“On April 9, 2007, Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Inc. announced the sale of the 100 millionth iPod. To say that iPod sales have been anything less than dramatic would be an understatement, and to call the revolutionary iPod anything less than an entire product ecosystem wouldn’t be doing it justice. Between the more than 4,000 accessories to date and the billions in revenue generated by selling proprietary downloads of songs 99 cents at a time on iTunes (and now TV shows, movies, audio books, etc.), Apple has built a nearly flawless business model around the iPod that is the envy of big tech and big media companies alike, and as sales built to record numbers it seemed that the only thing that could slow the iPod’s ascent off the sales forecast charts would be Apple itself,” Brad Kenney writes for IndustryWeek.
“As unlikely as that may seem, it may have happened. Apple co-founder, CEO and chief evangelist Steve Jobs is a charismatic public presence by any account, and his theatrical unveiling of a prototype of the company’s new iPhone at Apple’s Macworld Expo consumer conference this past January was met with near-rapturous outpourings of desire for this new ‘it’ device. However, once the glow of the sneak peek at this new Apple product-to-be wore off, a more sober assessment of the situation revealed that the premature announcement wasn’t as well timed a move as industry watchers are accustomed to expecting from Apple,” Kenney writes.
MacDailyNews Take: Let’s look past Kenney’s transparently sarcastic use of the term “near-rapturous” for a moment; surely Kenney has good reasons why Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ iPhone announcement wasn’t “well-timed,” right?
Kenney continues, “First of all, consider the name. At the time of the Macworld announcement, San Jose-based Cisco Systems owned the exclusive rights to the term iPhone, and although there was no doubt that Apple (the originator of the iMac and iMovie, iPhoto and the rest of the iLife line) would acquire the rights by any means necessary, such a high-profile announcement surely put a strain on negotiations…”
MacDailyNews Take: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Apple and Cisco have agreed to use the name jointly. The “controversy” generated created much free publicity and helped get the name “iPhone” into the general public’s consciousness. This is not proof that iPhone announcement wasn’t “well-timed,” it’s proof that the announcement was “well-timed.” Surely Kenney has better reasons coming, right?
Kenney continues, “Secondly, consider the fact that the iPhone was nowhere near ready to ship when the prototype was unveiled. Again, Apple usually has all its ducks in a row (and boxed up and loaded into trucks) before sweeping aside the veil of secrecy surrounding any new product. By giving such a long (it’s been almost six months and still no iPhone) time lag, Apple has not only allowed excitement to dim but has also negatively impacted iPod sales in the interim.”
MacDailyNews Take: We’ll need more proof than Brad’s words that excitement has “dimmed” over iPhone. If anything, excitement has grown, with AT&T signing up over a million people interested in iPhone via their website and – this is the real reason for the timing of the iPhone announcement and demo – allowing people to let their contracts lapse, freezing the so-called “smartphone” market in its tracks. As for iPod sales: there is simply no proof of negative impact: Apple’s 10.549 million iPod sales last quarter were 24% over the year-ago quarter. Kennney is 0 for 2, so far.
Kenney continues, “Also, by giving the world an uncharacteristic pre-launch peek at the iPhone, Jobs put every reverse-engineering department in the grey market into a frenzy to produce a competitive knockoff and steal some market share from the real thing.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple spent years developing the iPhone. iPhone makes all other “smartphones” from even the reputable makers look stupid. Some Chinese knockoff outfit isn’t going to knockoff the iPhone in six months. And they’re certainly not going to steal any meaningful market share; just as cheap iPod knockoffs haven’t stolen any iPod market share. You’re 0-3, Brad.
Kenney continues, “To cap it all off, there was actually another very interesting, unique new product unveiled at Macworld — AppleTV — with a confirmed ship date and for which Apple was already taking pre-orders. The brightness of Jobs’ iPhone spotlight inevitably meant that quite a few consumers were left in the dark concerning this new media extension device…”
MacDailyNews Take: More meaningless blather from Brad. Any overshadowing of Apple TV by iPhone is not proof that the timing of the announcement will hurt the iPhone. The two are totally different products, targeted at different markets. 0-4.
Kenney continues, “Despite what was widely characterized as bad timing by Jobs, the iPhone’s unique intuitive interface, rich feature set and undeniable cool factor paired with Apple’s pre-loaded customer loyalty means that, so long as Apple’s product developers remain at the top of their game, no amount of marketing missteps can keep this new Apple product from getting eaten up by the market.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Twilightmoon” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: The iPhone announcement has not been “widely characterized as bad timing by Jobs.” One Brad Kenny has called it as “bad timing by Jobs” and offered no valid proof to support his characterization. The iPhone announcement was very well-timed. It gave customers time to prepare; letting them allow their current contracts to lapse and freezing the market as they put their next phone purchase on hold. With regard to the timing of the iPhone announcement, we’ll have to side with Steve Jobs, a man with a record of radically changing multiple industries and proven marketing acumen, over some no-name IndustryWeek hack who offers no valid evidence to support his goofy theories.
I think he did it to show how ‘influential’ apple really is on everybody else’s products…
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One other advantage of an early announcement – 6 months of FREE publicity.
Jobs’ explaination: FCC registration needs.
My explaination: don’t end up announcing the product with immediate availability and the majority of your customer based locked into a contract….this allows contracts to expire gracfully.
Ehh? why guess. As Jobs himself stated – the timing was due to FCC compliance testing. Does there need to be any other nefarious reason? And why all the second guessing about what may or may not have happened since. It’ll be nice to see the product for real when we can all see how good it is. Until then we all have to be patient.
