09 January 2007
she has a point.
"FOUR gb? SIX gb?! fuck that, thelma. this iphone is just as bad as every other 'i am a phone that can also be your bicycle seat!' device. about as useful as one of those portable dvd players that irritating people need to have with them on the train. god." - my roommate (I know, I know, the larger one is actually 8GB: I wrongly told her that 6GB was the other option).
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Yeah, I'm pretty much with you (though I can't wait to play with one). However, visual voicemail = badass and really solves a big issue I have with my phone as I become more reliant on SMS/email. (The problem being I hate checking voicemail, it seems like such a waste of time.)
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's a phone trying to be everything else as much is it is everything else, plus a phone. I feel like the phone is secondary on this. I like it. It was an obvious next step for Apple. And what does it matter what other people have on the train? If you don't like it or find the need for it, don't get it. This is the only device like this I would get, though. It fits my needs.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to have something that synchs with my iCal. I won't get a PDA now because I hate using multiple calendars, making duplicate entries. It would also be nice to not have to carry a phone AND an iPod. Though it doesn't hold too many songs, it decreases the number of essential tiny devices some people like to have with them. It seems good for short commutes in which you'd want music, but don't need all of it.
And it's not quite as annoying as a portable DVD player. It's very small. Not to mention the quality is probably better than one of those DVD players.
Too bad it's only offered by Cingular.
Jo, will you get one?!?!
by the way, take a look at the battery life of it. If you Talk on it/websurfing on it the battery lasts only 5 hours. If you listen to music it last 16 hours. That just seems really backwards! I don't want to have to worry about charging my phone every 5 hours.
ReplyDeleteI do have to say that the SMS visualization (similar to aol IM) is really damn cool.
hey johanna! i don't really agree with your roommate. actually - let me re-phrase that: i don't think this phone is for her. this phone is not for a large category of phone users. but i think for who it is made for, it is absolutely incredible. for that reason, i find it hard to criticize it.
ReplyDeletei'm a little surprised at all the criticism i've seen, actually. reminds me a bit of the ipod intro reaction, or early dismissals of the nintendo wii. i think it's one of the best product introductions i've ever seen (still a bit early to judge). most criticisms i've read/heard focus on the "product" and seem to forget about the innovation here that is not so tangible. I think that to dismiss/downplay the iphone is to forget that marketing, the experience, cultural context, simplicity, and the small details are as valuable as the tech specs. This phone will own the "lifestyle smartphone" space, which is essentially untapped. it also gets OS X into many, many more hands. but aside from all that - i still think the specs are strong.
overall, i think this a brilliant study in marketing. it is also the perfect phone for them to enter the market with, and within a year, they will have a phone that your roommate will love.
nobody gets me, sir. i am so disappointed. how can people take me so seriously? i wish i could die.
ReplyDeleteStephen Colbert on the iPhone:
ReplyDelete"Its best feature is the ability to call your friends and tell them that you have an iPhone and they don't."
And as cool as it looks, I pretty much agree with him...
best!
ak
Noah: I can't wait to play with one either. wa wa wee wa. But I think this is something I definitely won't be needing in my life. Just not for me. However, who knows. Maybe in the future something in me will scream that I need an iPhone (or whatever it's called, if the lawsuit goes through).
ReplyDeleteNicole: If the phone is secondary, maybe they should reconsider what they named it. They might have to anyway, though. I agree with the synching thing. But I think iLife already does that so you can access your stuff remotely. I won't be getting one because I work for the competition!
Lee: It does seem backwards. How many hours is eight gigs of music anyway?
Chet: I really think I'm going to have to read about every.single.thing this thing does before making an educated judgment. It doesn't seem like the phone would be for me, either. Then again though: you're right, I didn't think I needed an iPod when it was introduced, and now I go into a near panic when my iPod battery dies in the middle of my commute.
Anna Kate: the desire to be cool and envied might actually be one of the big reasons for why people buy it. I've known people to buy the iPod Nano when they already had a perfectly-usable iPod.