You’re Missing the Point
January 10th, 2007 | Published in tech | 44 Comments
Unless you’ve been living under some kind of rock, you’ll know that the big news today (and yesterday, for us) was the announcement and demo of Apple’s iPhone. The Web is up in flames talking about it. It seems to me, from my reading of comments on tech websites (Apple and non-Apple), response has been divided into mostly two camps: 90% in the “give it to me now or i’ll have a stroke” camp, the rest with “what’s so great about that?” (figures pulled out of the air)
What I really want to know is this: how can anyone belong to the latter?
Regardless of your relationship with (or hatred for) Apple, what they have produced is simply astounding. There are some guys on the tech boards who won’t rest until they’ve put Linux in everything, from toasters to phones. Others yet believe that you can get a better phone with better specs at a better price. We ââ¬â the “fanboys (and girls)” ââ¬â know this. But we’re still going to choose this over a beefed up, cheaper phone with “more features”, and here’s why: the experience.
Assume that all phone designs are equal (which they’re not). Even if the iPhone looked the same, the interface on the iPhone still blows everything on the market out of the water. Apple is the one company that truly understands the user experience, and it shows in all their products. It’s not enough to have a robust operating system with Unix underpinnings, they’ve also made OS X “insanely great” by giving thought to details like where each button should be, the placement of the “Yes” and “No” in dialog boxes, minute details like that which are the signature of a truly polished product that’s hard not to get philosophical or romantic about. Apple’s not interested in defining new markets, which is why they will probably never make a tablet. What they’re very good at, however, is to take a product which already exists, and to make it “insanely great”. They did that with MP3 players ââ¬â in the early days I had several Creative MP3 players, including the Nomad Jukebox, as well as some early Korean ones; the hardware was alright, some of it was even good, but the user interface was a nightmare (remember this was circa 1999-2000). Even for a techie like myself, I hated them with a passion. They just didn’t make sense. Then the iPod came along, and everything changed.
It’s the same with phones. If you’ve only read about it on websites and blogs, do yourself a favour ââ¬â watch the video, and come back and say you don’t want one. Assuming the phone is in your pocket. You take it out. You unlock it. How? By taking your finger, and drawing a stroke across to the right. No more accidental phone unlockings (which make it necessary for people like me, people whose names start with A and are always first in phone books, to have free incoming call plans).
Then you download email, and it has pictures attached to it. You want to zoom in. Instead of hopelessly pressing a number of buttons to zoom and pan, you take your fingers ââ¬â just as you would eat Indian food with your hands ââ¬â and you pinch the photo. Pinch and release. As easy as rice and dhal. The photo zooms in and out, and pans, just like that.
There are no buttons, so that the keys can change according to the application. Oh, and it’s also an iPod. That’s also a phone. You tilt it, and it goes into landscape mode. There are ambient light sensors so it knows when to light and dim, for energy conservation. There is a proximity sensor so that you don’t accidentally activate the touchscreen with your ear.
On top of an already great user experience ââ¬â the phone runs OS X! Possibly a stripped down version, but with the underpinnings of OS X, you can be sure that the best user experience on the computing platform is coming to a 3.5″ screen near you. Everything about it is phenomenal, and it addresses an important shortcoming in existing phones: applications are not “baby apps”. They are real, full-fledged (though not full sized) desktop apps. If you know and love OS X ââ¬â you’d be shitting in your pants like me right now, knowing it will power the phone (in some variation).
Sure, you could buy a phone with better specs ââ¬â but is it a better phone? What does “better” mean to you? Can you recreate this experience?
In an interview with CNBC earlier, Steve Jobs (a.k.a. God) talks about how they made it because it was something they wanted for themselves. At the core of Apple Inc is this diverse pool of passionate people who are very good at disparate things, like industrial design, usability, hardware, and software.
And that’s why they make insanely great products. They have soul.
January 10th, 2007 at 3:22 pm (#)
Amen.
One thing surprises me though, that it’s not 3G (or maybe it’s not stated yet). I thought (God) would have covered that angle.
Nonetheless, I hope 2007 passes real quickly so I can get my fingers on it.
drool
January 10th, 2007 at 3:34 pm (#)
‘No more accidental phone unlockings’
I’d dig out all my cash, just for that!
January 10th, 2007 at 6:33 pm (#)
At least God did not disappoint.
Looking at my iPod now.. so… yesterday…..
