The Perfect Phone Storm? 567
peter deacon writes "Is the iPhone the next Segway, the next Zune, or the next iPod? The Perfect Storm offers some iPhone details that aren't secrets, but tend to be lost upon the analysts and journalists cranking out hit pieces on the iPhone. Why is everyone from Gartner to Gizmodo calling for a boycott of the iPhone? An interesting take on how Apple's new mobile phone will push to open up the web as a mobile platform for every mobile device on the market with a standards-based browser, and how Apple 'hacked the hackers' by releasing Safari for Windows in advance of its new phone."
Article text (Score:5, Informative)
Here's a deconstruction of a few myths that have failed to take these unhidden secrets into consideration, along with the final aspect of why Apple released Safari for Windows, as I promised to reveal in the last article. It has something to do with the iPhone, of course.
Segway Segue, or AirPort Runway?
The levels of both enthusiastic hype and detractors' hate over the iPhone appear to have handily eclipsed one of the last ultra-hyped new devices of the tech world: Dean Kamen's Segway personal transporter.
Back in 2001, the Segway was presented sight unseen as the mysterious, revolutionary invention Ginger. It was privately shown to a handful of luminaries--including Steve Jobs--who all seemed excited about its potential. When actually revealed to the public, it was met with a mix of interest and ridicule, in part due to its steep price tag. After all, if you can't afford it, it must be silly and impractical.
Kamen's claim that the Segway would change society and that cities would be reconfigured to account for a world mobilized by two wheeled robot transporters didn't work out as planned.
San Francisco--one of the few cities to have enough flush nerds to warrant opening up a Segway dealership--actually banned the device on its sidewalks in a frantic, spastic panic about public safety concerns.
On the other hand, there have also been runaway hits that initially received little hype, criticism, or attention. Apple's AirPort introduced a mainstream audience to WiFi wireless networking. Apple wasn't the first implementation on Earth, but it did offer a pioneering set of products that delivered ease of use on a level that is still unmatched.
The iPod was also greeted with passive yawns and dismissed as too simple, too expensive, and uninteresting by critics, only to build into a phenomenon that changed the music industry, made Apple's simple music players a household name, and established the company as a top consumer brand.
The Devil in the Details.
Unlike the Segway, the iPhone isn't a hyped tease. Apple introduced the device six months ago with a full demonstration of how it actually worked, assigned it a firm price tag, published its technical specifics down to the millimeter and gram, and provided a comprehensive look at its features and underlying technologies.
In comparison, Microsoft's Zune--which had been in the news just a few months earlier--was presented from the start as having an unclear feature set. Fans made broad assumptions about its capabilities, resulting in great disappointment. Analysts overreached to claim that Microsoft would eat up Apple's iPod market share by offering a highly subsidized unit, or even offer it for free with a subscription plan, neither of which actually happened.
As the "iPod Killer" got closer to release, its price was still a secret and its key features were revealed to be more limited that anyone imagined. Its highly touted WiFi became nothing more than a way to squirt advertisements to friends, exploiting "the Social" in an attempt to sell music in Microsoft's new PlaysForSure-incompatible version of its impossible to crack Janus DRM.
Only its violent failure could silence the giddy critics that gushed about its supposed game changing, iPod killing impact that never happened. The Zune made the Segway look like a runaway hit.
The Desperate Panic of the Apple Haters.
It is therefore interesting to compare the news sources that gushed over the Zune--with little information from Microsoft--and encouraged their readers to blow $250 on one, because they are today providing a non-stop emergency warning siren that ignores everything we've been told by Apple about the iPhone to instead present a
Well... (Score:3, Informative)
So, the answer would be no. Besides it's only pretend geek phone - a real geek phone would fit in a CF socket so you could drop it into any device you like, and come with an unlimited high speed data plan as standard.
Re:It's not just about the interface (Score:5, Informative)
Wow. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I thought it was useful (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, more than IMAP and POP they are probably concerned with the groupware (calendaring and the like) features of Exchange and Notes. Blackberry does IMAP and POP fine with any server, but for anything beyond that you need a dedicated server that only interfaces with Exchange, Notes and Groupwise (I think). How will iPhone deal with this has not been said.
It might ignore this issue entirely and let someone else develop the software with a web interface for the iphone to access, maybe.
