Mr Jobs I am a proud Smartphone user and don't need an iPhone

It's unusual for me to rant about Apple, I have been such a fan since well... 1979! I supported feverishly all the new products, the cool designs, the innovative approach.

Until now! I watched religiously the 2007 Apple keynote and was excited about the coming new products, iPhone be one of them.

But this time I was really disappointed. Sorry Mr Jobs but you can't just compare the iPhone to a Smartphone even a Pocket PC!!

A Smartphone is not a complicated system to use, I promise I can show you. I have few of them right now, the most recent one installed with Windows Mobile 5 and I love it.

On the iPhone, I can't:

- Have 3G, living in Ireland, and a serious phone priced over 400 euros, has to be 3G.

- Choose my operator, which is in some country seems to be illegal. I bought all my devices online sim free and was quite happy to insert my current sim card without any question asked.

- To follow the previous bullet, the price remind me the ads we all see for cheap flights, something like fly to Boston for 20 euros. Well after adding all the charges and taxes, you get the real price, far away from a bargain. My point on the iPhone is that the announced price IS with a contract. With my iMate Jasjar, I can switch to any operator and when I bought it, I pay more because I didn't have to pay for the contract. So in my real world, the iPhone without contract should be sell for roughly 900 euros.
Go to Expansys.com to see what are the real costs for a phone.

- I can't install any applications at all, what a shame! So what is the point of showing off that Mac OS X is installed on the phone. On my smartphone Mr Jobs I can install a full range of software.

- I can't synchronize anything with Wifi/Bluetooth. So no way to get my data (music photos videos) without a proper cable attached to a computer.

- I like the stylus even if I lose it all the time, but daily how this new touchscreen will stand, nobody know yet. The multitouch feature is cool, but I wonder if my mother could use it (hi mom!) ?

- Less important for me but well still a good question: what's about accessibility? Ask a blind person to use an iPhone !?!? With a keyboard even if it's not perfect, it's still usable.

I think that Apple should also release the iPhone without the phone part, more like an iPod 6G then I would be convinced.

5 Comments

  • I'm usually not a great apple fan. But I think this really moves the whole platform on. There seems to be real innovation. Its version 1 so it wont be perfect.
    If this is the release model you can be sure everything from GPS to who knows what is on the product roadmap. On the price, well if you want the latest gadget like everthing else your gona have to pay. So do you think iPhone Nano next.

  • I think you want one but hate yourself for it. Much of your criticism is moot. The 3G issue is pointless on the Cingular network apparently because less than 1% of the customersw users use it. (see Gizmodo) As far as support for the blind, this is meant to be a visual tool which is the main selling point. It is like complaining that Stuff Magazine is not friendly to the blind. It is meant for the photos.

    As for the applications, I am sure they will eventually open it up. I watched the demo and did not see them state that it was a locked down platform. They just showed off the applications they are bundling. I expect those widgets will be much like the widgets you can run on OS X and will be able to deploy your own widget to the phone. I expect an SDK anytime now.

    I also agree it would be nice without the phone. I would use it as a tiny browser which I can take with me. I often txt myself driving directions to my phone to avoid printing out the directions. Having the Google map on hand would be much better.

    And wish we had sim cards in the US. I and most of my family use Verizon so I do not plan to switch just for a phone. I want Motorola and the others to license these technologies and release them for the other networks. And while it was not a feature of the phone, being able to dock the phone and have the video show on my 17" screen would be a really useful feature.

  • I completely agree with all of your points. My PPC 6700 with WM5 is frackin RAD! It does EVERYTHING and when I find something it doesn't do, I can quite literally write my own software for it with VisualStudio 2005! It's EEEAAASSSYYY!!!!

  • Brennan sorry but you got it wrong on the fact to install anything on the iphone. Many now have reported from the CES and directly from Apple staff that you can't install anything on the iPhone and they have no plan to create an SDK. After all the iPhone include the iPod features and you know you can't program anything for the iPod. OS X on the iPhone is just a specific downgrade version of the desktop version.
    This is why I rant about Steve Jobs comparing the iPhone with a SmartPhone!

  • It's sim locked? You got to be kidding. Then they aren't allowed to sell it in Belgium ;)

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