This is definately a No News Item and reflects poorly on the journalist in question.
what about the FCC approval process? Makes sense to unveil it yourself, as Jobs said, rather that let the FCC steal the thunder.
Did Steve Jobs unveil Apple’s iPhone too early?
Yes he did, I’m already tired about hearing about it and waiting for it, but..
…according to what I read, he really didn’t have a choice. It would have leaked and Apple would lose the marketing advantage.
So with that, I surly hope the iPhone has:
1: Some sort of ability to access content on .Mac or other sites to backup/add to it’s paltry 8GB.
2: GPS integration
3: 3G etc., advanced networking speeds for decent downloads.
4: Less “need” to be constantly hooked up to a computer. I travel a LOT.
5: Ability to use devices like a MyVue glasses for better TV/Movie viewing experience.
This whole subject about the announcement is so past tense it’s not even funny. The announcement timing was perfect as Steve Jobs has such a buzz about the upcoming iPhone release that he doesn’t even have to advertise it at all. Millions of people are drooling for it that they want to bid for it on Ebay knowing full well there isn’t a product out there to sell yet. All the other cell phone companies are all out there with there copy machines trying to immitate it and doing a poor job of it if I do say so myself. Without OSX no other phone on the market will be as easy to use and beautiful as the iPhone will period. No I’m sorry but his announcement timing was brillance and judging by the stock market close of 110 dollars a share it is paying off even before the product is released.
Not to mention that Apple didn’t want the product announced via required FCC filings.
If anything it’s amazing how hyped people still are about the iPhone. The steady stream of news articles, the running-scared quotes from industry competitors and the Cisco dispute have helped keep the product front and center in people’s minds.
Worked as advertised on me: our contract w/ Sprint is nearly up, and my wife’s phone is on its last leg (I’m currently using a Treo 650). If it weren’t for the iPhone announcement, we’d have bought her a new one and signed a new 2 year contract by now, I’m sure. As it is, we’re waiting for the iPhone to come out, when we’ll switch to AT&T and get that (plus a cheaper phone for her).
Definitely froze our market
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I swear I need to start writing and earn a living in journalism/blogs. The crap people put out for hits always wow’s me. Each and everyone of us can do this.
This no misstep. This has created so much free publicity that marketing would have had to spend a very large sum of money to match the exposure.
People are hungry for this device and as it enters the market, and hopefully Apple is getting good battery life, the feeding frenzy will be wild. Goodbye to verizon in 18 months.
How cool will it be when this phone hits it’s target in one years time?
Let’s see Gates spin that as bad news. Gates was right about one thing, he doesn’t get it!
This is the most idiotic attempt to ride on the iPhone press bandwagon. Was it released too early? No, dork– how else could you try to pull a buck or two out of Apple’s free advertising a month before it’s due for release?
Oh my God– someone should kill Kenney! You bastard!
MDN has a really good point about letting contracts expire. Sure, not everyone who has a long contract will expire within that six month time period, but mine did. I specifically have not renewed or purchased a new phone because of the pending release of the iPhone. If I had not known about it I might have just purchased a new phone.
Apple has recieved a good six months of publicity about the phone and most people I know who are not Apple fanatics have heard about it and are curious.
No, I think Jobs made the right decision by announcing early. Doesn’t matter anyway, Apple is going to sell a gazillion of these things and all the nay-sayers will look stupid.
I think this article was released too early.
If Kennedy has any balls, he will re-release it in two months.
I recently wrote an edition of our Leadership Insight e-newsletter about Apple’s upcoming iPhone launch that got picked up on tech discussion community Digg.com and I’ve been hearing about it ever since — if I didn’t already believe in the length and breadth of the internet community, this would be an unforgettable lesson.
Basically, I took Steve Jobs to task for what I perceived to be a flaw in strategy where the iPhone launch was concerned, and was then taken to task myself by a (growing) number of readers. Some of the emails I’ve gotten don’t deserve the dignity of a response, but others poked holes in my logic in such an insightful way that I’m tempted to believe that what I originally thought could be a mistake was actually a masterstroke.
And here I didn’t even go into the iPhone launch delaying the next Apple OS X release, or it not supporting Outlook…
My god! they’ve killed Kenny!!!
Like iPod, iPhone will be best experienced using a mac. More incentive to switch.
Apple does not seek to be M$– they don’t need to own the world. They would just like to control it.
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It’s not about the iPhone. It was to get other phone companies thinking hmmm, we could do that. And they will.
Hey, MDN, don’t hold back. Tell us how you really feel about Kenney.
@Brad Kennedy.
Thank you for clarifying your article on this forum, At least Kenny will be back in the next episode just in time for another killing:-)
Seriously though, I don’t think even Apple could have foreseen Cingular being taken over so quickly by a company with a Worldwide network. The unveiling of the iphone was demonstrated over Cingulars network which is USA centric.
I
believe that it is testing for this Worldwide network that has delayed Leopard. Tiger is still over the horizon in as far as Vista has to travel to catch up hence not many people are upset over Leopards delay.
I translate that as strength of conviction in their user satisfaction policy. I would not wish to be an unpaid beta-tester.
@ Brad Kennedy
For one thing, your article only serves to illustrate how much “homework” you didn’t do on Steve Jobs ..
Since he has been back at Apple .. every announcement has been a master stroke of genius ! … (ok, maybe with the exception of the Mac Cube) …
Steve seems to have the Midas Touch with every announcement he’s made ! ..
