Here's why the iPhone is the most disruptive product in the cellphone industry.
The iPhone started as a project in 2005. After a year's work, it was unfinished. After another year it was done.
In two years Apple had created a completely new mobile platform from scratch.
In the same two years Nokia did what? Add more megapixels to its camera? Cram in GPS? Struggle to make its fonts even uglier? Add another set of sub-menus to its consumer phones?
Yes, the iPhone, as launched, was relatively feature-light. But it's not the features, it's the software stupid.
iPhone runs on Unix. Proper Unix.
This is advantage one. Advantage over the Psion-Organizer spawned Symbian, or the mini Windows 95 that became WinCE and Windows Mobile. The OSX core is a big win. But not nearly as big a win as advantage 2.
Advantage 2 is Cocoa. Previously known as NextStep. A set of software tools which let you build finished robust applications really quickly that run in native code. The apps are not using Java. They do not run as interpreted p-code.
Cocoa means iPhone application development can move ahead twice as fast as any other platform. And the apps will run twice as fast. Just this week we are seeing Chinese character recognition. We'll see push email. We'll get wireless calendar syncing. And Apple will roll-out features way faster than Nokia can roll out new phones.
Advantage 3 is the rasterizing and rendering technology. Including core animation. This means the apps don't look like ass. They look goood. They understand fonts. Chinese characters. Arbitrary scaling. PDFs . And each screen seamlessly and elegantly animates into the next. No one else in the industry has a display model built on top of PDF. And is happens fast too... because it all drives a GPU. So even though the N95 has a GPU, it does not make use of it to do the heavy lifting. No "scrolls like butter" here. More "scrolls like toast". In thick slices.
The question everyone asks of all companies is "Don't you think we could do that too"?
Could Apple add a GPS? Yes.
3G? Yes.
MMS? yep.
Could Apple toss in a 4K-RED 1- camera? Surely!
They could even add a silly Nokia D-pad keyboard if they wanted. It's just wires and chips. Adding these features is easy. That's why Nokia and SE fill their phones full of this crap. It's easy and makes the feature-list grow ever longer.
But turn this around. Can Nokia and the others catch up with Apple's software advantage?
Could Nokia switch to Unix/Linux? Probably....
Could they create an application building technology akin to NextStep / Cocoa? No! No way. It would take 10 years. Same again with the display model. It would take them too long. You can't add Cocoa with a soldering iron.
Notice we have not even talked about the iTunes media advantage?
Why is this so disruptive?
The way to appraise this situation is not to look at where these products are now. But to look at how fast they are evolving - and how the software technology they depend upon will limit that speed of development.
Nokia might be the elephant in the Mobile jungle. But Apple is the Cheetah. Nokia might be in front. But they can never catch-up. This race, it's over already.
Perhaps the best observation is Palm's CEO, Ed Colligan who said...
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
Here's why the iPhone is the most disruptive product in the cellphone industry.
The iPhone started as a project in 2005. After a year's work, it was unfinished. After another year it was done.
In two years Apple had created a completely new mobile platform from scratch.
In the same two years Nokia did what? Add more megapixels to its camera? Cram in GPS? Struggle to make its fonts even uglier? Add another set of sub-menus to its consumer phones?
Yes, the iPhone, as launched, was relatively feature-light. But it's not the features, it's the software stupid.
iPhone runs on Unix. Proper Unix.
This is advantage one. Advantage over the Psion-Organizer spawned Symbian, or the mini Windows 95 that became WinCE and Windows Mobile. The OSX core is a big win. But not nearly as big a win as advantage 2.
Advantage 2 is Cocoa. Previously known as NextStep. A set of software tools which let you build finished robust applications really quickly that run in native code. The apps are not using Java. They do not run as interpreted p-code.
Cocoa means iPhone application development can move ahead twice as fast as any other platform. And the apps will run twice as fast. Just this week we are seeing Chinese character recognition. We'll see push email. We'll get wireless calendar syncing. And Apple will roll-out features way faster than Nokia can roll out new phones.
Advantage 3 is the rasterizing and rendering technology. Including core animation. This means the apps don't look like ass. They look goood. They understand fonts. Chinese characters. Arbitrary scaling. PDFs . And each screen seamlessly and elegantly animates into the next. No one else in the industry has a display model built on top of PDF. And is happens fast too... because it all drives a GPU. So even though the N95 has a GPU, it does not make use of it to do the heavy lifting. No "scrolls like butter" here. More "scrolls like toast". In thick slices.
The question everyone asks of all companies is "Don't you think we could do that too"?
Could Apple add a GPS? Yes.
3G? Yes.
MMS? yep.
Could Apple toss in a 4K-RED 1- camera? Surely!
They could even add a silly Nokia D-pad keyboard if they wanted. It's just wires and chips. Adding these features is easy. That's why Nokia and SE fill their phones full of this crap. It's easy and makes the feature-list grow ever longer.
But turn this around. Can Nokia and the others catch up with Apple's software advantage?
Could Nokia switch to Unix/Linux? Probably....
Could they create an application building technology akin to NextStep / Cocoa? No! No way. It would take 10 years. Same again with the display model. It would take them too long. You can't add Cocoa with a soldering iron.
Notice we have not even talked about the iTunes media advantage?
Why is this so disruptive?
The way to appraise this situation is not to look at where these products are now. But to look at how fast they are evolving - and how the software technology they depend upon will limit that speed of development.
Nokia might be the elephant in the Mobile jungle. But Apple is the Cheetah. Nokia might be in front. But they can never catch-up. This race, it's over already.
Perhaps the best observation is Palm's CEO, Ed Colligan who said...
?We?ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,? he said. ?PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They?re not going to just walk in.?
C.
Isn't it actually BSD? Didn't aegis give a wonderfully detail explanation regarding the rendering of fonts, pixels, etc??? Doesn't Nokia already have 3 Linux products, no make that 4 Linux products on the market?
I don't think anyone here denies that the software on the iPhone is top notch, no one here said the display was not great or the browsing experience was pretty good. From my understanding, the phone part of iPhone or as I call it, iPod with phone, are purely crap. Even Motorola could deliver better phone features. Man it is great to have a phone with the best software in the world without any really usable features on it. A great idea.
Nokia, Samsung, SE etc do all of those things already. I don't know anyone who can't access their music, photos etc, because it's 'too complicated. A good majority of them can browse the web too exactly as you see it on your computer. And they do all of this whilst being cheaper and having extra features that the consumer may or may not choose to use, but they at least have the choice. In the UK and Europe, we already know how to use our phones. We don't need to job to be made any simpler, it's already simple enough.
Isn't it actually BSD? Didn't aegis give a wonderfully detail explanation regarding the rendering of fonts, pixels, etc??? Doesn't Nokia already have 3 Linux products, no make that 4 Linux products on the market?
BSD *is* Unix. Although OSX itself is a mix of different Unix products. Mach core, and so on.
