The second coming of the Apple iPhone
We’ve kept the coverage of the new Apple iPhone rather light here on SMS Text News.
Yes, it’s coming on Monday.
Yes it’s 3G. Yes there’s going to be a whole host of delights to feast on.
Two non-Apple operators have told me there’s a nano version coming. How that will manifest itself, I don’t know.
Everything else is conjecture. In fact, the nano version is conjecture too.
I’m hoping to see Apple flex it’s muscles and reach into the mobile industry and, as one mobile developer I know put it yesterday, ‘tear them a new arsehole,’.
The industry sorely needs innovation and the waves from the iPhone launch are still spreading throughout the market. We haven’t yet seen the application store launch and that will be fascinating to watch.
My biggest issue was the absolutely ridiculous pricing model that Apple used. I know they wanted to arse about with exclusivity, but looking at the industry from the viewpoint of developers, many of them want iPhones in the hands of as many people *as possible*. The ecosystem that, let’s say, 100m iPhones around the world could support would be thrilling to behold. I was hugely disappointed at the UK sales performance come January this year. I was also annoyed to see everyone-and-their-dog in Silicon Valley hailing the iPhone as the mobile 2.0 saviour. $100m funds for iPhone applications? Pullleeeeze. Great ideas, really great ideas. But totally useless when your average American is sporting a Motorola RAZR. Interestingly, they’re also sporting iPods. So there’s an upgrade possibility. Just not at $400 up front.
I’d like to see better price points. I’d like to see the iPhone as cheap as chips. Give me a $99 or £99 iPhone for the masses, please…
I’ll certainly be watching the theatre come Monday evening our time. Apple are always fanastic at their launches. But rest assured, we’ll be keeping a focus on the big picture. And remember the context when Steve discusses his 10 million device target… remember Nokia are knocking out that amount every day (according to the Telegraph, they shipped 115 million handsets in the first quarter of 2008).