January 10th, 2007 at 6:43 pm (#)
Urgh, I’m a geek. No need to pretty things up for me. If it works, I’ll figure out how to use it. My questions are always stuff like “but how does it perform?” And “is it efficient?” I guess different people are passionate about different things. I’m more passionate about getting my code to run in less CPU cycles.
I’m not a big fan of super apps, I guess. I prefer to have my gadgets do one thing and do it well, than to have it do everything, which is probably why to me, a good phone is one that can send and receive text messages and calls. Shit, I forgot the point of this comment. Oh yeah, it was to upbraid you for being a heathen, because Steve Jobs isn’t God. God is actually a holy trinity consisting of Linus Torvalds, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. :p
Having said that, I must agree that the iPhone does look extremely groovy. If I were one of those godless pagans who used KDE rather than Gnome, I’d probably get one.
January 10th, 2007 at 7:44 pm (#)
You see, donaq, as much as I like to imagine myself as the open source warrior, Gnome sword in hand (I don’t like KDE much myself)… it’s not just enough to figure out how to use something, I also want to use it in the best way possible. Possibly why my switch to ubuntu didn’t last that long (don’t shoot me! I still use it! but I can’t run from OS X!)… add onto that how you can be sure they (i mean apple products) perform pretty/very well and efficiently, on top of already looking pretty. Don’t penalize pretty!
(Then again I’m quite demanding - I everything also want to bao ka liao, that includes operating systems, phones, macs, women…)
January 10th, 2007 at 9:19 pm (#)
Great, with jokers like you, Microsoft can really be assured that their kingdom is secure.
Tell me you love Mac, GNOME … yada yada yada … I can respect that. To each his own. BUT THERE IS NOT NEED TO BAD MOUTH KDE.
Care to tell the world that you love/hate BSD, Solaris, your god, their god and start a holy war?
HOLY SHIT !!
Get
January 10th, 2007 at 9:48 pm (#)
Hmmm what say you about greasy finger stains? cringes
January 10th, 2007 at 10:24 pm (#)
I assume the 10% (although according to S.J. it is 2% and falling) are the ones who would even consider buying a Zune.
Steve Jobs announced during the keynote they would be including 3G etc. in later versions. Note this model is for the US, where everyone uses GSM or Edge, but not 3G. I’m sure Apple will have a 3G or HSDPA capable iPhone for European and Asian markets at the end of this year. Everyone dumbs down their phones for the US market. Sony Ericsson for example made a K790 model out of their k800i model for the US market (without 3G).
I’ll stick with my k800i for now (better camera, with flash as opposed to no flash on iPhone) including a Mac OS X theme and great iCal and Adressbook synching, but I’d love to have the iPhone as I could replace my ageing iPod mini and the new K800i with it. I’d hate to be Nokia or Sony Ericsson now (Palm is almost dead).
January 10th, 2007 at 10:44 pm (#)
Vista: what are you on about? All I said was that I don’t like KDE. That’s it. The wonders of Linux is the I can choose not to have it, if I wish. I chose not to have it. That is all. I believe that embodies what you called ‘to each his own’. If you’re talking about donaq, he’s.. um, talking about cpu cycles!
January 10th, 2007 at 11:01 pm (#)
I am completely with you on this one hon … I watched two live-blogs simultaneously during the keynote … I was kinda expecting the iPhone, and was kinda predicting to be “okay, cool, but not something geek-gasm-worth”.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. I’ve always said I would never purchase an iPod with less than 20Gig storage. I’ve changed my mind. I want one, and I want one NOW.
However, because I am a broke-arse grad student, I’m gonna have to wait till I have finished my Phd before I can afford one (hell, I don’t even have even an iPod thanks to my budget cry) … but hopefully in a year and a half when that occurs, they will have worked out all the little bugs that inevitably occur in a 1st gen product, maybe bumped up the capacity, and bumped down the price :)
Btw, OT, but I have links to some pics from my trip to the US Pacific Northwest (Seattle, etc) that I took over the hols up on my blog btw, if you are interested.
January 10th, 2007 at 11:19 pm (#)
Forgive my ig, does cingular operate in Asia?
Redefining is key here, I think. Most people assume a ‘cell phone’ is free with a two year contract.
But it’s more than a cell phone. It would suck, maybe prohibitively, to have to pay out the ass to use the thing the way it wants to be used. Cingular plans are sucky when it comes to data costs. 600 bux for the phone, possibly 60-100/month for use … I’ll have to think differently.