Instead of writing an article questioning Steves motives or methods .. maybe it would have been prudent to do a little research before writing such an article…right ?
Recently… I showed a friend ..this YouTube video.. Now.. this guy was just vaguely aware of Apple .. but after viewing the video.. he was positively drooling over the impending release of the iPhone !
Not only that… afterwards, he even mentioned he was considering a purchase of a Macintosh !
I’m quite sure stories like this are happening all over the place … which only goes to show .. Steve Jobs knew what he was doing back in January, when he unveiled the iPhone !
Brad .. hopefully, you will take this experience as a “lesson learned” and benefit from it…
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Is this really neccessary. iPhone is almost here and it is going to be an amazing success. Do we need to read this kind of rubbish?
Everything is well thought and everything will be on time.
And yes Leopard will finally kill Vista and Mico$oft.
Speculation, speculation, speculation – I am sick of reading these posts from people who have no idea what is going to happen in the future.
“The iPhone’s willful disregard of the global handset market will come back to haunt Apple.”___Tero Kuittinen, January, 2007
“Apple seems to be repeating Newton mistakes with iPhone.”___David Haskin, February, 2007
“I think Apple’s CEO made a big mistake. I think Jobs blew it.”___Mike Elgan, March, 2007
“I can’t think of anything to write so I’ve decided to plagiarize some of the most worthless crap so I can score some hits.___Brad Kenney, May, 2007
“It’s starting to get real easy to spot a hit whore.”___anti-creative cretin, May, 2007
I too agree with MDN’s take, my Verizon contract just expired this month and I would have renewed for at least another year if I didn’t know about the iPhone. Now I’m waiting, hoping the RAZR battery holds out long enough for me (it only lasts for 1hr of talk now).
I read this article yesterday, and it amazed me how it went on and on for so long and didn’t manage to say a damn thing.
More re-hashings of how competitors will be able to get the jump on Apple, killing intervening iPod sales, the damned Cisco patent, contributing to global terrorism… Jeebus. I could have written this article on January 10th and it would have had no more relevance than it does today.
We’ve all read the stories dealing with how the iPhone will carry the rest of the mobile industry along with it on a new boom ride, and it appears that tech writers everywhere are also clamoring for a ticket. At this point it’s all rather sad. Kennedy has given us absolutely nothing new with this article, other than an ad-hoc attempt to appear wise with theories proposed and discounted months ago. His last, slimy, backpedaling paragraph proves that even he thinks there is little chance his dire prognostications will come to fruition.
I’ve got a prediction of my own, so let me on the train:
The iPhone is going to change consumer electronics forever. Not just how the industry players are lined up, but how people think about and use technology. Until now, khaki-pantsed IT managers have been calling the shots for everyone from the board room on down to grandma.
The iPhone is going to turn that whole system around. You just watch.
-c
Sry, Kennedy=Kenny.
Bastards.
Another day, another journalist with no story and looking nervously at the editor glaring at him.
So come up with a “concept” – umm, how ’bout “iPhone announced too early”? – and then it’s a simple matter of putting together enough logical-sounding so-called “reasons”, and voila! he’s got another slow news day taken care of.
Finally, he covers his butt by concluding that DESPITE this “bad move” by Jobs, people are going to snap up the iPhone! If they do, he can say, “I told you so!”; if they don’t, he can say, “I told you why!”
Chrissy’s right.
Bastards.
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Since we’re touching on the Leopard delay with this discussion, I have some thoughts on that, too.
I really thing that it all went something like this:
MS works on Vista… Actually, MS works on Cairo, Longhorn, XP SP3, er, Vista…
Apple works on Leopard…
Vista is released first, Apple plans to answer soon after, because Apple suspects Vista will be no big deal, but allows enough time for discontent before allowing the cat to pounce…
Apple gets a hold of Vista. Says collectively… “This is IT? This is all you’ve done with 5 years??? Ah hell, and you even had us up nights! Okay, no worries.”
Apple, now even more secure in the superiority of their technology, pushes back Leopard to allow another 4 months of developer beta testing, and perhaps to include features they didn’t think they had time for.
Speculation: Maybe, just maybe, some NT APIs…
In the mean time, devote all available resources to getting the phone out the door.
This is my theory. Maybe it makes me a tech journalist on par with Kenney. We’ll soon see.
-c
Chrissy … I BELIEVE you !!
No need for belief, the evidence is before us. =)
ChrissyOne ..
True … but I was referring to your 12:24 post … seems you were quicker on the trigger than I when you posted again !
@NearTheTop…
I have similar hopes in regard to the augmentation of iPhone’s storage capacity, and believe you are correct in your assessment that it will come via the integration of .Mac services. Daniel Eran of RoughlyDrafted.com posted an article today about this very subject entitled ‘A Global Upgrade for Bonjour: AirPort, iPhone, Leopard, .Mac’. He also specifically questioned Mr. Jobs about .Mac at the shareholder’s meeting last week,
“With so much innovation and execution in hardware, software and in retail, what is Apple doing in online services? Apple is in a unique position to offer its customers personalized services, so why have we seen so little investment in this area of Apple’s business? Is it not something the company recognizes as a potential revenue source, or is Apple leaving it to other companies like Google to provide? .Mac is a pretty weak offering that has made little advancement in the last half decade.
