPhone’s ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light, thereby enhancing the user experience and saving power at the same time. Oriol has no point.
Full article here.
Comparing feature lists is not the best way to compare products. People make this mistake, unintentionally or not, all the time. A Windows PC has icons, folders, menus, etc., but it cannot compare to the Mac’s user experience. A Yugo has wheels, an engine, a steering wheel, etc., but it cannot compare to actually driving a BMW. A plow horse has hooves, a mane, eats oats, and can be ridden, but it will never win the Derby. Apple’s soon-to-be iPhone victims have nothing else with which to try to sell their suddenly-antiquated devices, so they can be excused for blowing smoke, but witless reporters that go along with it are doing their readership a disservice.
Related articles:
Cellphone users set their sights on Apple’s iPhone; look to get out of existing contracts – March 15, 2007
Getting ready for Apple iPhone: How to get out of your 2-year cellphone contract – March 13, 2007
Wired’s Mortensen: Apple is under-selling iPhone with their 10 million figure – March 13, 2007
Apple’s marketing machine does it again: iPhone generates $400 million in free publicity – March 10, 2007
Analyst: Apple’s iPhone has Palm ‘shaking in their sandals’ – March 09, 2007
Which company is most at risk from Apple’s looming iPhone onslaught? – March 04, 2007
Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple ‘buy’ – says market is underestimating iPhone demand – March 01, 2007
Apple’s 10 million iPhone sales target for 2008 would surpass most other smart phone sales – March 01, 2007
Apple COO Tim Cook: iPhone is a revolutionary product; you get what you pay for – February 28, 2007
How will vehicle makers integrate Apple’s iPhone? – February 28, 2007
Apple COO Tim Cook: iPhone on track for June launch – February 27, 2007
Goldman Sachs: 4 reasons to be bullish on Apple’s iPhone – February 26, 2007
Apple airs iPhone teaser ad during Oscars – February 25, 2007
Apple preps 3G iPhone model for Europe – February 25, 2007
The once-mighty Palm Inc. doomed to decline and failure – thanks to Apple’s iPhone – February 23, 2007
Palm CEO can’t stop talking about Apple iPhone – February 19, 2007
How Steve Jobs played hardball in iPhone deal with AT&T (Cingular) – February 17, 2007
Digit takes a closer look at Apple’s iPhone – February 14, 2007
Microsoft caught off-guard, beaten badly by Apple’s iPhone innovations – February 13, 2007
Apple’s soon-to-be iPhone rivals sound just like iPod rivals circa 2001 – February 01, 2007
How Verizon blew the Apple iPhone deal – January 29, 2007
O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile battle for exclusive rights to Apple iPhone in UK – January 26, 2007
Rogers to offer Apple iPhone exclusively in Canada – January 25, 2007
Research in Motion downgraded due to Apple iPhone competition – January 23, 2007
Ihnatko: Hands-on with Apple’s iPhone (which runs Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) – January 18, 2007
Microsoft CEO Ballmer laughs at Apple iPhone – January 17, 2007
RealMoney: Apple just blew up the whole damn mobile-phone supply chain with its new iPhone – January 11, 2007
eWeek: Apple iPhone fallout: ‘They must be crying in Nokia-ville and other telephony towns today’ – January 10, 2007
Jefferies downgrades Motorola on fears of market share loss to Apple iPhone – January 10, 2007
The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 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
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
Well…it is rather difficult to review something you’ve never seen, touched, or used now isn’t it?
first post???
“But selling phones to people is very different to selling them a portable music player.”
Geez ya think?
The Beeb should have used the vowel O instead of E in its name.
“And with the iPhone, Apple will not be creating a market, it will be muscling in on a lot of very established companies.”
Neither did the iPod. If you look at it as an mp3 player, it was not first and if you look at it as a portable music player, it was definitely not first! However, it still out sells all other mp3 players, as well as tape and CF based walkmans, etc.
BMW, sheer driving pleasure!
I bet Babe Ruth couldn’t have dealt with Roseanne for very long….
Until it’s June release, the iPhone is barely above vaporware.
amin, what did you do, stay home from school today so you could be a “first post” on MDN?
As much an Apple fanboy that I am, I find user experience features in Windows that I do not find OS X. I’ll cite one example: Select text and choose “Print Selection”. Not in Apple applications. OK, yes in Firefox, but this is built in to Windows. I personally don’t care, but when I attempt to “switch” people to OS X, and they get angry and say “I used that feature alot”, and I just start stumbling… “well, it is a better OS”… it hurts my credibility and the overall notion that OS X is easier to use.
Once again, I have to counter with this story:
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012135
LOL TowerTone. There isn’t enough whiskey in the world. I love John Goodman. He made me ROFLMAO
in the Big Lebowski.