Nokia's font rendering technology is stone-aged compared to what Apple has. It's not just the screen size. That's why it looks so incredibly bad.
Nokia's lacklustre Linux products show exactly the problem they have.
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Originally Posted by sapporobaby
I don't think anyone here denies that the software on the iPhone is top notch, no one here said the display was not great or the browsing experience was pretty good. From my understanding, the phone part of iPhone or as I call it, iPod with phone, are purely crap. Even Motorola could deliver better phone features. Man it is great to have a phone with the best software in the world without any really usable features on it. A great idea.
You seem not to have read the post.
Could Apple easily slot in new chips and improve telephony and data? Yes. Anyone can do this.
Anyone can buy chips. Anyone can solder. Anyone can read Mobile Phone Construction for Dummies, it is $9.99 on Amazon.
Could Nokia create something equivalent to Cocoa or Core Animation? No. It cannot possibly happen. By integrating this software into a mobile platform gives Apple a 5 year head start allows it move so fast that Nokia has barely time to read the press-releases. And without those technologies, Nokia can't start to catch up. It's fat grey elephantine legs are tied together.
BSD *is* Unix. Although OSX itself is a mix of different Unix products. Mach core, and so on.
Nokia's font rendering technology is stone-aged compared to what Apple has. It's not just the screen size. That's why it looks so incredibly bad.
Nokia's lacklustre Linux products show exactly the problem they have.
You seem not to have read the post.
Could Apple easily slot in new chips and improve telephony and data? Yes. Anyone can do this.
Anyone can buy chips. Anyone can solder. Anyone can read Mobile Phone Construction for Dummies, it is $9.99 on Amazon.
Could Nokia create something equivalent to Cocoa or Core Animation? No. It cannot possibly happen. By integrating this software into a mobile platform gives Apple a 5 year head start allows it move so fast that Nokia has barely time to read the press-releases. And without those technologies, Nokia can't start to catch up. It's fat grey elephantine legs are tied together.
C.
I know what you're saying but Apple's iPhone with all the features you expect in a high end phone is just as much a mystery as Nokia's touch screen based phone that's currently in development. You're already heralding the new iPhone as a massive achievement without even knowing it's spec, whilst calling the equivalent Nokia phone a major flop, also without knowing it's spec (and I include the OS in the term 'spec'). So there's a massively biased posting if I ever saw one. Apple can cock up their new phone just as much as Nokia can cock up theirs.
You're already heralding the new iPhone as a massive achievement without even knowing it's spec, ... (and I include the OS in the term 'spec').
But we do know OS X, and we know Mobile OS X, and we've seen all the major "spec" changes that we'll shortly have in v2.0. And we've even had hands on experience with the SDK, its 5 updates in just a few short months, and seen impressive demos during the keynote and from more recent postings online of what we can expect from 3rd-parties developers.
But we do know OS X, and we know Mobile OS X, and we've seen all the major "spec" changes the v2.0 will shortly have. We've even had hands on experience with the SDK, its 5 updates in just a few short months, and seen impressive demos of what we can expect from 3rd-parties.
Both points hit on valid points. Fact is, Apple can still screw up with the final product. Hopefully not but look at Motorola and see a colossal screwup in the making. As for Nokia, I am quite interested to see how they will respond. Considering they are now really committed to making media devices rather than just phones, good things should be coming down the pipe. I just hope I have enough cash on had to buy from both.
As far as this current iPhone is considered, it was and remains a disaster. A learning experience for Apple. For Nokia, it should serve and a catalyst as to what not to do, and what it should do.
As far as this current iPhone is considered, it was and remains a disaster.
Disaster is such obvious hyperbole that it makes it hard to reply to your posts. You also referred to people that liked the iPhone as not have discerning tastes. The antonyms of discerning are: witless, obtuse, unintelligent, dull, unsophisticated, unwise, unaware, unknowing and clueless.
There are aspect of the iPhone that make it a bad choice for you, but for others it's the best option available. Whether you call it the Jesus Phone or the Wanker Phone one thing you can't deny is that it's presence is good for all consumers. How long did it take Nokia to stick 8GB into the N95 after the iPhone was released? How long did it take before multimedia became something that cell manufacturers started taking seriously with larger sized, higher-resolution screens? How many manufacturers had multi-touch handsets prior to the iPhone? I don't have numbers but I do recall the prices of all the other high-end phones dropping after the iPhone hit; that can't be a coincidence.
The next thing I'd like to see is the other manufacturers taking more time to develop their OS and UI. I'd also like to see them make software development more accessible to the average programmer and include a centralized app store so the average user doesn't have to scavenge the internet looking for a simple app. I don't care who borrows from who, I'm just glad that the years of stagnation has finally ended.
PS: I foresee that within 6 months of v2.0 launching there will be more apps for the iPhone than every other mobile platform combined.
Disaster is such obvious hyperbole that it makes it hard to reply to your posts. You also referred to people that liked the iPhone as not have discerning tastes. The antonyms of discerning are: witless, obtuse, unintelligent, dull, unsophisticated, unwise, unaware, unknowing and clueless.
Fair enough. How about uninformed, mainly due to the phones not being avail in the US. You can't appreciate what you do not see.
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There are aspect of the iPhone that make it a bad choice for you, but for others it's the best option available. Whether you call it the Jesus Phone or the Wanker Phone one thing you can't deny is that it's presence is good for all consumers. How long did it take Nokia to stick 8GB into the N95 after the iPhone was released? How long did it take before multimedia became something that cell manufacturers started taking seriously with larger sized, higher-resolution screens? How many manufacturers had multi-touch handsets prior to the iPhone? I don't have numbers but I do recall the prices of all the other high-end phones dropping after the iPhone hit; that can't be a coincidence.
Here again the iPhone was a harbinger of good things. As I tried to make clear several posts ago, I am more than happy with the iPod, email, web browsing features of the iPhone. Where it falls flat in my opinion is in the telephony functionality. Here I find it rather anemic with much room for improvement. Throughout this thread, I have tried to make this clear.
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The next thing I'd like to see is the other manufacturers taking more time to develop their OS and UI. I'd also like to see them make software development more accessible to the average programmer and include a centralized app store so the average user doesn't have to scavenge the internet looking for a simple app. I don't care who borrows from who, I'm just glad that the years of stagnation has finally ended.
The problem that phone manufactures such as Nokia have is that they are saddled with a 6 months conception to birth product cycle. There is no way to fully test software and hardware and work out all of the bugs. It seems that we the paying consumers will be perpetual beta testers.
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PS: I foresee that within 6 months of v2.0 launching there will be more apps for the iPhone than every other mobile platform combined.
That is an interesting proposal. Symbian has quite a large head start, and I am only talking S60. If we throw in UIQ, S40, S80, your 6 month projection might come up way short. However, if you are correct, I will buy you a Pepsi (I don't drink) and we will celebrate your prophetic nature and our collective good fortune.
