I’m glad I’m not the only one trying to keep a level head about the new iPhone. James Governor and his colleague Cote round up some of the more cynical coverage so far as a welcome antidote to the ludicrous over-exuberance – in my humble opinion – that is so rife.
We’ve seen one analyst declare that it’s not just another smart phone, it creates a whole new category, one of ‘brilliant phones’. I know, I know.
Over at the engadget mobile blog they have a list of their key problems with it, namely…
…“No 3G. We know you know, but still, it hurts man.
No over the air iTunes Store downloads or WiFi syncing to your host machine.
No expandable memory.
No removable battery.
Content from our partners
No Exchange or Office support.”
On the same blog there was a succinct and lucid comment from a reader calling himself T Man, who wrote: “The biggest “con” (in both definitions of the word) is the lack of a replaceable battery. All of the iPeople are going nuts over this device, but imagine if ANY other manufacturer tried to see a phone without a replaceable battery? That would not be a tolerable trade-off. So, what we really see is that Apple has secured a nice constant cash flow as the batteries start conching [sic] out and the sheep-like minions upgrade to the next version.”
Meanwhile plenty of others are saying one of the big problems could end up being the lack of third party applications, as Apple has stated that only Apple applications will be able to run on it. From MacWorld UK: “There is no opportunity right now for third party development,” according to Apple’s Greg Joswiak. “Right now the opportunities are limited to the accessory market.”
I’m not saying the iPhone is going to be a dud. iPods do not have replaceable batteries either and that didn’t stop people buying them. The iPhone does look to have a good user interface, 2.5G may be OK for some users and Apple will no doubt offer plenty of applications of its own for the thing. If you really, really, really can’t bear to take an iPod and a smart phone with you (because they’re, er, not that portable, right?!) then this will probably be the best ‘compromise’ as far as combined iPods and smart phones go.
It’s just that I think we need to inject a little realism, before we take statements like this too seriously:
“Remember the fairy godmother in ‘Cinderella’? She’d wave her wand and turn some homely and utilitarian object, like a pumpkin or a mouse, into something glamorous and amazing, like a carriage or fully accessorised coachman. Evidently, she lives in some back room at Apple.” – thanks to the Financial Express for that one.