I will get one. No question.
January 10th, 2007 at 11:58 pm (#)
God has a name, Steve Jobs.
January 11th, 2007 at 12:08 am (#)
wonder when would the iPhone be in singapore.
January 11th, 2007 at 1:28 am (#)
well if you think of it, when it comes to Singapore, if its a more or less direct conversion in price of US$499 (for the 4gb model) to sing dollars, it beats ANY pda phone on the market hands down in terms of value for money when you compare the technology involved and the user interface.
As for the design, need I say more?
January 11th, 2007 at 1:30 am (#)
sarah: this poor undergrad student hears you.
p: nope cingular does not operate here. re the data plans… i’m not sure how the us data plans are like but i’ve read that cingular offers >20 data plans but no one’s sure which one will apply with the iphone. having already made cingular change its existing infrastructure (for the visual voicemail), i wouldn’t be surprised if apple manages to get cingular to offer a separate data plan. all you can eat data plans here are rather expensive too, and that’s why i don’t really use it myself.. however, with wifi… hmm..
jamestKJ: 2008.
January 11th, 2007 at 1:33 am (#)
sorry i can’t stop ranting about the iphone but its EVERYTHING a geek can dream off. I’ll probably ship it over from the States just so that I can make the evening rush hour folks drop their jaws on the floor of the train when the iPhone automatically pauses the movie I’m watching to handle a call and send an “urgent” email to someone while on the phone.
fuck i want it now.
January 11th, 2007 at 1:49 am (#)
The gadget geek in me loves it - the web-browsing interface looks amazing - but I do have queries about the smartphone part: Jobs disparages the plastic keyboards of other phones, but I need to wait to see if the typing feel on a touch screen is any good, especially after heavy wear and tear. I have to say, the tactile feel of the Macbook keyboard was one of the main selling points for me.
US$499 is the Cingular price point with a 2-year plan I think - they haven’t announced an unbundled price have they?
January 11th, 2007 at 1:55 am (#)
The other very interesting part was that he demoed the thing using the Beatles - does that mean the Apple / Apple Records dispute has been resolved and the Beatles will find their way onto the iTunes store?
January 11th, 2007 at 3:40 am (#)
I have an ipod. I love my ipod. I love that my ipod holds 40gb of songs. Why would I pay $600 (8gb), 2 year contract, with Cingular (the biggest rip-off of all wireless providers), plus $40/month calling plan, $19.99/month data plan (that’s the cost for Blackberrys and I’m assuming the iPhone will come in at the same rate), when all I really want to do is 1) make calls; 2) listen to music, not necessarily on the same device? Don’t get me wrong I love Apple but they screwed up big time by locking in the contract with Cingular. Not to mention the prohibitive cost.
iPhone — for gadget freaks only, methinks.
January 11th, 2007 at 10:25 am (#)
[...] For the reviews of the iPhone, just check out , Adrianna’s and mrbrown’s posts. I feel the same way as both of them. Okay, maybe a bit more enthu. Okay maybe a lot more enthu. [...]
January 11th, 2007 at 11:32 am (#)
my moolah is already set aside for this baby when it comes here
January 11th, 2007 at 11:55 am (#)
popagandhi: Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m not against pretty. I’m all for pretty, except when it gets in the way of performance. I’m just way more interested in speed and power. If something can be made pretty and still run in the same (or less) time, hell, why not? And I totally understand why you can’t run from OS X. It’s the same reason why I can’t run from Linux (actually it’s more a case of Linux being unable to get rid of me), they’re both great operating systems.
vista: “Great, with jokers like you, Microsoft can really be assured that their kingdom is secure.”
Nonsense. The open source world thrives on discord and disagreement. The constant infighting and sniping among different camps in open source is probably a major reason why it evolves great software. Note that I said “evolves” and not “produces”. That is because in an environment where there are many different apps fighting for user acceptance, only the fittest apps survive. Redmond would probably be happier if the open source world were monolithic like itself, because then it would only have to concentrate on knocking down one target. As it is, take down Linux, we’d still have BSD. Take down MySQL, we’d still have Postgres. Take down Firefox, we’d still have, oh, a whole host of other browsers that I can’t be bothered to name. Through diversity, the open source world forces proprietary software giants to concentrate on producing better software instead of on FUD campaigns, which is a good thing for everybody.