Here again the iPhone was a harbinger of good things. As I tried to make clear several posts ago, I am more than happy with the iPod, email, web browsing features of the iPhone. Where it falls flat in my opinion is in the telephony functionality. Here I find it rather anemic with much room for improvement. Throughout this thread, I have tried to make this clear.
I wonder how good Nokia's first phone was on features. (j/k, that is not a fair comparison)
On the telephony side, it does make and recieve calls, which seems to be the most important aspect of telephony. It also has Speaker, Hold, Add Call(s), Switch Call, Keypad, Mute. That is pretty good for most people, and adequate for their foray into the cell market. Which manufacturer said that Apple can't just expect to come in and make a phone? Perhaps, in typical Apple fashion, they went with what they knew best while adding the necessary features that all users need.
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The problem that phone manufactures such as Nokia have is that they are saddled with a 6 months conception to birth product cycle. There is no way to fully test software and hardware and work out all of the bugs. It seems that we the paying consumers will be perpetual beta testers.
I'm reading a few things there. One, you are making excuses for Nokia; two, you're admitting that Nokia is playing catchup to Apple on that front; and, three, that the market was stagnant, and that Nokia and others were shuffling their feet until the iPhone came along.
You're right, that isn't enough time, despite having 17 months since the iPhone interfce was first debuted in January 2007. However, Apple is not exempt as it has shown that it too will rest on it's laurels if given the opportunity so it's sad that best alternative to Apple's UI is some mOS X-like visage on WinMobile 6. I really hope Android or someone else can really add some competition in that department.
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That is an interesting proposal. Symbian has quite a large head start, and I am only talking S60. If we throw in UIQ, S40, S80, your 6 month projection might come up way short. However, if you are correct, I will buy you a Pepsi (I don't drink) and we will celebrate your prophetic nature.
I'm expecting the growth to be similar to that of DashBoard widgets, many of which are very simple while being useful (is there a Tomatometer app for Symbian?). While there are many more developers that can create Widgets the ability to get paid for your work will balance that somewhat.
I wonder how good Nokia's first phone was on features. (j/k, that is not a fair comparison)
Well considering the Nokia 2110 and 2110i were the ones that pretty much started the mobile phone revolution (they only expected to sell a few thousand and ended up with a bit over 2 million), they did have SMS and a few other features. Not much though.
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On the telephony side, it does make and recieve calls, which seems to be the most important aspect of telephony. It also has Speaker, Hold, Add Call(s), Switch Call, Keypad, Mute. That is pretty good for most people, and adequate for their foray into the cell market. Which manufacturer said that Apple can't just expect to come in and make a phone? Perhaps, in typical Apple fashion, they went with what they knew best while adding the necessary features that all users need.
Yes and no. From anyone else, it might be excusable but Apple sets the bar high every time and in my opinion, it missed the mark. You are correct about the basics of telephony, but in my opinion once again, power users expect more from a phone that is supposed to be revolutionary, which in my eyes makes the iPhone an iPod with phone, but hey, this is my opinion. Hell, they even missed out on A2DP. All the major manufactures have this feature.
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I'm reading a few things there. One, you are making excuses for Nokia; two, you're admitting that Nokia is playing catchup to Apple on that front; and, three, that the market was stagnant, and that Nokia and others were shuffling their feet until the iPhone came along.
Not making excuses, just stating facts. Nokia didn't have to chase the US market and they were still on top, now it is no longer just a phone market. So they need to bring their A game. If it were purely phones, Nokia would win hands down. Apple introduced an OS and UI variable into the mix that Nokia is starting to address. Personally, I hope their device is as good as the next iPhone. I don't mind having two devices in my backpack, pocket, etc.... It's only money.
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You're right, that isn't enough time, despite having 17 months since the iPhone interfce was first debuted in January 2007. However, Apple is not exempt as it has shown that it too will rest on it's laurels if given the opportunity so it's sad that best alternative to Apple's UI is some mOS X-like visage on WinMobile 6. I really hope Android or someone else can really add some competition in that department.
ibid
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I'm expecting the growth to be similar to that of DashBoard widgets, many of which are very simple while being useful (is there a Tomatometer app for Symbian?). While there are many more developers that can create Widgets the ability to get paid for your work will balance that somewhat.
What I fear is a dearth of garbage apps. Maybe the good part of the iTunes store will be some sort of vetting.
To go off into the weeds a bit, I just spoke to Zibri of Ziphone fame. He said 2.0 is not an easy nut to crack. It will be difficult but can be done. Interesting times are coming.
I'm a Coke drinker, but you're on. 182 days from launch there will be more 3rd-party apps for the iPhone than all other 3rd-party mobile apps combined (web apps obviously not included).
Well considering the Nokia 2110 and 2110i were the ones that pretty much started the mobile phone revolution (they only expected to sell a few thousand and ended up with a bit over 2 million), they did have SMS and a few other features. Not much though.
Yes and no. From anyone else, it might be excusable but Apple sets the bar high every time and in my opinion, it missed the mark. You are correct about the basics of telephony, but in my opinion once again, power users expect more from a phone that is supposed to be revolutionary, which in my eyes makes the iPhone an iPod with phone, but hey, this is my opinion. Hell, they even missed out on A2DP. All the major manufactures have this feature.
Not making excuses, just stating facts. Nokia didn't have to chase the US market and they were still on top, now it is no longer just a phone market. So they need to bring their A game. If it were purely phones, Nokia would win hands down. Apple introduced an OS and UI variable into the mix that Nokia is starting to address. Personally, I hope their device is as good as the next iPhone. I don't mind having two devices in my backpack, pocket, etc.... It's only money.
ibid
What I fear is a dearth of garbage apps. Maybe the good part of the iTunes store will be some sort of vetting.
To go off into the weeds a bit, I just spoke to Zibri of Ziphone fame. He said 2.0 is not an easy nut to crack. It will be difficult but can be done. Interesting times are coming.
Did you take my offer on that Pepsi?
So what does A2DP have to do with being a really good phone? Or video recording, etc?
Seems to me that you're defining "good phone" based on the feature set you already have, and consigning the iPhone to "iPod with crappy phone appended" because it's strengths are somewhat different.
But that obliges us to define the segment according to what manufacturers like Nokia are already providing, and my contention is that Apple intends to move forward with their mobile computing platform by redefining that segment.
Insisting on this arbitrary definition of "good phone" is like mistaking "robust email functionality" for "the internet." One is a subset of the other, and when one embraces the larger context, the possibilities increase exponentially.
"Phone" is an app on a new breed of device. Apps, on a mobile computing platform, are relatively trivial. What's hard is balancing resource management, discoverability, power, consistent, intuitive UI, interconnectivity, etc.
Which is what Apple has done the spade work for. The underpinnings of a platform that allow, not just some of the apps you're used to, but entirely new apps that leverage ubiquitous connectivity and extremely easy to access functionality in ways we haven't thought of yet.