Jobs acknowledged that Apple’s .Mac service was not a strong product but that improvements to Apple’s online services were in the works and would show up shortly, leaving the impression with me that Leopard would deliver a stronger set of services. If that’s the case, next month’s WWDC may deliver new information on the issue.”
For persons such as yourself, who travel a lot and may not have access to network services during those travels, Apple will hopefully support the use of Seagate’s DAVE Bluetooth/WiFi portable HD.
Abdullah,
right!
These articles are patently pseudo- sensationalist.
The second-rate journalist thinks of an absurd, but eye-catching headline such as:- ‘iPhone causes cancer’ and then twists and stretches the facts to try to substantiate the claim.
It’s so silly and transparent. But in a way it works.
A child who sits quietly in the corner gets no attention.
A child who shits on the carpet and bawls does.
Kenney has apparently learned his journalistic technique from his childhood.
I’m one of those who has thought, from the very beginning, that it was revealed too early.
to say, “Wow, look at all the publicity Apple got.” is just naive.
Having been a designer and manufacturer of electronics products, I can tell you that 6 months is plenty of time to redesign a product to better compete with a competitor—once the feature set of that competitor is known.
I still think that Macworld should have been reserved for a better introduction of Leopard, the ATv, and some long awaited MAC products.
The iPhone could have been announced at one of Apple’s “Special Events” in late March.
That would have given Apple and ATT plenty of time to discuss the device when it was further along in development, with fewer blank spots on the screen.
The FCC doesn’t go around announcing to the world the products that have entered testing, and it’s not unusual for them to keep products under an embargo if the manufacturer requests. Apple is doing that now with certain specs, again, nothing that unusual. The FCC has a very good understanding of competitive requirements.
even if the information that the FCC was testing a phone product for Apple, it would have been good for Apple, as no one would have known just what Apple was coming out with.
MDN, as usual, has such a fanboy reaction to everything, that whoever writes the drivel for this site has no idea of what the real world is really about.
CWEB
exactly what I gathered from his statement.
let’s hope.
Another witless dolt sounds off just to hear himself talk! The CEO of AT&T recently referred to the iPhone as quite possibly the largest commercial product launch in the history of the electronics industry. Although it is certainly in AT&T’s self-interest to paint such a grandiose picture of the iPhone, in this case they may be quite correct. I wouldn’t be surprised to see reports of more than a little organized chaos at many Apple Stores around the country on the day of the launch. And that’s not even considering AT&T. Apple will hit the stage with two guns blazing, that’s for sure. You can see the fear in Bill Gates’ eyes.
Hi! C1. Mostly agree with your observations. Apple have been given the go ahead to expand the offices at Cupertino. With all the staff in one area, it should be easier to offer and manage services like .Mac. I guess if servers are required for the storage of information, they would be more secure at Cupertino than at the current set up of rented offices all over the city.
Meanwhile…..My god! they’ve killed Kenny again!!
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q2.07/024ADDC8-0F0F-4378-918D-ED4F8703D958.html
Once the FCC and patent filings were done, the Apple Rumor Mill would have driven itself into a feeding frenzy unlike any seen previously, which would have created unrealistic expectations for the iPhone. Apple did exactly the right thing – take advantage of the REQUIRED public disclosure to hype the product by revealing many cool features but NEVER letting people play with the iPhone for more than a few minutes (with a few, specially selected exceptions who were known to be sympathetic to Apple).
Considering iPhone is the most anticipated and largest mobile phone launch in history, I think Apple has done very well in managing hype, expectations, secrecy and FCC disclosures.
mel Gross,
the ‘feature set’ you talk about has been covered by about 200 patents, which means competitors will have to come up with some completely new ideas which are even better, and then put them into practice.
If you’re right, then by the time iPhone is released – in about 5 weeks now – smart phones, which are better than the iPhone, are going to be launched!
Well, we don’t have to wait long to see if you’re right, do we?
P.S. They’ll also have to develop an OS for portables, which is better than OS X.
I wanted to type in the above post:
‘as good or better than the iPhone’.
What will make the iPhone a success is if it becomes a often used useful tool
The iPod is great because it allows the portability of huge amounts of music.
A iPhone with maps and no GPS is absolutly worthless IMMO.
The iPhone’s small screen will not lend itself to too much web browsing and certaintly take too long to download some content. So if one is a heavy web surfer, they will prefer a computer with a larger screen instead, unless of course if the MyVue glasses can be used with the iPhone, then perhaps not.
I’m not intentionally plugging the Myvue, they are ok, but do give a little eyestrain with a lot of use, perhaps Apple has a better solution in the works.
This would be a great time for Apple to unveil their alternative to OfficeMac for the iPhone or Google to introduce office apps via web browser.
MDN Word “company”
“I love this company” – Steve “Monkeyboy” Ballmer
C1,
I agree. As I said before, Leopard is going to be Apple’s “Pink” OS.
For those who don’t get the reference…..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pink
If we assume that a June release date was always on the cards and then work back, Apple say they had to announce before so it wouldn’t leak from the FCC. Fair enough, we’ve already seen the approval so we would have known from that, which validates their reasoning.
Apple couldn’t be 100% when it would pass or that it wouldn’t need retooling. As such they needed enough time in advance to allow them to keep a June date if anything came up.
Based on the time-scale, MacWorld was the only event that they could have launched at – unless they scheduled a specific event. Of course, a specific event may have been somewhat of a let down when it was just an announcement of an unfinished product. With MacWorld the press was already there and it gave the added bonus of taking the spotlight away from CES (more-so). With a specific event they would have had to invite people which would have raised expectations.
