Apple has joined the mobile war with the announcement that confirms the rumors last year. Apple is going to release the iPhone this year. The blogsphere is abuzz with reactions, from the ecstatic to the cautious. I agree with Jozzua’s comments.
Here are the specs of the iPhone (taken from The Age):
US$499 for a 4GB model, US$599 for an 8GB model
GSM+EDGE phone technology (though 3G is promised “in the future”)
3.5-inch touchscreen, at 160 points-per-inch resolution
11.6mm thick
2 Megapixel camera
Incorporates video iPod
Syncs music, video, contacts and internet favourites with iTunes on Windows or Mac
Gesture-controlled user interface
On-screen virtual keyboard
Random-access voicemail (via Cingular)
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity
SMS “conversation” interface
Full high-resolution web browser
Google Maps
Weather and stock market “widgets”
Battery life 5 hours talk/video/Web browsing, 16 hours audio only
I must admit I’m no Apple fan. I don’t think iTunes is intuitive enough, that’s why I am not using an iPod (aside from it is not the best portable player out there, it is expensive). Safari is not the best Web browser out there, and the battery life on paper is disappointing. The projected price will pit iPhone against Nokia’s N series phones (N80, N91, and N93) and Sony Ericsson’s P990 and W950i. Note that there is no touchscreen phone in the N series; both mentioned SE phones have touchscreens, no Wi-Fi though.
It is a good phone, nevertheless, but without 3G, it’s not worth the price. At that price you can get a phone with the same specs and more. It’s too early to tell if Apple has really reinvented the phone (though I am not convinced, since iPhone has offered nothing new except running on Mac OS X), but we can be sure that it will have a following worthy of the iPod success.
Apple has also dropped the word Computer from its name, telling the world that it is no longer just a computer manufacturer. Nokia is way ahead – it doesn’t have to drop anything from its corporate name, and it calls its N series phones as enhanced multimedia computers (though I dispute that notion).
And a legal problem for Apple: Cisco already owns the IPhone name. I can sense Cisco is already counting the money it will receive in settlement, as both companies are now in negotiations. Ca-ching!
And as a footnote: a Web site was taken down because of traffic generated by queries for the word iPhone. Nope, I won’t link to it, but here’s a pic with the URL:
Click on the image to enlarge.