Computers on phones IS the future
Apple should control it, at least own the most profitable portion of it.
Will I get a iPhone? Well I don’t know the standby time and I certainly can’t put one in my jeans pocket like my Razor.
I’m worried about the screen getting scratched. I’ll have to buy a pouch for it.
I would like to have a iPhone for the features when I’m out and about, but the cost of another phone and Cingular’s internet access is a bit much. $75 a month now for just 20 calls a month and a few games/internet access.
I think it’s still better to access the internet on my large iMac because my eyes are not getting any better.
Wrong thread Fanboy?
I’m still stunned that King Ralph and Jailbait Babysitter were overlooked by the Academy.
Fanboy,
OT, but you obviously need to explore Mac OS X’s “Services” a bit more. It’s under each application’s name in the menu bar.
To Tommy Boy,
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> Anyone can write a review. Its just hard to do a ACCURATE and FAIR review of a product you have never used and as seen here, most of these “negative” reviewers, have NO clue, but they do have an “adjenda”. : -)
I disagree. “Well…it is rather difficult to review something you’ve never seen, touched, or used now isn’t it?”
Not at all.
ne
I’m continuously amazed how many people are able to write detailed reviews of a product that only exist as a prototype. I mean these fools have never actually held the iPhone prototype(not to mention the one that will ship). Amazing!
Let’s face it, all the incumbents are scared. The decision people and staff are scared; they know what’s coming – pink slips for everyone!
This is iPhone 1.0 and it has already disrupted the status quo. What happens in two years when we are at Mac OS X 10.7 and iPhone 3.0?
Short Nokia, Samsung, SonyEricsson, LG, et al; go long AAPL and make your self some cash.
Rock on Steve!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”raspberry” style=”border:0;” />
Those other phones have two missing features that the iPhone can only have. A built in iPod and its running OSX. Both facts that this writer never took into account when comparing the likes of Nokia and others. Both of these features make the iPhone stand out and will sell far better than anyone expected. I’m sure that Apple will include more features which will just make it all that much better as well.
Wasn’t most of Steve’s Keynote not describing that dialing phone numbers is a dying trend. Most people currently use their recent calls or missed calls lists instead of dialing numbers. Iphone is all about calling with a single touch.. Searching google maps for whatever your looking for and 1 touch dials it for you. Speed scrolls through your contacts and 1 touch and your dialing.
Even if I did find myself in a situation where I had to dial.. why would I want buttons? Most of the time they are crammed in there and you press 2 at once or they don’t light up enough in the dark.
The Z
“Most people currently use their recent calls or missed calls lists instead of dialing numbers.”
Good point and true. This will become even more commonplace when the UI
isn’t a pain in the neck!
I hate the “this isn’t the portable music player market” argument.
1. Apple never claimed to want to dominate the phone market in the same manner
2. Dominating the phone market with the iPhone is not necessary for it to be a success
3. The huge numbers of the phone market that are claimed in these arguments means that Apple can
achieve their goal of 10 million phones without significant market penetrance
With regard to the practice of writing reviews of hardware that is unavailable, I believe it is fine to do so long as the current information on the device is sufficient and the reviewer clearly states their assumptions. Many people are obviously drawing conclusions already anyway. For example, I already have budgeted the funds to purchase one, even though I’ve never heald one. In essence, I’ve reviewed it for myself. That said, many of the reviews of iPhone have contained ridiculous assumptions and assertions passed off as fact.
Madcow, alive in the BBC……
“where’s the proof that consumers are “more willing” to use plastic keys over a touchscreen? There is none.”
– You could argue that the market share and popularity of plastic keys shows that people want plastic keys instead of a touchscreen. Of course, that logic is quite faulty, yet that doesn’t stop MDN from using the same logic as “proof” that consumers don’t want to rent music either.
Once again MDN selectively reports a slightly negative Apple article from the BBC whilst ignoring the many negative articles on Vista and Microsoft in recent weeks, despite being provided links to articles slamming Vista. What is it with this site and the BBC?
yoiks,
Don’t kid yourself about Apple’s real goals. 10 million iPhones, my ass. That is the usual Apple sandbagging, as bad as Apple’s ludicrously low earnings guidance each quarter – under promise, but over deliver. Apple IS going for the dominating profit making #1 position in the cell phone market. This is no mere niche, but a huge opportunity.
Apple has some fans that still suffer from Stockholm Syndrome from the old days when they truly were beleaguered. There is a new word to use when thinking about Apple — “juggernaut”. Let’s not be satisfied with anything but first place. It is ass kicking time and there are no sibilants in the word “kicking”, if you get my drift.