Calling the iPhone "an iPod with a phone" is just basic category confusion, because the "iPod" you're referencing, the Touch, is the soul other deployment (so far) of Apple's new mobile platform. The one without the phone app.
That doesn't trivialize the iPhone, it just drives home the nature of the platform
As far as this current iPhone is considered, it was and remains a disaster. A learning experience for Apple. For Nokia, it should serve and a catalyst as to what not to do, and what it should do.
Lol.
If you look in the dictionary, under the word "disaster", you will see a picture of Nokia's N-Gage.
A device which was supposed to merge telephony with mobile gaming.
It was Nokia's attempt to extend what mobile devices could offer in addition to being mere phones. And it revealed Nokia as utterly clueless in understanding both markets. We ought to have forgotten it, but Nokia keeps reviving the name.
They shouldn't do that. Screwing the pooch is one thing. But reminding everyone with photos showing the canine-abuse is just bad taste.
The money spent on promoting Nokia's "entertainment platform" was probably twice the development budget of the iPhone. Giant stands at E3 don't come cheap.
Thankfully no game developers were harmed in its creation.
What Nokia did during the two year development of the iPhone is stand completely still. Nokia is not so much resting on it's laurels, as nailed to them.
Yes, competition is great, and it would be awesome for the market if a competitor were to stand-up and respond to the iPhone. They might push the development of mobile devices even harder. But who exactly is going to do that?
It's not going to be Microsoft. Their customers are having to write their own interfaces.
Palm is dead already.
Rim will try to retain its niche. It's all it can do.
Only Google Andoid has a chance, but their platform is crippled as a platform. Linux and Java and OpenGL do not fit together to be a complete solution by a long chalk.
And it isn't going to be Nokia. You can't make better software with a soldering iron.
Oh well. Here's to iPhone 2.0 and a global roll-out.
Nokia, Samsung, SE etc do all of those things already. I don't know anyone who can't access their music, photos etc, because it's 'too complicated. A good majority of them can browse the web too exactly as you see it on your computer. And they do all of this whilst being cheaper and having extra features that the consumer may or may not choose to use, but they at least have the choice. In the UK and Europe, we already know how to use our phones. We don't need to job to be made any simpler, it's already simple enough.
20 years ago when I was using DOS on a PC, I also thought it was simple to do things like delete a file, create a new directory, move a file, rename a file and such. I didn't think it was complicated at all. Even editing config.sys and autoexec.bat files was a cake walk. And when a friend showed me how those things (except the editing config.sys and autoexec.bat files) were done with a GUI on his Macintosh SE. I still thought that doing things in DOS was simple and I wasn't that lazy that I needed a GUI to do it.
Well all of the changed when I statred using Windows 3.1 a few years later. I still thought (and still do) that using DOS was simple. But realized that it was complicated when compared to using a GUI with Windows 3.1. I can probablly still do 80% of the stuff I did in Dos back then. Do I want to? No. Once you learn a simplier way of doing things, you tend to not want to go back. No matter how simple you thought it was back then.
You keep referring to the iPhone as an "iPod with a telephone". Which is not quite right. The iPhone is an iPod AND a telephone. Unlike the Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc., the iPhone is a full fledge MP3 player. The others are cell phones that can play MP3 files. (usually with Window Media Mobile) With the others you are constantly reminded that you are playing your music on a cell phone everytime you navigate to find the next song or playlist to play, skip or repaet a song.
With the touch of a "button", the iPhone turns into an iPod with all the function and feel of a MP3 player. You tend to forget that it's also a telephone. That is until you recieve a call and the music fades and an iPhone reappears on the screen.
If you really don't care about the music features of a cell phone, it may be O.K. to say that Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc. had all of this before the iPhone. But if the music features of a cell phone is important to you, then there's no way that Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc. had anything even close to the music features of an iPhone. They wouldn't even stand up against MP3 players from Creative, Sansa or a Zune. Let alone an iPod.
And it's not fair to compare the interenet experience you get now on phones from Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc. to the iPhone and then say that they had the interenet way before the iPhone came out. For sure they had the interent before the iPhone came out but it's only after the iPhone came out that they improved upon that experience. Before the iPhone, the interent on the other phones was really only useful for accessing e-mail accounts. Browsing websites was a far cry from what you see now.
You can look at it this way. For $400 you'll getting a $300 iPod. So you're only paying $100for the telephone. What do to expect from a $100 cell phone. At least when it's time to upgrade you will still have a $300 iPod (if you unlock it) How much is that $600 "high end" Nokia going to be worth when it comes time to upgrade? It probabally won't even pass as a $50 MP3 player.
With the touch of a "button", the iPhone turns into an iPod with all the function and feel of a MP3 player. You tend to forget that it's also a telephone. That is until you recieve a call and the music fades and an iPhone reappears on the screen.
If you really don't care about the music features of a cell phone, it may be O.K. to say that Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc. had all of this before the iPhone. But if the music features of a cell phone is important to you, then there's no way that Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc. had anything even close to the music features of an iPhone. They wouldn't even stand up against MP3 players from Creative, Sansa or a Zune. Let alone an iPod.
Ok... what exactly do you expect your MP3 player to do? Personally I find being able to put music onto the device, finding it by Playlist, Artist, Album and Genre, and then actually playing it, is exactly what an MP3 player should do. What's missing from that exactly that an iPod does?
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And it's not fair to compare the interenet experience you get now on phones from Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc. to the iPhone and then say that they had the interenet way before the iPhone came out. For sure they had the interent before the iPhone came out but it's only after the iPhone came out that they improved upon that experience. Before the iPhone, the interent on the other phones was really only useful for accessing e-mail accounts. Browsing websites was a far cry from what you see now.
I think you're slightly misguided. We've had access to the Nokia browser since mid-2006. So Nokia were doing the 'proper web thing' long before there was even a whiff of the iPhone, never mind it's release. It was certainly not Apple who mastered the proper web on mobile phones, not by any stretch of the imagination.
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You can look at it this way. For $400 you'll getting a $300 iPod. So you're only paying $100for the telephone. What do to expect from a $100 cell phone. At least when it's time to upgrade you will still have a $300 iPod (if you unlock it) How much is that $600 "high end" Nokia going to be worth when it comes time to upgrade? It probabally won't even pass as a $50 MP3 player.
That only really has any bearing in the US. In the UK, a £269 iPhone + contract is going to be worth a hell of a lot less to me than a free N95 + contract. So with the N95, it's win win for the customer. A great phone, great features, no price, AND makes them money when they sell it.
If you look in the dictionary, under the word "disaster", you will see a picture of Nokia's N-Gage.
A device which was supposed to merge telephony with mobile gaming.
It was Nokia's attempt to extend what mobile devices could offer in addition to being mere phones. And it revealed Nokia as utterly clueless in understanding both markets. We ought to have forgotten it, but Nokia keeps reviving the name.