Ultimately if the product is great it won’t have made any difference and if it’s not then it won’t matter either.
January to today is about 4 months, not “nearly six months.” Even January to June is 5 months. I writer who cannot do simple math should not be taken seriously.
@ mel Gross, You haven’t specified whether you were involved in the launching and marketing of the products you were involved with.
I can claim similar credentials to yours except I can go further to say that I have been involved in targeting, marketing and launching of products all the way to packaging and advertising.
As a manufacturer, you are answering to a brief.
In marketing you aim for the target of the brief.
In design & advertising you answer to communication.
As a consumer, you find out the limitations of the product in relation to all of the above.
Apple inc. seem to examine and question each of all those stages and come up with the answers before the questions have been asked.
I think that is why you will find that even though you are right that it is easier & quicker to design retrospectively, if you have addressed all the disciplines as above & have pantented each step of the developement.
You will only be left with the situation where the Co-founder of M$ complained that Apple inc. have so many patents that the rest of the industry cannot innovate with infringing one or many of those patents.
So, does the suggestion you offer answer the question of Bi-annual contracts?
If as you suggest they should have waited until later, how many indiviuals do you think would have had the opportunity to seriously consider changing contracts & providers? How many more people would have purchased Macs in preparation for the iphone not that it is Mac-centric.
How many products that you were involved in where comparable to the iphone in terms of a carrier, contract and usage?
You maybe an expert in your field, but it doesn’t make you an expert in all other fields that overlap yours.
Jeez, Alex. I told you to invent the vest-pocket Rolodex.
not really. Most patents are never used by a company. They do research, and come up with patents.
Apple has patented many ideas they have never used.
I’m not saying that these new phones will appear right away, if at all. It will depend on any number or reasons. If the iPhone doesn’t do as well as expected. If it does better than expected.
Which features people like most from it. Which features people like (or hate) least, etc.
Many features don’t need OS X to be incorporated either. Remember that.
“@ mel Gross, You haven’t specified whether you were involved in the launching and marketing of the products you were involved with.”
I was. I was a partner in the firm. I took part in all phases of planning.
I also worked in advertising for five years.
Let me say that you can’t patent all phases of development of a product.
Very few areas of a product are patentable by the manufacturer because it uses already patented devices from other manufacturers.
Where did Gates, or anyone ever say that Apple had so many patents that no one else could ever innovate? I don’t remember anyone from MS ever saying that. You would have to link to that.
I don’t think that anything you have said supports your contention. Since you don’t have experience in any of these areas yourself, you can’t say.
weak sauce, this article sucks. Touching on topics people have been reading about for months now. The bottom line is that the iphone will be the biggest thing to ever happen to apple or the cellular phone industry. It will not be the best phone in the world nor the cheapest, but for those that like Apple products, hold on to your hats! We can all obviously tell that the author of this article is a bonafide mac fanboy!
In months past I have complained about ATT/Cingular. The idea and desire of the iPhone has been winning me over to at least give it a try… until I called ATT today.
Currently, my Sprint plan is 109.99 per month. This includes:
2500 minutes peak time
unlimited nights beginning at 6pm. That’s right…6 pm.
unlimited weekends beginning at 6pm on Friday until 8 a.m. Monday
Unlimited text and multimedia messaging.
I also have the Sprint EDVO high spead for an additional $10.
Makig my total 119.99 not including tax and misc fees.
I use a Treo 700p
I callled ATT. And equivalent plan not including high speed is 149.99.
High Speed another 49.99
The representative put me on hold and came back online and assured me the iPhone will be 3G enabled. Whether that is true or not will be seen upon launch.
Very expensive to have the iPhone.
mel Gross knows the history of patents. I don’t.
I think when all factors are included, Apple’s intro of the iPhone at MWSF was the best choice.
The fear of competitor’s copying is just one factor and in this case, it is so overblown because the real Apple advantage is its software – and you just can’t create an OS integrated with solid internet, media, sync, and UI services for embedded products overnight. Symbian, Linux, Windows Mobile are way behind and creating one from scratch is a major effort. I doubt Apple is 5 years ahead as Jobs said but they’re at least a year ahead.
Again there were many factors, but I think the decisive factors were trumping both CES and Vista. The iPhone buzz crushed both.
@ Crabapple
Again, very correct. You point out the ‘expiration period’ and this is a VERY important factor in getting people on board with AT&T. In the 6 months, how many more people would have singed up for 24 month contracts? Who can say, but I’ve talked to scores (literally, SCORES) of people who have said they put off new contacts to either get an iPhone or at least try one out. This factor can’t be overstated. Whatever Mel thinks, if it’s so easy to knock out a competing phone than someone would have built a better one by now, but Mel can’t seem to answer why every phone on the market currently blows ass chunks. I doubt another 6 months would change that. AND what Mel seems to forget is that NO OTHER COMPANY has iTunes, OS X, Bonjour, .Mac, and the rest of the Apple ecosystem that will make the iPhone just one small part of a larger system. Carp all day about how there are comparable phones out there, but if they were so great then we’d all be using them. As it is, most people DON’T use advance smartphone features, because they are just simple a pain in the ass to operate.
This market hasn’t even been touched yet. Call me again in two months if you still don’t buy that.
-c
Congratulations on the new member of the family. Just a reminder, dad, the rest of the clan is expressing a little sibling rivalry with your fawning of little iPhone. You had better show some love for the rest of the progeny before they kick little iPhone’s tail.
