Earlier this month Apple Inc. announced the iPhone at their 2007 Macworld keynote. This has been a long rumored product and after its announcement every tech site seemed to gravitate around it for the following week. Since then however many people’s heads have seemed to shrink back down to size and really weigh out the products advantages and disadvantages. I want to talk a little bit about the iPhone because it clearly marks a certain shift in the possibilities of the American cell phone market. Lately Apple has been hot on the lips of people in the tech industry because the company represents not only innovative ideas but also fashionable electronics. There is a certain amount of lust factor that Apple products carry with them, that more people (than just mac fans) are starting to take notice of.
Right out the gate the iPhone is not the most common cell phone design. I’m not going to recap all its features as you can visit the official site for that. But clearly the design of the iPhone, with its multi-touch screen and lack of all but one physical button (the home button), does set it apart from most. Although it’s not the first phone with a touch screen, it’s definitely the first people are really taking notice of.
Personally I’m both impressed and unimpressed if that’s at all possible. While the general design is nice and I’m sure Apple is going to just nail that software. They are very good at software design after all. I’m not impressed with the amount of storage space or the built in digital camera. Other people are not impressed with the lack of features like 3G support or the fact that Apple is claiming there will be no support for third party applications.
Apple was definitely out to build a smartphone with this model. Something that browses the web and does a bunch of nifty software kind of things. That’s great if you’re into that. Personally I’m not. As much as I love the internet, I really could care less about browsing the internet on my cell phone. Even with a bigger 3.5 inch screen it’s still not big enough to have to go through the hassle of having to resize webpages constantly. What I’d really like to see is a phone/iPod/camera that does those three things really well and doesn’t even try to tackle the internet. But that’s just my wishful thinking as there are plenty of people out there who will find the iPhone to be perfect for them.
I’m sure at some point I’ll probably pick up an iPhone just because of my gadget lust and my love for the iPod. I’m thinking this is going to be a great product by the time it hits its third or fourth generation. But this first generation product is definitely just an icebreaker. It seems to introduce a lot of great ideas but it’s going to take a couple of generations to really refine them and make them practical.