Lastly, remove thy butt plug, man. Geeks tend to get passionate about their technology, but it’s usually tongue in cheek. Even RMS refers to a Cult of Emacs and Linus Torvalds himself more or less said that Gnome users are mostly idiots and that he hopes the OpenSolaris people die (check out wikiquote for the actual quotes). Most hackers follow some sort of One True Brace indentation style (K&R for myself, all others must DIE). As a group, we tend to be humourous about the serious stuff, but we take our humour seriously.
Sorry for the OTT comment, popagandhi.
January 11th, 2007 at 12:05 pm (#)
Like Kenny Sia, I am waiting for the version that will reach Asia in 2008, the iPhone with 3G and can make coffee. Hahaha!
January 11th, 2007 at 4:43 pm (#)
but are the functions as good as the good ol palmtop?
i heard not. gone through the specs and it doesn’t really suit a businessman who needs a good organisational medium.
pls correct me if i’m wrong.
January 11th, 2007 at 8:15 pm (#)
The day I sold my firstborn for an Apple iPhone…
There isn’t anything that you’d want an infant to do that the iPhone does exceedingly well. Why settle for a baby, when you can get an Apple iPhone?
For starters, the iPhone…
…makes calls. A baby cries.
…sends SMSes. Your …
January 11th, 2007 at 10:22 pm (#)
I’ll buy only if it’s renamed iGOD !!
Nobody can sue sure with such name.
January 12th, 2007 at 12:59 am (#)
I wouldn’t be too excited about the OS X on the iPhone. It is surely a stripped down version, with a BSD based kernel.
But, it seems that, at least for now, they will not allow users to load any software onto the OS. Also there was no mention of any SDK or something similar for the iPhone. Not even Java support. So, even if it is OS X, its no where similar to the OS X we are used to using.
January 12th, 2007 at 1:40 am (#)
Treo should start panicking…..
January 12th, 2007 at 2:34 am (#)
@NTT : Why would Apple start using a BSD kernel for the OS X version that’s installed on the iPhone?
January 12th, 2007 at 8:42 am (#)
@James Gallagher - The Mac OS X (Darwin) is already based on BSD. BSD should be able to be ported to the embedded platform (probably an ARM) being used, pretty easily.
January 12th, 2007 at 12:38 pm (#)
hey adri.
my first thought when i saw the phone was
“oh gawd. human beings are really going to become more stupid.”
i wouldn’t buy that phone simply because it retards my mental capabilities. same reason why i wouldn’t buy or even own a pda in the first place. why would i want my whole life to be contained and controlled (to some degree) in just one piece of technology?
already i feel at a loss if i leave my mobile at home for half a day.
i believe that some things should just be there for us to figure out ourselves. alone. NOT with the assistance of technology.
which is what this world is moving towards. blarh. it sucks.
January 12th, 2007 at 1:04 pm (#)
@NTT: Darwin has a mach kernel. BSD is only in the userland part of the OS.
January 12th, 2007 at 4:23 pm (#)
@James Gallagher - Well if you really want to go into the specifics, it’s actually XNU. A hybrid kernel between the Mach 2.5 and BSD 4.3. And you are right, the BSD part is actually higher level stuff, POSIX, process models…. etc.
But my point was, that the iPhone will have a stripped down version of the OS X. Possibly with a similar (wont be the same) kernel, for the intended platform.
January 12th, 2007 at 6:20 pm (#)
@NTT I was in a nit-picking mood on the BSD bit :) Too much time spent on Slashdot and Digg .. hehe.
January 13th, 2007 at 1:36 am (#)
My issues with the iPhone:
1. Too expensive. Call me old fashioned, but its a Phone + partial PDA. I’m not about to go drop that kind of money on a phone… “smart” or not.
2. Locked. I’m not moving to Cingular. At the price of the device, it needs to be an unlocked phone that can work with more than one carrier. I’m so sick and tired of phone + carrier cartels, not to mention long term contracts.
3. Durability unseen. I’m still pissed that I bought a Nano when they came out, which was scratched about 3 seconds after I got it out of the box. Apple might be able to make nice looking gear, but they aren’t always practical about it. Let me see one of these in a year, after its been rattling around in someone’s backpack or pocket, and had a half-dozen software updates on it.
4. It comes from Apple. The sheer fact that you call Jobs “god” is a good bullet point to this. Apple products, while stylish, are also overpriced and NOT open. A lot of people in the geek world bemoan DRM and bemoan closed source and all of the other “bad karma” practices in the industry, and then turn around and hand their hard earned cash over to the companies doing it. Battered Wife Syndrome if I’ve ever seen it.