Re:slashdotted alrady? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's SIM locked (Score:3, Informative)
Not enough time to hack the hackers (Score:3, Informative)
What it did do was expose hundreds of thousands of people to Safari (there have been over 1M downloads), helping people to accept that Safari is a real browser and ready them for iphone.
What? (Score:5, Informative)
I think you are missing the reason clubs and bars make so much money.
Re:Stupid... (Score:5, Informative)
(if you don't trust wikipedia, I'm sure you can find 100 other sources that will say the same thing)
The percentage that are using AirPort today is irrelevant to whether or not AirPort introduced Wi-fi to a mainstream audience.
Re:A level of bullshit I can barely comprehend... (Score:4, Informative)
The point was that these bugs won't affect iPhone because they arose in the process of porting to Windows, and don't exist on the OS X version.
Biased, iPhone not ready for enterprise use (Score:5, Informative)
That article was completely biased towards the iPhone even though the author has never even used one. So many people entirely miss the point of what a Smartphone is supposed to be for the corporate world. I feel like the problem truly is that most, like the author of this article, have never used a Windows Mobile 5/6 Smartphone/PPC in a properly set up environment. Most people in fact that have used a Blackberry or Windows Mobile phone have never used them with an Exchange server or BES. Until you have used a WM5/6 phone with an Exchange 2003/7 server, I don't think that you are ready to actually critique the usefulness of Microsoft's platform.
This article advocates that the corporate world should accept the iPhone with open arms against the analysts wishes. Although the article makes this claim, the iPhone doesn't support the most basic requirements of an enterprise-grade Smartphone's purpose; over-the-air Groupware/PIM! Without supporting OTA PIM, I can't leave the office and continue working effectively...
From what we know so far, the iPhone doesn't support any of these features, even when used in conjunction with a Mac OS X 10.5 Server. Until the iPhone can meet my basic PIM needs, I have no reason to consider it instead of my HTC TyTN running WM6 Pro, and I feel that businesses need to reconsider the iPhone for these same reasons.
With all that said, I love what the iPhone is doing to stir up the Smartphone business! Hopefully all manufacturers will take notice of the iPhone's interface and start competing with creative new designs that will eventually benefit all consumers.
Re:Clarify... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Clarify... (Score:4, Informative)
It does need admin access. If you try installing without admin access, it gives you an oddly worded error message such as "You don't have X component installed", rather than "You don't have admin access".
Re:Is this a joke? (Score:3, Informative)
Fried, baked, or broiled? (Score:2, Informative)
I'm guessing, from the mac.com address, that you'll either argue against this solid evidence with mac-protecting nonsense or not respond.
It's okay to buck the trend and admit two things:
1) It was a joke.
2) Apple is not always the best at everything. They are a company that, like many others, sells things manufactured by third parties in China, and, as with other companies, real-world cost-considerations come into play along with the limitations of their designers and engineers.
The second is probably harder to admit.
Happy dining...
Re:I'm with Starkruzr on this... (Score:2, Informative)
* Adobe Flash plugin
iPhones have Safari. I imagine that any plugin that would work on Safari would work on iPhone Safari, seeing as it's the same browser and the same OS. So, that should take care of Adobe Flash, though I'm not 100% certain on this. Considering how the iPhone is being advertised as YouTube-compatible, though, that seems encouraging.
* MS Office Document reader
Okay, granted, that would be nice. Then again, you have a browser - Google Docs to the rescue? I'll grant this isn't as nice as it could be, but it is possible.
* Barcode reader
Uhh... how many people need this? This being Slashdot, I anticipate seeing about 15 replies here all saying, "Yeah, I need a barcode reader! How could you not?" Outside of Slashdot, however, I've yet to meet a single person that has said to me, "Man, this phone would be perfect if only I could scan merchandise and perform store inventories with it." Yes, I know the plural for "anecdote" is not "data", and I know you can't prove a negative, but, even so, this one seems AWFULLY specialized.
* PDF/E-book reader
You know what comes with OS X? A little application called "Preview". It opens PDFs. It's nifty. Oh, and you can print PDF, too, though I don't imagine that'll be an oft-used feature on a phone.
* Voice recorder
Voice mail? I know, not the same thing. Yeah, that would be nice.
