Why Am I Not That Excited About the iPhone?

Congrats to Steve Jobs and the Apple crew on both the timing and the introduction of the long awaited iPhone. It's not easy to upstage the annual Consumer's Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but he successfully did it, from a state away no less. From the constant level of discussion in Apple forums that I peek at, and the major disappointment around the Apple endorsed Motorola Rockr, it was just a matter of time before Apple decided to build their own iPhone from the ground up to their specifications.

From a distance, the new iPhone appears to be the new, king of the hill smartphone. There will be two models anticipated, a 4 gig one, and a larger 8 gig one. Controlling this slim device will be via a 3.5” color LCD with touchscreen technology. This means that the stylus that Palm users have grown accustomed to is tossed in favor of direct control by way of a finger. So far, so good. The iPhone promises to have Cingular phone capabilities, Bluetooth, internet browsing via WiFi and cellular Edge service, be a music and video player, as well as a phone and calender organizer, with a 2 megapixel camera as well. So far, so good. My hat is off to Apple for putting everything into this little device, and not holding back until the next cycle.

While I am sure that this thing already has its production run sold out for all of 2007 (and it isn't out for at least 5 more months...), there are several issues I'd like to point out, before you part with your hard earned cash for Apple's latest product. In no particular order...

-No one was talking about the battery life. With all of this gear in a slim box, I doubt it will be spectacular, and that large screen will suck a fair amount of juice from the battery. Oh, and apparently the battery is not replaceable without sending it back to the Apple mother ship. With the use this thing would get, I doubt that it will go for two years on its factory cell. Here we go with Apple's Dirty Little Secret, Part II!

-The LCD touchscreen looks awesome in a plexiglass cylinder spinning around. However, even though they used a special plastic to minimize fingerprints, I'm not sure that it will hold up. There's a reason why the clamshell phones are so popular these days. By tucking the screen away, it protects it from what else is in your pocket or purse. Think keys, coins, paperclips....and scratches are likely. While the iPhone could benefit from a case, it may be difficult to use the touchscreen while it is encased in one. And no matter what plastic they used, fingerprints are as inevitable as death and taxes so it won't look so shiny clean for long.

-Cingular is the exclusive partner for the iPhone. Around my neck of the woods, most folks use Verizon, as the coverage is a lot better. I don't know how many folks are willing to switch cell phone companies just to get the new iPhone. To be sure there are some, but not by the masses I'm sure. Don't forget that it costs a small fortune in penalties to to break a contract for your existing cell phone. Most of us will have to finish out our contract before we can even think of switching.

-While a touchscreen should be simple to use, there's still something more satisfying about pressing a real button. I think that is especially true about text messaging. Existing smartphones and Blackberry devices sport tiny keyboards. I doubt, even with predictive inputting, that existing smartphone users will be able to match their existing input speeds.

-While they may act like this iPhone is “revolutionary,” it really is only new in the form factor. Combine any recent Palm, a camera cell phone, and a music player, and we have all the functionality that the iPhone offers. True, this does require 3 devices, but I don't always need to carry all of them at once. Also, this way I can upgrade and choose the best of each. The iPhone, for such a revolutionary device, really doesn't offer such new functionality, its more of a repackage. And I always think of the phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none,” when it comes to any multifunction device. While every company would love to create the Swiss army knife of electronics, and the iPhone offers more than anything else to date, it remains to be seen how usable it really is.

-The cost is also an issue. They're talking about the top of the line 8 GB iPhone fetching a cool $599 with a new Cingular contract. Halving the memory to 4 GB knocks the price down to $499. I don't know about you, but with both entry desktops and notebooks available in this range, any smartphone, even an Apple iPhone, just really seems overpriced. In my case, this kind of dough will buy not only a new Core 2 Duo processor, but leave some cash for some RAM as well. No, six C-notes is too much for a piece of electronics that I can leave on the table of a restaurant!

So, that's why I'm just not as excited as the rest of the blogosphere on the new iPhone. True, I haven't seen it up close, or had any hands on time like some others in Apple's “inner circle.” I'm sure that Jobs and crew will sell a stack of these, but I'm only excited about one aspect of this new (r)evolutionary product. I really think that the iPhone's screen would be right at home in the next generation Video iPod. This would finally enable the portable video and photo experience on the iPod to not require a magnifying glass.

Feel free to comment below...

--Jonas

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