Don’t get me wrong - I grew up and learned how to program on an Apple ][. (no E, no C, no +, just ][) If it weren't for Apple, I wouldn't be a programmer today. But, Steve Jobs is not "god". He isn't even close. He's a modern day P.T. Barnum, capable of putting on a great show and full of charisma - while he lines his pockets Western Capitalist style. At least with Bill Gates, some of my Windows money is funneling into World Causes…
The sheer fact that so many people are saying “OMFG I WANT ONE!!!!” before they’ve even held the device or seen it up close is really freaking amusing to me… Get a grip. Its a phone. Its not earthly salvation.
iPhone? i don’t think so.
January 13th, 2007 at 1:39 am (#)
[...] I posted this comment over on Popagandhi’s story and comment thread about the iPhone. My issues with the iPhone: [...]
January 13th, 2007 at 12:01 pm (#)
Dave, you raise a number of fair points. Points I would probably make myself if I lived in the US. Where I come from, ‘locked’ phones are strange to us, and I don’t think they will be locked by the time it comes to Asia.
Also, where I come from we have a flood of the cool “smartphones”/PDA phones mostly from the pacific rim. All of them are expensive. More expensive than the iPhone. Most/all of them are crap, because of the operating system they work on (windows mobile). All of them are more expensive than this price point, and feature much less. There are some people who are willing to drop ‘that kind of money’ on a phone (lots of them in Asia, and they do that once every month!). There are some who aren’t.
The potential of the iPhone’s OS, even if nobody has held or used it before, even at this stage seems worlds apart (in a good way) from the existing solutions. Anybody who has used these existing solutions can be absolved from the fanboyism, simply because they sucked so bad and maybe this is a good alternative. It’s not salvation, but I’m hoping it comes close. I never want to come close to another badly designed phone UI again.
Featuring one of the best iPods ever made ââ¬â this phone is a true convergence device, unlike the other half-assed efforts by other manufacturers which tried to be all things to all people, but did none very well.
“OMFG I want one” ââ¬â even before seeing the device up close ââ¬â will probably ring louder in Asia, given how we’re all nuts about our cellphones. And unfortunately, I happen to be one of them.
January 14th, 2007 at 12:05 am (#)
[...] Interesting Thoughts on the iPhone - Popagandhi Technorati Tags: Jive [...]
January 15th, 2007 at 8:50 pm (#)
I believe that this phone is one of the best phones ever, but Apple made a serious mistake with this phone.
It simply won’t work with SMS-crazy people, which makes up a vast majority of phone-using people.
Unless of course, your idol/god/hero has some tricks up his sleeve which I can’t even imagine (read: not. possible. ever. unless he’s really god.) that is better than the current SMS system (ooh plasticky keys) we use.
January 15th, 2007 at 8:57 pm (#)
I think judgement needs to be reserved on this until we see for ourselves how messaging works.. I wouldn’t put it beyond Apple to make their multi-touch system that good.
January 17th, 2007 at 2:00 am (#)
I have to say, though, the demo of text messaging by Jobs looked very uninspiringly slow. I don’t put it beyond Apple to make multitouch that good, but I also worry that it’s being designed from an American (read: heavy on voicemail, not enough emphasis on SMS) perspective.
Right now, tactile feedback means I can make calls and SMS without looking at my phone. To equal that on multitouch would be a heck of a technical feat.
January 30th, 2007 at 5:17 am (#)
I would probably fall into the latter. Sort of. I can see how it’s a pretty spiffy device all around but what I also see is that it uses internet and such which costs an arm and a leg extra. I don’t really need a phone that does a whole lot of extra, especially one that will cost me more than a full PC and will require me to pay 200 bucks a month for full service.
So i can see a bit why it’s neat but I can’t get excited about the overhead cost behind it.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:10 am (#)
Did anyone hear of the missing button on the iphone? i heard it is a replacable button.
June 7th, 2007 at 12:17 am (#)
[...] Apple has released some cool commercials for the iPhone, and it’s official release date has been set for June 29, that’s real soon! Rumours (hoaxes if you will) of it being delayed are already circulating. Even if CNET gave it a less than favourable rating, this seems to sum up my sentiments quite nicely. Ever since iPhone was announced, it kindda caused a hoo haa in the major players in the telecommunications industry. All eyes are on it. All eyes. I am no exception. [...]