So Apple introduced the iPhone yesterday. Can’t hardly wait.
1. I want one. Ain’t it just the coolest, slickest thing? On the one hand, I want it on my hip tomorrow. On the other hand, I could use the six months until it ships to save my pennies.
2. The visual voicemail is a killer. The ability to see a list of callers before listening to voicemail is a convenience that you have to use to believe. I get some voicemail through a computer or Web interface and it makes all the difference in the world.
3. Stay focussed on what the iPhone is: a combination iPod nano and cell phone. Other phones can play music; none has 8GB of storage or a decent interface. Other MP3 players (iPods included, by the way) have calendars and contact managers. But none allow data input. At $599 for a locked phone, it’s way expensive, it’s true. But an 8GB nano runs $250, and a Treo 750 from Cingular runs $400 (a 680 is $200). The iPhone suddenly doesn’t look all that expensive any more.
4. The iPhone has Bluetooth 2.0, so expect wireless headphones. But the thing that everyone seems to be missing is that it also has WiFi. You can’t use it to swap songs, so why WiFi? Count on wireless VoIP, or at least the ability to tap into WiFi hotspots to do some of the data work like Google Maps and weather reports.
5. Expect the iPhone interface to pop up on a bunch of Apple products. It’s a slam dunk that there’ll be a disk-based iPod with the same technology before the year is out — maybe even with the cell phone capabilities. (This will be a big relief to me personally. 8GB is an order of magnitude too small for what I like to carry around.) I bet the gestural elements of the interface shows up in Apple TV and Front Row.
I worry about ruggedness of the iPhone; the first nanos got beat up pretty easily, and the display of the iPhone (unlike the nano) is kind of critical to its operation.
But oh my God, what a great gadget it looks like. The introduction couldn’t have fulfilled expectations any better. Here’s hoping the real thing measures up. Can’t hardly wait.
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