iPhone Madness
Tomorrow, the iPhone launches. Last Monday at 5 A.M., a first person started waiting in line at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. The lines been growing ever since and one of those people has been blogging about it while waiting. From the quick interviews Rocketboom has conducted with those waiting in line, not all of them are getting the phone for themselves.
It’s very odd to see people do what they do for such a trivial object. It’s just a phone that does a lot of other stuff. In fact, it’s more like a gadget that does a lot of stuff, but it just happens to act like a phone as well. Speaking as someone who recently graduated design school, the iPhone will be (or is already) an icon of design. Like the first iMac G3, the iPhone will always be remembered as being stylish. Even the G3’s horrible mouse design is an icon.
My Nokia N95 does more than the iPhone, but it (and others) will never merit the title of icon, because the innovation is not visual, it’s only functional. The 5-megapixel camera, the expandable memory and the usage of maps without having to be online are enough to make me forget about the iPhone. I’m not even talking about the VGA-quality video camera and the GPS.
Using the iPhone, or merely trying it, is going to be one hell of an experience. No doubt about that.
The iPhone is presented as a 3-in-1 device: phone, iPod, internet. The device does the phone thing pretty well. Everything is visual whether it’s making call, receiving call, interrupting calls, it’s right there on the screen. No menus and submenus to go through before you can put a call on hold. It’s very straightforward and a huge timesaver which means minutesaver.
The iPod part of the iPhone is nothing compared to the actual iPod. It plays videos, but every mobile devices on the market can play videos, but the iPhone has a much bigger screen. That’s a big point for the iPhone. On the music side, the iPhone doesn’t look very good. With the iPod, people could keep their hands in their pockets and control the device, but I don’t believe this to be an issue at all.
The Internet on any other phones means browsing websites and letting other applications go online. I haven’t used an iPhone, so I can’t say for sure, but so far it seems like going on the Internet only means browsing websites and maps. Apple’s video shows The New York Times website which has a multiple column layout. It’s convenient for them to show that page, because the width of the columns is small enough that after zooming in, scrolling left and right is not required, but what about website that have text that take the full width of the browser? How are articles in The New York Times website displayed? Opera Mini 4 beta reformats the text such that it fits on a display so that users don’t need to scroll left and right to read. Does Safari on the iPhone do that? This guided tour from Apple shows websites that may require left/right-scrolling, but they conveniently never zoom in. This is just a big question mark to me.
The map is a nice feature that I have on my N95. The iPhone uses Google Maps which, personally, is better. However, the problem I see with that is that you must be connected online. An unlimited data plan doesn’t make this an issue at all, but the lack of 3G support does. Maps and satellite images may take more time to load than you want, unless you’re connected via WiFi.
Finally, the price is a “feature” that gets a lot of attention and for good reasons. The iPhone is expensive. It’s not the usual free or under a $100 phone that can be found with any carrier. The price of the iPhone is at least $500 US, a 2-year contract with AT&T and a monthly bill of at least $60. Very high price to pay if you ask me, especially that I pay only one third of that using my Nokia N95 and I’m not tied to any carrier. What you get fo such a high price at least 450 minutes and an unlimited data plan which is excellent, but the price is still high and excellent only applies to the unlimited part. There are also rollover minutes which is interesting, because I’ve never heard of that in Canada. Still, in the topic of price, it seems that you can’t just use an mp3 as a ringtone. You’ve got to be trippin’.
In conclusion, there’s a lot I don’t like about the iPhone. There’s a lot that makes me choose the Nokia N95 over the iPhone. Despite all of that, I would buy the iPhone… if it wasn’t tied to a carrier. I forgot to mention that until the iPhone releases, it is unknown if the SIM card can be swapped or not. So, it’s not only a 2-year contract with AT&T, but it’s also a contract with the phone itself. If you’re a traveler and you thought of getting a local SIM card overseas, you might be out of luck. It kinda looks like the devil is almost showing himself in the form of a shiny little gadget. I say almost only because the price is not your soul.
Let’s make it clear though, I do like the iPhone and I envy (a lot) those who can pay for it like they pay for food. Maybe I’ll get my hand on the second generation if it’s in Canada, but I wonder if the iPhone can open Office and PDF documents. I know my N95 can.
Relevant Links
- My first impression on the iPhone in January 2007 after the first announcement. It’s interesting how knowledge can change a point of view.
- Get some scoop from a blogger waiting in line right now at the 5th Avenue Apple Store in Manhattan.
