By Steve Ranger, 17 July 2008 14:46
COMMENT
"I'm just flabbergasted that people have been so blinded by the marketing hype."
"I'm fed up with all the headlines about this device. Or am I missing the point - what does it do that a high-end Nokia doesn't already do?"
" only three years after my all-singing all-dancing 3G phone came on the market too."
These are just three of the comments posted recently by silicon.com readers about the latest Apple iPhone. And if this is what our readers think - and there are others making similar points - why do we still write about the iPhone?
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I think it's worth looking more closely at why we've covered the launch of this particular phone so closely, especially when we let the vast majority of new handsets go unremarked.
Sure, Apple managed to shift one million 3G iPhones in the first weekend, with 10 million downloads of iPhone apps.
But that's still a drop in the vast ocean of mobile phones when roughly a billion are shipped every three months or so. And as many have pointed out, despite the marketing hype there are many things the iPhone doesn't do which other handsets have been doing for quite some time.
We've pointed this out ourselves. I'd refer you to an excellent column by Natasha Lomas that lists the 10 things we'd change on the 3G iPhone - with cut and paste and MMS high on the list, in case you were wondering.
So, there aren't many iPhone users out there and the device doesn't offer many things not already available in the market. Yet why do we continue to write about the iPhone?
I'd say - while there are many other phones that offer elements of what the iPhone does, few bring it together in such an elegant format. And I'd argue that simply to focus on the hardware itself, no matter how shiny or well designed it is, misses the point.
For us the more interesting thing about the iPhone is the way it has forced the mobile industry to change how it does business. And I don't just mean the slew of touchscreen phones that have appeared in the past year.
Apple has muscled in on the mobile operators in a way no other handset developer has ever managed. And made much, much more of an impact than Microsoft.
As well as talk about revenue-sharing deals with operators, it also threatens the existing model where the most important relationship customers have is with the operator.
For many of the people who were queuing up for their new phone last weekend, they are iPhone and Apple fans first, and O2 customers second. That's a big, and rather worrying, change for the operators which spend so much on building brand loyalty.
And developments such as the App Store also shake up the market by allowing iPhone owners to customise their phone with the applications they want.
Google's Android is another development having an impact on the mobile industry in a similar way, promising some of the flexibility of the PC in a mobile phone format - and it's another development we are following closely .
While we're at it, I could throw in some other trends the iPhone embodies - the explosion in mobile browsing and the advent of location-based services. And of course the iPhone embodies another big shift in the industry - the consumerisation of IT.
The iPhone might make up a tiny fraction of the mobile phone market - but it is dragging the rest of the industry with it.
There are plenty more reasons why silicon.com is interested in the iPhone, which is why we'll continue to follow it. It's about much more than keeping up with the Apple fanboys. Although of course, there's no denying it is very, very shiny
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Comments
There are 8 comments. Join the discussion
1. Kontra
Considering the success of the iPhone 3G launch, it seems almost predictable that Apple has a terrific growth engine in its hands. But if you go back to 2005 when it all started, things didn't look so obvious. I explored more than a dozen financial, operational and technical risk profiles that would have dissuaded just about any other company from embarking on the iPhone project:
2. KenC
Sure, 1M iPhones in one weekend is nothing when compared to over 1B cellphones shipped in a year. Then again, 1M iPhones on a launch weekend is the largest launch of a consumer electronics device ever. That's why people write about iPhones. No CE device has sold $500M worth of anything in one weekend. Did Angelina Jolie's newest movie sell $500M worth of tickets in its first weekend? No, and look at how much people write about her! Oh, she's not a CE device, either.
And, just think 1M iPhones will lead to something close to $2B in total sales when you realize that most if not all of those phones have long subscription contracts. All of that in one weekend. It's a big deal. Really.
3. George
Its not what the iPhone does, it's how it does it that's different.
Yes it's been way over-hyped by the press, and it certainly doesn't do everything, but try one before you knock it, it's fun to use.
Sure it needs a lot more development, but the 3rd party support for this phone will be as big as the Palm or Windows CE.
4. anonymous
I can understand why people write so much about Angelina Jolie - there is a certain attraction, but isn't this just another mobile phone - makes calls, does email etc etc!
5. Chris Anderson
I may be being cynical but I just assumed it was the normal publishing and design industry's love affair with Apple.
I am sure that like me many people dislike Apple's use of propriety hardware and software to massively increase their and their dealers margins to no real benefit to their end users.
In my own case I was so incensed by this when trying to upgrade a Customers Apple II - that shows how long this has been going on - that unless and until Apple's prices drop well below those of similar equipment I count Apple out of the equation every time.
6. anonymous
There is currently a petition on www.iphonefeatures.org to get features such as cut and paste included in the next software release.
7. misceng
Now 0.3% of the population of the USA and 0.001% of the world own an iPhone. I think that shows the coverage in IT and the world press has been well over the top. Most people have other interests that should be covered.
8. Peter Dunkley
It is a thing of beauty - and it works intuitively. I was very happy with Nokia, until they started adding email, web, camera, etc - they had the functionality but they couldn't make keep the customer experience simple.
I didn't want to use the functionality of my Nokia - the iPhone I'm happy with. I've stopped using my Filofax - now that's progress.