News Apple announces iPhone

Its a typical Apple product, they have taken established tech and ideas from elsewhere and put it together in a slick looking package that will (probably) be extremely easy to use. Knock them as much as you want, i do, but its what they are good at.

I think it looks great and regardless of cost it will be the 'must have' item to be seen with and to be stolen next winter regardless of its price. Plus the phone market needs a good kick up the arse as the innovation seems to have dried up long ago.

 

the htc tytn as seen here http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile-devices/review/2006/09/07/Orange-SPV-M3100-3G-Smartphone/p1 has most of the above features although to be fair doesn't look anywhere near as nice and you can't use your own headphones. crucially it's free with a £35 a month contract. the iphone can't compete with that. and the next iteration of that phone will have built in gps among other things.

note i REALLY like the iphone just not at that price.

 

I understood the 24 month contract was inclusive with the price?

 

It reads like you get it with a 24 month contract plus pay $499 on top. I'd think the whole pricing thing will be dependant on country/phone network. I don't know many people in the UK that would commit to a 24 month contract, so it has to be different over here, surely?

 

Not unless the US has a markedly different system of mobile telephone contracts than the UK - contracts in the UK are a set charge each month, with the phone costing extra if necessary. From the sounds of it, the iPhone will cost $$$, and then the contract on top of that.

To be honest, I kinda like the phone. However, while the screen may be smudge proof, I'm still dubious about how durable it is in real-world usage. Time will tell, though. It's a bit too pricy for my tastes, however - the last phone I got with a contract was free - and so was a Gigapack PSP with it as well...

 

I understood it like Paradigm, but if the cost of the contract is included in the 499, it makes the iPhone price more palatable (I pay a fixed 6€ per month...6x24 = 144€ I could shave from the iPhone's price).

 

The durability of these things is something I always question. People go out and buy a nice looking iPod, then get a case which covers it all up to stop it getting scratched I can throw my Nokia about without worrying if the mirror shine surface will get dulled

 

Where's the 3G support? Not everywhere has Wi-Fi, or EDGE for that matter. Surely they could just bolt on UMTS and have EDGE as a fall-back. Maybe that'll come in the iPhone 2nd gen.

 

I'm assuming the European model will receive 3G support.

 

Cingular supports UMTS, and the iPhone will be exclusive to that network. So why no UMTS? It's a hell of a lot faster than EDGE.

 

After cooling off...I'm more and more convinced that this is not what I need, and starting to *gasp* doubt Teh Steve's wisdom.

This is non an phone + iPod + camera. This is a PDA + iPod + Phone + Blackberry + TabletPC, and frankly, I'd say this is not what most consumers want nor need. I know Apple likes to cater to high end segments, but if they are not careful, other companies could start taking bits from the iPod market with useful, easy to use, feature light and cheap mp3 + phone combo.

For what I'm reading both Nokia and Sony Ericsson with it's Walkman series are getting very close... I'm waiting for a nice one before I dismiss my V3 and my shuffle, but frankly, I'm not going to carry 600€ worth of cash in my pocket. For that amount, I could get a perfectly functional laptop...And I don't see people jumping to get those iPhones like they did with iPods. It's the same bloody price of a PS3, for pete's sake...and boy, haven't forumites had a field day since such a price was announced?

 

@ Iago

This is Apple though. I know lot's of people who have bought every generation of the iPod, without actually needing it.

 

Sure...but still, the iPod didn't became mainstream at 500$ nor 400$. And if it weren't for the nano, I wonder how many people would be still buying 60Gb or so versions at 400$. There is certainly a market for high-end palm-like devices...but it's not a mainstream market.

And this is not the inmature mp3 market Apple stormed with the iPod. There's lots of competence on the phone market and the mayority of consumers don't really want palm-like phones. If Apple were to launch some kind of iPhone Nano, that combined an easy to use, well integrated iPod, phone and camera with Apple's killer design at 250$, I could see it being an iPod like success...but in it's current iteration, I see the iPhone as a Mac Pro...jaw dropping but ultimately out of reach for the vast mayority of consumers.

 

Some good points.

I can imagine there could well be more than one version of the iPhone, it's obvious though they wanted the first to have a 'wow factor' and I think we can agree on that

 

"Wow" factor? Gheee I've been salivating all day I now that I don't NEED something like that...but I hope I never find myself with one in my hands and a credit card in my pocket...

 

I'm just waiting for the touchscreen features to migrate over to the Ipod, because you know that they will. I feel the same about not having all of my devices in one failable unit. If my mp3 player dies I don't want it to take my phone down too.

 

needs a better camera at least 4 megapixel+3g then I would be interested also the screen res isnt high enough for a 3.5inch screen you need 480x640

 

I bet nobody can point me to a Phone-MusicPlayer-InternetBrowser that's easier to use.

Apple doesn't invent technologies (well.. it does sometimes), it invent better ways to use the technologies.

They didn't invent the mp3 player, nor the computer, nor the PortableVideoPlayer. Do I care??? No!!

 

It sounds like the "swiss army knife" of the mobile phone world. Expect to pay silly money when it hits the UK. At least apple are continuing to put money into new products though. Most people are put off by the cost which might make it a bit of a fashion accessory. Also, with all those features packed in how reliable will it be ?

 

I'm bemused by the lack of specs given about the phone. If it were a windows Smartmobile, we'd know what processor it had, who manufactured it and how fast it was. No mention for the iPhone?

Secondly, they say "it's running OS X", but what does that mean? It's running a trimmed version? a completely new version? exactly the same version as on a normal mac?

???