* VOIP
See, now we're just being silly. Let's keep in mind that Apple needs to be able to sell this in the US and had a rather heinous time convincing our wonderful cellular providers that selling phones that can get music from *outside the cellular provider's network* is not *evil*. That's why the ROKR happened - that was Apple's way of saying, "Okay, we'll play it your way - it'll suck, but we'll do it," so that way they could come up to the providers later and say, "See, it's not just our snazzy logo that sells stuff; if we're going to play, we need to play by OUR rules, not yours." Having Apple support a technology that would allow someone to purchase a phone that would subvert the primary business of a cellular provider just isn't happening at this point. Cellular providers barely want to do business with Apple in the first place, especially after watching what Apple's done to the recording industry and their DRM schemes.
Aside: Yes, I know that Apple has a DRM scheme, too, and I know nobody likes it here because, well, it's DRM, which means it's evil. However, before you start saying that Apple has done nothing about DRM, keep in mind that Microsoft did precisely what the content providers wanted with DRM and compare that with FairPlay - given a choice between the two, which would you choose? Outside of Microsoft, ever try getting an MP3 to transfer to a MiniDisc player? At least Apple plays nicely with non-DRM music and, in fact, is actually selling it now, without legal trouble. Plus, I see a lot more support for iPods on Linux than I do the PlaysForSure SanDisk Sanza that work gave me.
That said, even if the providers allowed it, Apple still wouldn't include VOIP support. Not directly. Why? Because it's complicated. You have to go to a WiFi spot so you have Internet access, at which point you punch up your VoIP application (probably Skype, I'm assuming), and then you can talk... until you walk, what, 70 meters [wikipedia.org], best case, in an 802.11n environment? How often are you going to be by an 802.11n network, anyways? Not very, at least in public - you're probably going to be in a mixed B/G environment, which is good for 35 meters [wikipedia.org], and, I don't know about you, but I've never been able to get anywhere near that in real life. I've been able to get consistently... 10, maybe 20 meters? So, as long as I don't plan on leaving my hous
360 degree? (Score:2, Informative)
360 degree = 0 degree = no change. It should be 180 degree.
Re:More is required (Score:3, Informative)
Certainly it is true that USB ports were available prior the the iMac, however USB devices generally were not. After the introduction of the iMac, USB suddenly became prevalent, largely due to the fact that the fairly large body of iMac owners had no other options for connectivity - the ONLY ports the iMac had were USB and 10/100 Ethernet.
For a while, if you wanted a USB anything, it was invariably coloured "bondi-blue".
I don't know how much Apple's actions drove the market, but it seems fairly clear that the introduction of the iMac had a pretty large influence on adoption industry-wide. Without Apple, it seems quite possible that USB would have languished for a number of year until the number of new systems supporting USB became much much larger. As it was, the iMac provided a market for USB devices that was separate from devices with other ports - suddenly Macintosh hardware companies were forces to support USB, and were able to also sell to non-mac owners who had USB. Before the iMac, every computer had some system other than USB (did you Micron Millenium have ONLY USB?), so it made more sense to support those more widely available connectors.
Re:Why do Businesses hate this already? I'll tell (Score:3, Informative)
Same way you remotely wipe all the data from a Treo. Or even a Blackberry.
You don't, unless they're stupid enough to hook it up to the network before they pull the data out.
You enforce remote security with an encrypted database that you don't keep the key to in the handheld, or simply not keeping data in the handheld. Anything else is no better than "you must be this tall to storm the castle".
Re:More is required (Score:3, Informative)
Conversely, the hardware makers who put USB on PCs were also guilty of slowing its adoption by leaving legacy RS-232 and parallel ports on their PCs until around 2006. Apple simply stripped everything old off the iMac and left USB as the only option. It also provided a fair keyboard and a horrible yoyo mouse that forced demand for a third party flood of USB peripherals.
I'm not trying to give Apple some special credit for "inventing USB," I'm just stating that Apple doesn't hold things up for PC users, it only pushes the state of the art. That is a good thing even for people who hate Apple. Apple is also pushing EFI after it pretty much died of a lack of interest in the Itanium and PC worlds. Intel Macs are basically PCs from the future.
How Apple's Firmware Leapfrogs BIOS PCs [roughlydrafted.com]
The Tentacles of Legacy [roughlydrafted.com]