They shouldn't do that. Screwing the pooch is one thing. But reminding everyone with photos showing the canine-abuse is just bad taste.
The money spent on promoting Nokia's "entertainment platform" was probably twice the development budget of the iPhone. Giant stands at E3 don't come cheap.
Thankfully no game developers were harmed in its creation.
What Nokia did during the two year development of the iPhone is stand completely still. Nokia is not so much resting on it's laurels, as nailed to them.
Yes, competition is great, and it would be awesome for the market if a competitor were to stand-up and respond to the iPhone. They might push the development of mobile devices even harder. But who exactly is going to do that?
It's not going to be Microsoft. Their customers are having to write their own interfaces.
Palm is dead already.
Rim will try to retain its niche. It's all it can do.
Only Google Andoid has a chance, but their platform is crippled as a platform. Linux and Java and OpenGL do not fit together to be a complete solution by a long chalk.
And it isn't going to be Nokia. You can't make better software with a soldering iron.
Oh well. Here's to iPhone 2.0 and a global roll-out.
C.
You failed to mention "Minidisk" as well. This could be a red letter day when we agree on something. Both were not bad ideas but hampered with terrible execution. I think, and once again this my opinion, that mobile gaming is a waste of time. I have chess and othello on my iPhone and they sit there for weeks without ever being played. I have a few games on my N82 as well. I do not know if the market is ready or even if there is a market for gaming on phones. Time will tell.
You have a point again that Nokia did not bother with the US market as it should have and now the execs are formulating a battle plan. It will be interesting to see how this plays. Apple is equally as guilty of trying to shove a US model down European throats, and it cost them iPhone sales. I am also sure they got the message and will make more realistic offerings this time around. Either way, my money is ready for Nokia or Apple, or even both.
You failed to mention "Minidisk" as well. This could be a red letter day when we agree on something. Both were not bad ideas but hampered with terrible execution. I think, and once again this my opinion, that mobile gaming is a waste of time. I have chess and othello on my iPhone and they sit there for weeks without ever being played. I have a few games on my N82 as well. I do not know if the market is ready or even if there is a market for gaming on phones. Time will tell.
You have a point again that Nokia did not bother with the US market as it should have and now the execs are formulating a battle plan. It will be interesting to see how this plays. Apple is equally as guilty of trying to shove a US model down European throats, and it cost them iPhone sales. I am also sure they got the message and will make more realistic offerings this time around. Either way, my money is ready for Nokia or Apple, or even both.
My money is ready too. I really hope Apple don't screw up their second chance!
You failed to mention "Minidisk" as well. This could be a red letter day when we agree on something. Both were not bad ideas but hampered with terrible execution. I think, and once again this my opinion, that mobile gaming is a waste of time. I have chess and othello on my iPhone and they sit there for weeks without ever being played. I have a few games on my N82 as well. I do not know if the market is ready or even if there is a market for gaming on phones. Time will tell.
You have a point again that Nokia did not bother with the US market as it should have and now the execs are formulating a battle plan. It will be interesting to see how this plays. Apple is equally as guilty of trying to shove a US model down European throats, and it cost them iPhone sales. I am also sure they got the message and will make more realistic offerings this time around. Either way, my money is ready for Nokia or Apple, or even both.
Just out of curiosity, in what sense does "offering for sale" equal "shoving down one's throat"?
Just out of curiosity, in what sense does "offering for sale" equal "shoving down one's throat"?
It doesn't really. The expression should be that they were offering the wrong product at the wrong price. It was the right product at the right price for the US, but not for Europe.
Comments
The iPhone started as a project in 2005. After a year's work, it was unfinished. After another year it was done.
In two years Apple had created a completely new mobile platform from scratch.
In the same two years Nokia did what? Add more megapixels to its camera? Cram in GPS? Struggle to make its fonts even uglier? Add another set of sub-menus to its consumer phones?
Yes, the iPhone, as launched, was relatively feature-light. But it's not the features, it's the software stupid.
iPhone runs on Unix. Proper Unix.
This is advantage one. Advantage over the Psion-Organizer spawned Symbian, or the mini Windows 95 that became WinCE and Windows Mobile. The OSX core is a big win. But not nearly as big a win as advantage 2.
Advantage 2 is Cocoa. Previously known as NextStep. A set of software tools which let you build finished robust applications really quickly that run in native code. The apps are not using Java. They do not run as interpreted p-code.
Cocoa means iPhone application development can move ahead twice as fast as any other platform. And the apps will run twice as fast. Just this week we are seeing Chinese character recognition. We'll see push email. We'll get wireless calendar syncing. And Apple will roll-out features way faster than Nokia can roll out new phones.
Advantage 3 is the rasterizing and rendering technology. Including core animation. This means the apps don't look like ass. They look goood. They understand fonts. Chinese characters. Arbitrary scaling. PDFs . And each screen seamlessly and elegantly animates into the next. No one else in the industry has a display model built on top of PDF. And is happens fast too... because it all drives a GPU. So even though the N95 has a GPU, it does not make use of it to do the heavy lifting. No "scrolls like butter" here. More "scrolls like toast". In thick slices.
The question everyone asks of all companies is "Don't you think we could do that too"?
Could Apple add a GPS? Yes.
3G? Yes.
MMS? yep.
Could Apple toss in a 4K-RED 1- camera? Surely!
They could even add a silly Nokia D-pad keyboard if they wanted. It's just wires and chips. Adding these features is easy. That's why Nokia and SE fill their phones full of this crap. It's easy and makes the feature-list grow ever longer.
But turn this around. Can Nokia and the others catch up with Apple's software advantage?
Could Nokia switch to Unix/Linux? Probably....
Could they create an application building technology akin to NextStep / Cocoa? No! No way. It would take 10 years. Same again with the display model. It would take them too long. You can't add Cocoa with a soldering iron.
Notice we have not even talked about the iTunes media advantage?
Why is this so disruptive?
The way to appraise this situation is not to look at where these products are now. But to look at how fast they are evolving - and how the software technology they depend upon will limit that speed of development.
Nokia might be the elephant in the Mobile jungle. But Apple is the Cheetah. Nokia might be in front. But they can never catch-up. This race, it's over already.
Perhaps the best observation is Palm's CEO, Ed Colligan who said...
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
C.
Here's why the iPhone is the most disruptive product in the cellphone industry.
The iPhone started as a project in 2005. After a year's work, it was unfinished. After another year it was done.
In two years Apple had created a completely new mobile platform from scratch.
In the same two years Nokia did what? Add more megapixels to its camera? Cram in GPS? Struggle to make its fonts even uglier? Add another set of sub-menus to its consumer phones?
Yes, the iPhone, as launched, was relatively feature-light. But it's not the features, it's the software stupid.
iPhone runs on Unix. Proper Unix.