Silly article – must have been a slow news day. The fundamental precis of the article is flawed – it will only be possible to determine whether the launch of iPhone was well planned well after the product is on the market. Every argument he puts forward relies on speculation, and he presents no evidence that iPod sales have suffered, Apple TV has suffered, or that excitement has “dimmed” in iPhone.
This is a good example of the view that some people hold that they are entitled to express their opinion even if they don’t know what they are talking about. Freedom of speech allows it – but offeres no protection against being shot down in flames.
Bang bang, bang…
MDN: the don’t click-it mark would be appropriate on the article. Just trash!
Why don’t you just quit with the syruppy review and tell us what you really think..
Good Job()
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Here, let me sum this up nicely.
Brad Kenney, please blow me.
Did Steve Jobs unveil Apple’s iPhone too early?
Yes he did, and he had no choice. Why?
1. To silence the rumor mill, which would be running Warp 100 on an explosive mix of raw vapor and Apple’s FCC filing.
2. To prep users, who are usually locked into multi-year cell provider agreements. Would YOU like to unwittingly sign a two-year cell contract a week before the iPhone is available? Didn’t think so. Imagine the screaming there’d be over Apple’s secrecy…
3. To make a big splash in an otherwise quiet MWSF keynote, thus keeping investors’ blood lust down. And to avoid having an “over-splash”, with a flurry of new products drowning each-other out this summer/fall.
Listen. The journalist who wrote that article is a complete, utter dumbass.
Jobs said it. The competition is years behind. I worked for Nokia for 16 years, and I am telling you that it take 3 years from concept to store shelf delivery, minimum, of a new kind of phone. All the Chinese knock offs do not take any business whatsoever from Apple. To even mention them is stupid.
Nokia only now got its anwer to the Razr to the market … like 3-4 years lag, and now as Razr is history. You see?
Why can’t stupid ass journalists see crystal clear logic? The model of mobile phone contracts in the States dictates a buying decision months ahead of contract expiration. Why is that so difficult to get?
iPhone is going to shake Nokia, Moto, and the rest to the core. Its is simply pure genius.
Leaving aside the fact the iPhone design was nicked from the LG Prada phone, there are clones on their way already. See here: http://www.t3.co.uk/news/247/entertainment/mp3_player/meizus_iphone_clone_specced
@Grandtheft
There may be knockoffs but all of the competitiors (see ChissyOne’s last post) can’t come close to offering the total software/hardware user interface that Apple has developed over the years. This vertical intergration is a market advantage that no other competitor can ever hope to offer. Apple is light years ahead.
Why cna’t you people see that!
@Mel Gross Check this sites out.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/02/15/apple_may_turn_to_induction_for_ipod_docking_charging.html
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/02/15/briefly_apple_games_ballmer_on_vista_sales_and_apple_patents.html
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/05/16/apple_patent_clears_road_for_theft_proof_iphones_macs.html
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/05/10/apple_filing_reveals_multi_sided_ipod_with_touch_screen_interface.html
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/05/03/apple_filing_depicts_interactive_dashboard_cube_interface.html
As you can see from those examples, there are several stages at which patents have been filled. The concept is to protect a complete module within a larger module, because it would be easy for retro-engineers to pick out unpatented modules within a whole module, patent it & then file for that part of the module to be removed from the whole.
Case in point is M$ IE which had to be unbundled from Windows as it was seen to restrict fair competition from other browsers. IE was judged to be a complete program capable of operating without Windows.
Let us take “Multi-touch” that modul is capable of operation outside the iphone enclosure, so it has to patented to prevent competitors from patenting it in other products. The are other several examples within the iphone like that have been nailed down in order to protect the iphone.
I do not claim that Apple has invented them, they have bought them from the developers/researchers who have been credited with the invention. The patenting is to protect Apple and the creator so that they can benefit from their hard work.
You rightly point out that alot of the hardware already exixts and is therefor unpatentable, but the means by which this products can be exploited for financial gain is of the utmost importance hence the specific patenting of the actual usage or operation of the product. Please note that in all cases, the inventor benefits, particularly because the inventors do not always have the potential to see how their inventions will be used.
When IBM invented the Personal Computer, they never thought it would find its way into most homes round the World let alone business, so they thought “Ah well, this computer is so expensive no one apart from a few business will be able to buy one, what would they use it for?” & didn’t bother to patent it, the rest is history, hence the term IBM compatible.
I could go on & on & on, but what would be the point? You probably know all about this through your own experience as a partner in your firm.
Sorry everyone! I hadn’t realised that so many spaces had been entered!
No apologies Crabapple, keep it coming. Great posts.
@ Grandtheft
Great site.. The T3 girls are *hawt*!
“Leaving aside the fact the iPhone design was nicked from the LG Prada phone”
Honey, just saying something does not make it true. ;P
“Leaving aside the fact the iPhone design was nicked from the LG Prada phone”
Or from HTC’s many touchscreen phones, or Nokia’s Aeon phone, or Samsung’s phones. The list goes on and on.
“AND what Mel seems to forget is that NO OTHER COMPANY has iTunes, OS X, Bonjour, .Mac, and the rest of the Apple ecosystem that will make the iPhone just one small part of a larger system.”
What while part of what you say is true, it may not be a drawing point for most people.
By the way, Bonjour is just Apple’s implementation of Zero Config..
Crabapple, I’m on AI’s site every day, I have the largest number of posts. I’ve seen all of those articles.
All they prove is that Apple is looking into different areas.
