As the dust begins to settle after Monday’s announcement of the 3G iPhone at the WWDC, it’s time to take stock and actually examine the 3G iPhone for all its worth without getting caught up in the Apple zeitgeist.
When the original iPhone launched I wasn’t too bothered about being first in line to purchase one, in fact I wasn’t that bothered about the iPhone at all. It didn’t do anything that really impressed me. It didn’t do anything that you couldn’t already do with most of the mobile phones you can already get over here in Europe.
To me it looks like the 3G iPhone is more of the same. Instead of doing something revolutionary, for which Apple had built a reputation for, the 3G iPhone appears more of a needed update to compete with existing mobile phones. Most of the Nokia E and N series phones have wifi, 3G, Microsoft Exchange support and support third-party apps. Some even have integrated GPS and cameras.
Though I can’t provide statistics of the iPhone adoption rate across the US and Europe compared to mobile phones from other manufacturers, I don’t think the iPhone will be as big a success as the iPod was with the MP3 player market, and I think Steve Jobs understands this by only aiming to conquer 1% of the mobile phone market share. I guess where I am leading with this article is to agree with what Richard MacManus over at ReadWriteWeb said.
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2 comments to “3G iPhone, so what?”
Although I agree the iPhone is still lacking in some areas I think, like most Apple products before it, the revolutionary bit comes from the design and interaction rather than the feature set. Take for example the iPod; it was an mp3 player like all others except some beautiful design and a click wheel. The iPhone brought the same beautiful design and a touch screen, but nothing else that new. Plus they still can’t count above 2 megapixels.
Kean Richmond at 10.04 pm
on Wednesday 11th June 2008
There is also a nice alternative for the iphone, search on the web: htc touch diamond.
joren at 8.10 pm
on Sunday 15th June 2008