This is advantage one. Advantage over the Psion-Organizer spawned Symbian, or the mini Windows 95 that became WinCE and Windows Mobile. The OSX core is a big win. But not nearly as big a win as advantage 2.
Advantage 2 is Cocoa. Previously known as NextStep. A set of software tools which let you build finished robust applications really quickly that run in native code. The apps are not using Java. They do not run as interpreted p-code.
Cocoa means iPhone application development can move ahead twice as fast as any other platform. And the apps will run twice as fast. Just this week we are seeing Chinese character recognition. We'll see push email. We'll get wireless calendar syncing. And Apple will roll-out features way faster than Nokia can roll out new phones.
Advantage 3 is the rasterizing and rendering technology. Including core animation. This means the apps don't look like ass. They look goood. They understand fonts. Chinese characters. Arbitrary scaling. PDFs . And each screen seamlessly and elegantly animates into the next. No one else in the industry has a display model built on top of PDF. And is happens fast too... because it all drives a GPU. So even though the N95 has a GPU, it does not make use of it to do the heavy lifting. No "scrolls like butter" here. More "scrolls like toast". In thick slices.
The question everyone asks of all companies is "Don't you think we could do that too"?
Could Apple add a GPS? Yes.
3G? Yes.
MMS? yep.
Could Apple toss in a 4K-RED 1- camera? Surely!
They could even add a silly Nokia D-pad keyboard if they wanted. It's just wires and chips. Adding these features is easy. That's why Nokia and SE fill their phones full of this crap. It's easy and makes the feature-list grow ever longer.
But turn this around. Can Nokia and the others catch up with Apple's software advantage?
Could Nokia switch to Unix/Linux? Probably....
Could they create an application building technology akin to NextStep / Cocoa? No! No way. It would take 10 years. Same again with the display model. It would take them too long. You can't add Cocoa with a soldering iron.
Notice we have not even talked about the iTunes media advantage?
Why is this so disruptive?
The way to appraise this situation is not to look at where these products are now. But to look at how fast they are evolving - and how the software technology they depend upon will limit that speed of development.
Nokia might be the elephant in the Mobile jungle. But Apple is the Cheetah. Nokia might be in front. But they can never catch-up. This race, it's over already.
Perhaps the best observation is Palm's CEO, Ed Colligan who said...
?We?ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,? he said. ?PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They?re not going to just walk in.?
C.
Isn't it actually BSD? Didn't aegis give a wonderfully detail explanation regarding the rendering of fonts, pixels, etc??? Doesn't Nokia already have 3 Linux products, no make that 4 Linux products on the market?
I don't think anyone here denies that the software on the iPhone is top notch, no one here said the display was not great or the browsing experience was pretty good. From my understanding, the phone part of iPhone or as I call it, iPod with phone, are purely crap. Even Motorola could deliver better phone features. Man it is great to have a phone with the best software in the world without any really usable features on it. A great idea.
Nokia, Samsung, SE etc do all of those things already. I don't know anyone who can't access their music, photos etc, because it's 'too complicated. A good majority of them can browse the web too exactly as you see it on your computer. And they do all of this whilst being cheaper and having extra features that the consumer may or may not choose to use, but they at least have the choice. In the UK and Europe, we already know how to use our phones. We don't need to job to be made any simpler, it's already simple enough.
Spot on............
Isn't it actually BSD? Didn't aegis give a wonderfully detail explanation regarding the rendering of fonts, pixels, etc??? Doesn't Nokia already have 3 Linux products, no make that 4 Linux products on the market?
BSD *is* Unix. Although OSX itself is a mix of different Unix products. Mach core, and so on.
Nokia's font rendering technology is stone-aged compared to what Apple has. It's not just the screen size. That's why it looks so incredibly bad.
Nokia's lacklustre Linux products show exactly the problem they have.
I don't think anyone here denies that the software on the iPhone is top notch, no one here said the display was not great or the browsing experience was pretty good. From my understanding, the phone part of iPhone or as I call it, iPod with phone, are purely crap. Even Motorola could deliver better phone features. Man it is great to have a phone with the best software in the world without any really usable features on it. A great idea.
You seem not to have read the post.
Could Apple easily slot in new chips and improve telephony and data? Yes. Anyone can do this.
Anyone can buy chips. Anyone can solder. Anyone can read Mobile Phone Construction for Dummies, it is $9.99 on Amazon.
Could Nokia create something equivalent to Cocoa or Core Animation? No. It cannot possibly happen. By integrating this software into a mobile platform gives Apple a 5 year head start allows it move so fast that Nokia has barely time to read the press-releases. And without those technologies, Nokia can't start to catch up. It's fat grey elephantine legs are tied together.
C.
BSD *is* Unix. Although OSX itself is a mix of different Unix products. Mach core, and so on.
Nokia's font rendering technology is stone-aged compared to what Apple has. It's not just the screen size. That's why it looks so incredibly bad.
Nokia's lacklustre Linux products show exactly the problem they have.
You seem not to have read the post.
Could Apple easily slot in new chips and improve telephony and data? Yes. Anyone can do this.
Anyone can buy chips. Anyone can solder. Anyone can read Mobile Phone Construction for Dummies, it is $9.99 on Amazon.
Could Nokia create something equivalent to Cocoa or Core Animation? No. It cannot possibly happen. By integrating this software into a mobile platform gives Apple a 5 year head start allows it move so fast that Nokia has barely time to read the press-releases. And without those technologies, Nokia can't start to catch up. It's fat grey elephantine legs are tied together.
C.
I know what you're saying but Apple's iPhone with all the features you expect in a high end phone is just as much a mystery as Nokia's touch screen based phone that's currently in development. You're already heralding the new iPhone as a massive achievement without even knowing it's spec, whilst calling the equivalent Nokia phone a major flop, also without knowing it's spec (and I include the OS in the term 'spec'). So there's a massively biased posting if I ever saw one. Apple can cock up their new phone just as much as Nokia can cock up theirs.
You're already heralding the new iPhone as a massive achievement without even knowing it's spec, ... (and I include the OS in the term 'spec').
But we do know OS X, and we know Mobile OS X, and we've seen all the major "spec" changes that we'll shortly have in v2.0. And we've even had hands on experience with the SDK, its 5 updates in just a few short months, and seen impressive demos during the keynote and from more recent postings online of what we can expect from 3rd-parties developers.
But we do know OS X, and we know Mobile OS X, and we've seen all the major "spec" changes the v2.0 will shortly have. We've even had hands on experience with the SDK, its 5 updates in just a few short months, and seen impressive demos of what we can expect from 3rd-parties.
@solipsism and mrochester,
Both points hit on valid points. Fact is, Apple can still screw up with the final product. Hopefully not but look at Motorola and see a colossal screwup in the making. As for Nokia, I am quite interested to see how they will respond. Considering they are now really committed to making media devices rather than just phones, good things should be coming down the pipe. I just hope I have enough cash on had to buy from both.