If you read the posts there, you will also see that most people who have an opinion, also think that Apple is just covering their asses with these patents.
Many patents are not practical. But they take them when they can.
You never know.
But, it doesn’t mean that most of them will be used.
enjoyed reading this ,, thanks
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@mel Gross,
That is my exact point!
You claimed in an earlier posting on this site that very few areas are patentable due to the usage of hardware that already exists, and yet what you agree with is that Apple are “covering their arses with these patents”. They would never recieve a patent for a product that is already patented would they?
whether they can use the patent now or later is immaterial, the objective is to stop the concept being used without a licence fee & or royalties.
The makers of the hardware probably never visualized how their hardware would be put to use, but at least they get royalties or licence fees for every product sold using their hardware. If the hardware is used in a way that the creator had not patented, then all the creator can do is request royalties and a licence fee.
Creative Technologies being a classic case, where they recieved a large payment from Apple & secured the right to sell “made for ipod” merchandise.
As for Bonjour, it is not just Apple’s way of implementing zero configuration.
It is Apple’s way of implementing zero configuration!
What other company does that?
Why do you think the statement “It just works” carries so much GRAVITAS?
If M$ had incorporated zero configuration into Vista & Zune (****!),they would have been laughing all the way to the bank! Vista & Zune would have visited a humongous onslaught upon Macs, ipods & itunes.
But they can’t!, they have tried my god did they try! but with every failure, delays upon delays were piled up on Vista, in the end DRM won and so every time you load Vista onto a pc, if the peripherals are not the latest branded “Made for Vista” then you have had your chips, because Vista will not recognise it/them.
When you talk of “Zero configuration”, please use hash somber tones because that is the engine behind “IT JUST WORKS”
Ps mel Gross, congratulations on having the most number of posts on that site! I will take your word for it.
When I have a moment, I will take time to go through them, not all of them of course.
I hope they are well constructed and nourishing to the brain!:-)
@ mel Gross, I have been to AI but could not see any of your postings. Are you using a different name?
Crabapple, when you look at what’s in the iPhone, once it’s taken apart atter it’s out, you will see components made from a number of other companies. Few if any components are ever made by Apple.
What Apple is good at is stringing other companies inventions together in a way that leverages those components differently, thus resulting in a product that has advantages.
The fact that Apple patents whatever they can, doesn’t mean that most of those patents are useful, as I also stated above, and which you ignored in your response.
Most companies that do research patent component level devices. Apple mostly parents functionality. That’s very different. In fact, it may not stand up to a patent review as well as a component patent would, as it relies on other devices that are already being marketed as components in Apple’s design. The standard for “obviousness” has just been made *much* tighter by several recent Supreme Court decisions.
You can’t have a “concept” or “idea” covered by patent. Onlt devices and processes.
Many of Apple’s patents applications in this area are for process patents, which are notoriously difficult to defend.
Zero Config. which you seem to not have heard of before I mentioned it, is in use by any number of companies. Type it into Google. Apple was one of the first, but as with many things, one doesn’t remain alone for long. Other companies also have their own methods that do the same thing. It also doesn’t work by itself. Other companies must incorporate it into their own products. Otherwise, it would be like plugging computers without network hardware into a router.
Bluetooth and WiFi have a similar concept in the way they do discovery. Nothing big here.
“@ mel Gross, I have been to AI but could not see any of your postings. Are you using a different name?”
It depends on whom who ask.
“@ mel Gross, I have been to AI but could not see any of your postings. Are you using a different name?”
Sorry, I responded to your second post when I meant to respond to your first.
The answer to your second post is that I’m there. My screen name is “melgross”.
It should pop up in most discussions.
I went to Brad Kennedy’s site and his second comment. Took a look at it. GUESS WHAT, he’s just spamming for hits. They did not even post any of the comments, so I guess he had to do another Dovrak type reply to keep the hits coming in.
Just another poser. 🙁 Not worth the read.
en
Zero Configuration. I bet mel Gross has no idea what it is despite his wide experience & partnership in all things great & small.
That’s a pretty smartass statement from someone who didn’t know it existed until I mentioned it.
Inspite of the anti-Apple sentiment oozing from the article, I think the answer to the basic question is, Yes. I think it was too soon.
It could be that, besides the Prada, there were/are other fully functional “phones” that are/were slated to be released this year, and therefore Apple wanted to make sure its phone left the first footprint. Evenso, I don’t think there was any real marketing advantage that justifies such an early announcement. As it was, Apple whipped up such a fury of interest that people we’re ready to place orders immediately, and the frenzy lasted for about six weeks. As it turned out, the announcment was so far ahead of the actual release that interest actually began to wane until two or three weeks ago as the actual release date began to reappear on the presses radar.
From an investor standpoint, the way Apple is playing its cards isn’t without some logic. Apple, so far this year, is managing to keep investor interest high during a time of the year when Apple and the overall market tends to slump a little or a lot. (I guess we’ll see how true that is between now and the end of July.) If this is in fact a conscious part of Apple’s strategy, this may be one reason they didn’t feel too bad about delaying Leopard until October – It keeps the proverbial carrot out in front going into a time of the year that often begins to pick up again, and usually continues to gain momentum through the new year.
I guess we’ll see what we see.
Go Apple!
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. Steve Jobs doesn’t do or say anything that hasn’t been well thought out (well, maybe except for that wise-crack about teachers). Everyone thinks that it’s just Steve, but it’s also a ton of committees that plan this all out.