As far as this current iPhone is considered, it was and remains a disaster. A learning experience for Apple. For Nokia, it should serve and a catalyst as to what not to do, and what it should do.
As far as this current iPhone is considered, it was and remains a disaster.
Disaster is such obvious hyperbole that it makes it hard to reply to your posts. You also referred to people that liked the iPhone as not have discerning tastes. The antonyms of discerning are: witless, obtuse, unintelligent, dull, unsophisticated, unwise, unaware, unknowing and clueless.
There are aspect of the iPhone that make it a bad choice for you, but for others it's the best option available. Whether you call it the Jesus Phone or the Wanker Phone one thing you can't deny is that it's presence is good for all consumers. How long did it take Nokia to stick 8GB into the N95 after the iPhone was released? How long did it take before multimedia became something that cell manufacturers started taking seriously with larger sized, higher-resolution screens? How many manufacturers had multi-touch handsets prior to the iPhone? I don't have numbers but I do recall the prices of all the other high-end phones dropping after the iPhone hit; that can't be a coincidence.
The next thing I'd like to see is the other manufacturers taking more time to develop their OS and UI. I'd also like to see them make software development more accessible to the average programmer and include a centralized app store so the average user doesn't have to scavenge the internet looking for a simple app. I don't care who borrows from who, I'm just glad that the years of stagnation has finally ended.
PS: I foresee that within 6 months of v2.0 launching there will be more apps for the iPhone than every other mobile platform combined.
Disaster is such obvious hyperbole that it makes it hard to reply to your posts. You also referred to people that liked the iPhone as not have discerning tastes. The antonyms of discerning are: witless, obtuse, unintelligent, dull, unsophisticated, unwise, unaware, unknowing and clueless.
Fair enough. How about uninformed, mainly due to the phones not being avail in the US. You can't appreciate what you do not see.
There are aspect of the iPhone that make it a bad choice for you, but for others it's the best option available. Whether you call it the Jesus Phone or the Wanker Phone one thing you can't deny is that it's presence is good for all consumers. How long did it take Nokia to stick 8GB into the N95 after the iPhone was released? How long did it take before multimedia became something that cell manufacturers started taking seriously with larger sized, higher-resolution screens? How many manufacturers had multi-touch handsets prior to the iPhone? I don't have numbers but I do recall the prices of all the other high-end phones dropping after the iPhone hit; that can't be a coincidence.
Here again the iPhone was a harbinger of good things. As I tried to make clear several posts ago, I am more than happy with the iPod, email, web browsing features of the iPhone. Where it falls flat in my opinion is in the telephony functionality. Here I find it rather anemic with much room for improvement. Throughout this thread, I have tried to make this clear.
The next thing I'd like to see is the other manufacturers taking more time to develop their OS and UI. I'd also like to see them make software development more accessible to the average programmer and include a centralized app store so the average user doesn't have to scavenge the internet looking for a simple app. I don't care who borrows from who, I'm just glad that the years of stagnation has finally ended.
The problem that phone manufactures such as Nokia have is that they are saddled with a 6 months conception to birth product cycle. There is no way to fully test software and hardware and work out all of the bugs. It seems that we the paying consumers will be perpetual beta testers.
PS: I foresee that within 6 months of v2.0 launching there will be more apps for the iPhone than every other mobile platform combined.
That is an interesting proposal. Symbian has quite a large head start, and I am only talking S60. If we throw in UIQ, S40, S80, your 6 month projection might come up way short. However, if you are correct, I will buy you a Pepsi (I don't drink) and we will celebrate your prophetic nature and our collective good fortune.
Here again the iPhone was a harbinger of good things. As I tried to make clear several posts ago, I am more than happy with the iPod, email, web browsing features of the iPhone. Where it falls flat in my opinion is in the telephony functionality. Here I find it rather anemic with much room for improvement. Throughout this thread, I have tried to make this clear.
I wonder how good Nokia's first phone was on features.
On the telephony side, it does make and recieve calls, which seems to be the most important aspect of telephony. It also has Speaker, Hold, Add Call(s), Switch Call, Keypad, Mute. That is pretty good for most people, and adequate for their foray into the cell market. Which manufacturer said that Apple can't just expect to come in and make a phone? Perhaps, in typical Apple fashion, they went with what they knew best while adding the necessary features that all users need.
The problem that phone manufactures such as Nokia have is that they are saddled with a 6 months conception to birth product cycle. There is no way to fully test software and hardware and work out all of the bugs. It seems that we the paying consumers will be perpetual beta testers.
I'm reading a few things there. One, you are making excuses for Nokia; two, you're admitting that Nokia is playing catchup to Apple on that front; and, three, that the market was stagnant, and that Nokia and others were shuffling their feet until the iPhone came along.
You're right, that isn't enough time, despite having 17 months since the iPhone interfce was first debuted in January 2007. However, Apple is not exempt as it has shown that it too will rest on it's laurels if given the opportunity so it's sad that best alternative to Apple's UI is some mOS X-like visage on WinMobile 6. I really hope Android or someone else can really add some competition in that department.
That is an interesting proposal. Symbian has quite a large head start, and I am only talking S60. If we throw in UIQ, S40, S80, your 6 month projection might come up way short. However, if you are correct, I will buy you a Pepsi (I don't drink) and we will celebrate your prophetic nature.
I'm expecting the growth to be similar to that of DashBoard widgets, many of which are very simple while being useful (is there a Tomatometer app for Symbian?). While there are many more developers that can create Widgets the ability to get paid for your work will balance that somewhat.
I wonder how good Nokia's first phone was on features.
Well considering the Nokia 2110 and 2110i were the ones that pretty much started the mobile phone revolution (they only expected to sell a few thousand and ended up with a bit over 2 million), they did have SMS and a few other features. Not much though.
On the telephony side, it does make and recieve calls, which seems to be the most important aspect of telephony. It also has Speaker, Hold, Add Call(s), Switch Call, Keypad, Mute. That is pretty good for most people, and adequate for their foray into the cell market. Which manufacturer said that Apple can't just expect to come in and make a phone? Perhaps, in typical Apple fashion, they went with what they knew best while adding the necessary features that all users need.
Yes and no. From anyone else, it might be excusable but Apple sets the bar high every time and in my opinion, it missed the mark. You are correct about the basics of telephony, but in my opinion once again, power users expect more from a phone that is supposed to be revolutionary, which in my eyes makes the iPhone an iPod with phone, but hey, this is my opinion. Hell, they even missed out on A2DP. All the major manufactures have this feature.
I'm reading a few things there. One, you are making excuses for Nokia; two, you're admitting that Nokia is playing catchup to Apple on that front; and, three, that the market was stagnant, and that Nokia and others were shuffling their feet until the iPhone came along.