The announcement about the iPhone was a great idea, considering people have at least a one year phone contract, and it gave many of these people a chance to get out of their existing contracts, or to extend their contracts long enough to get their hands on an iPhone.
The early announcement was also well hyped. He stole Microsoft’s thunder at the gadget show in Las Vegas that same week. He stole the chance of Cisco Systems coming out with a similarly named product. He beat LG with their similarly looking product in the EU. Announcing the iPhone when he did was a “Win-Win” situation. You don’t have to be a brainiack to figure that out.
This is a rediculous statement. Steve HAD to announce it that early. It was going to be announced either by him and Apple or, by some testing board in the U.S. I find it quite strange that this article was published…
@ mel Gross,
Once again in your haste to post a come back, you keep repeating the same point that I am making, for which we are both in agreement and here it is…….
Yes, alot of the components in Apples hardware have not been created by Apple. Just go back to the beginning, the first Apple computer was put together by Steve wozniak. The software was bought from Rank Xerox.
Patents, The American way of patenting leaves alot to be desired, but it works. It works to protect the creator. If the creator licence’s his creation to a company, the company has sole ownership of the object, if the company puts the object to use in a unique way, the company has a right to protect the unique application they have developed. If this were not the case,
The AIDS medications would have been copied by third World countries ages ago.
The American & British Governments would not have set up the Human Genome project had a private investor not set out to own the complete human Gene.
Example of a bad patent: A company has patented the gene for Basmati rice. This has caused worry in India and Thailand who are the major exporters of that type of rice in the World. What right does this company have to own the sole rights to a plant that is not even native to America?
Microsoft managed to screw Apple & thereby ended up with legally reproducing Apples OS. Windows was created.
PC’s were going nowhere despite Windows until Adobe ported Pagemaker to the PC platform. Until then PC’s were a home thing playing games like pacman.
I won’t even try to explain to you what Bonjour is because you seem to think you know it all.
Bluetooth is the smaller sibling to Wi-Fi & there ends the similarity. The way Bluetooth works couldn’t be more different than the way Wi-Fi works. Find out for your self, when you do, you will weep over the remark you made, “Nothing big here”
I dare say you will base your posts on proven facts & info. in future instead of trying to impress people you don’t know.
Refer to Wikipedia in future, your PC must be full of shit deposited by Google by now!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3927963.stm
I’m happy we’re in agreement about something.
I’m not talking about the tramsmission technologies of Blutooth and WiFi. Just mentioning that the way a compatable device is found uses a similar concept.
I’m also happy you don’t find a need to “explain” Bonjour. I don’t think we could stand it.
mel Gross: “Many features don’t need OS X to be incorporated either. Remember that.”
Let me stop you right there..
The OS on any device, the underlying software platform makes a huge impact on what can be done with the device, the ease at which it can be done, and the stability and the user experience.
How well the OS handles memory, multitasking.. etc. This matters. To say that what the iPhone does, does not require OS X, while true, misses the point. The competition has crippled and ancient OS’s with respect to modern things like multitasking and even memory allocation. Symbian for example has problems with its development environment that makes writing proper code difficult.
Symbian has a huge chunk of the so-called “Smartphone” market. And it’s probly one of the best options. Linux has a small share but it even has multiple versions and isn’t standardized. Windows mobile holds a tiny fraction of the market, less than 5%.
Apple’s OS X is going to shake the foundations of the entire phone market, starting at the top. Just watch.
Mark:
1. “Symbian, Linux, Windows Mobile are way behind and creating one from scratch is a major effort. I doubt Apple is 5 years ahead as Jobs said but they’re at least a year ahead.”
Doubt it all you want. Apple is easily 5 years ahead. Developing an OS takes many years to do so from scratch, and Symbian, Linux (phone version), and Windows Mobile are way way behind, far more than “a year.” I could see someone developing Linux to be a competitor, but it would take more than 1-2 years, and it would take a concerted effort and money. Oh, and talent, that’s not so easy to find, just ask Microsoft.
2. “Again there were many factors, but I think the decisive factors were trumping both CES and Vista. The iPhone buzz crushed both.”
We agree 100% here. Mission accomplished.
Well, I’m late to this party, but….Yeah. What he said.
If bad old Steve’s timing is bad, well, it ain’t hurting my bottom line any. I think His Steveness must have rule similar to mine: Never follow the rules. Not even the rule about never following the rules.
Twilightmoon.
First of all, let me say that I’m as excited about this phone as you are.
But, at the same time, as Jobs said—It’s a phone, not a computer.
That said, any of the features Apple has added, could be added on other OSes. Would it be as elegant? Probably not.
But, you’re right, it will shake up the industry if it sells well. That’s what the pundits are writing, and I agree.
But just as MS copied Apple’s OS formula, others will do that with this too, after a while, when the dust settles.
While they may not be as wonderful, they will get the job done, which is all most people want from their phone.
Unless Apple implements 3G , and third party programs, Apple will be behind.
My Treo 700p may not be as elegant as the iPhone, which I do want to get, even if it is on ATT, but I have a bunch of programs, and much higher speed internet service which I would be loath to give up. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
When, and if that changes on the iPhone, I will switch in a minute, as will my wife.
All I’m really saying, I guess, is that with all of the advantages Mac’s offer, it commands a very small marketshare, even after all these years, though I have hopes that it will continue its recent rise. My stock has certainly done so after I bought it back in 2004.
Not everyone agrees with us that the Mac OS is the end all and be all.
I think he did it to show how ‘influential’ apple really is
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