Not making excuses, just stating facts. Nokia didn't have to chase the US market and they were still on top, now it is no longer just a phone market. So they need to bring their A game. If it were purely phones, Nokia would win hands down. Apple introduced an OS and UI variable into the mix that Nokia is starting to address. Personally, I hope their device is as good as the next iPhone. I don't mind having two devices in my backpack, pocket, etc.... It's only money.
You're right, that isn't enough time, despite having 17 months since the iPhone interfce was first debuted in January 2007. However, Apple is not exempt as it has shown that it too will rest on it's laurels if given the opportunity so it's sad that best alternative to Apple's UI is some mOS X-like visage on WinMobile 6. I really hope Android or someone else can really add some competition in that department.
ibid
I'm expecting the growth to be similar to that of DashBoard widgets, many of which are very simple while being useful (is there a Tomatometer app for Symbian?). While there are many more developers that can create Widgets the ability to get paid for your work will balance that somewhat.
What I fear is a dearth of garbage apps. Maybe the good part of the iTunes store will be some sort of vetting.
To go off into the weeds a bit, I just spoke to Zibri of Ziphone fame. He said 2.0 is not an easy nut to crack. It will be difficult but can be done. Interesting times are coming.
Did you take my offer on that Pepsi?
Did you take my offer on that Pepsi?
I'm a Coke drinker, but you're on. 182 days from launch there will be more 3rd-party apps for the iPhone than all other 3rd-party mobile apps combined (web apps obviously not included).
Well considering the Nokia 2110 and 2110i were the ones that pretty much started the mobile phone revolution (they only expected to sell a few thousand and ended up with a bit over 2 million), they did have SMS and a few other features. Not much though.
Yes and no. From anyone else, it might be excusable but Apple sets the bar high every time and in my opinion, it missed the mark. You are correct about the basics of telephony, but in my opinion once again, power users expect more from a phone that is supposed to be revolutionary, which in my eyes makes the iPhone an iPod with phone, but hey, this is my opinion. Hell, they even missed out on A2DP. All the major manufactures have this feature.
Not making excuses, just stating facts. Nokia didn't have to chase the US market and they were still on top, now it is no longer just a phone market. So they need to bring their A game. If it were purely phones, Nokia would win hands down. Apple introduced an OS and UI variable into the mix that Nokia is starting to address. Personally, I hope their device is as good as the next iPhone. I don't mind having two devices in my backpack, pocket, etc.... It's only money.
ibid
What I fear is a dearth of garbage apps. Maybe the good part of the iTunes store will be some sort of vetting.
To go off into the weeds a bit, I just spoke to Zibri of Ziphone fame. He said 2.0 is not an easy nut to crack. It will be difficult but can be done. Interesting times are coming.
Did you take my offer on that Pepsi?
So what does A2DP have to do with being a really good phone? Or video recording, etc?
Seems to me that you're defining "good phone" based on the feature set you already have, and consigning the iPhone to "iPod with crappy phone appended" because it's strengths are somewhat different.
But that obliges us to define the segment according to what manufacturers like Nokia are already providing, and my contention is that Apple intends to move forward with their mobile computing platform by redefining that segment.
Insisting on this arbitrary definition of "good phone" is like mistaking "robust email functionality" for "the internet." One is a subset of the other, and when one embraces the larger context, the possibilities increase exponentially.
"Phone" is an app on a new breed of device. Apps, on a mobile computing platform, are relatively trivial. What's hard is balancing resource management, discoverability, power, consistent, intuitive UI, interconnectivity, etc.
Which is what Apple has done the spade work for. The underpinnings of a platform that allow, not just some of the apps you're used to, but entirely new apps that leverage ubiquitous connectivity and extremely easy to access functionality in ways we haven't thought of yet.
Calling the iPhone "an iPod with a phone" is just basic category confusion, because the "iPod" you're referencing, the Touch, is the soul other deployment (so far) of Apple's new mobile platform. The one without the phone app.
That doesn't trivialize the iPhone, it just drives home the nature of the platform
As far as this current iPhone is considered, it was and remains a disaster. A learning experience for Apple. For Nokia, it should serve and a catalyst as to what not to do, and what it should do.
Lol.
If you look in the dictionary, under the word "disaster", you will see a picture of Nokia's N-Gage.
A device which was supposed to merge telephony with mobile gaming.
It was Nokia's attempt to extend what mobile devices could offer in addition to being mere phones. And it revealed Nokia as utterly clueless in understanding both markets. We ought to have forgotten it, but Nokia keeps reviving the name.
They shouldn't do that. Screwing the pooch is one thing. But reminding everyone with photos showing the canine-abuse is just bad taste.
The money spent on promoting Nokia's "entertainment platform" was probably twice the development budget of the iPhone. Giant stands at E3 don't come cheap.
Thankfully no game developers were harmed in its creation.
What Nokia did during the two year development of the iPhone is stand completely still. Nokia is not so much resting on it's laurels, as nailed to them.
Yes, competition is great, and it would be awesome for the market if a competitor were to stand-up and respond to the iPhone. They might push the development of mobile devices even harder. But who exactly is going to do that?
It's not going to be Microsoft. Their customers are having to write their own interfaces.
Palm is dead already.
Rim will try to retain its niche. It's all it can do.
Only Google Andoid has a chance, but their platform is crippled as a platform. Linux and Java and OpenGL do not fit together to be a complete solution by a long chalk.
And it isn't going to be Nokia. You can't make better software with a soldering iron.
Oh well. Here's to iPhone 2.0 and a global roll-out.
C.
Nokia, Samsung, SE etc do all of those things already. I don't know anyone who can't access their music, photos etc, because it's 'too complicated. A good majority of them can browse the web too exactly as you see it on your computer. And they do all of this whilst being cheaper and having extra features that the consumer may or may not choose to use, but they at least have the choice. In the UK and Europe, we already know how to use our phones. We don't need to job to be made any simpler, it's already simple enough.
20 years ago when I was using DOS on a PC, I also thought it was simple to do things like delete a file, create a new directory, move a file, rename a file and such. I didn't think it was complicated at all. Even editing config.sys and autoexec.bat files was a cake walk. And when a friend showed me how those things (except the editing config.sys and autoexec.bat files) were done with a GUI on his Macintosh SE. I still thought that doing things in DOS was simple and I wasn't that lazy that I needed a GUI to do it.
Well all of the changed when I statred using Windows 3.1 a few years later. I still thought (and still do) that using DOS was simple. But realized that it was complicated when compared to using a GUI with Windows 3.1. I can probablly still do 80% of the stuff I did in Dos back then. Do I want to? No. Once you learn a simplier way of doing things, you tend to not want to go back. No matter how simple you thought it was back then.
You keep referring to the iPhone as an "iPod with a telephone". Which is not quite right. The iPhone is an iPod AND a telephone. Unlike the Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc., the iPhone is a full fledge MP3 player. The others are cell phones that can play MP3 files. (usually with Window Media Mobile) With the others you are constantly reminded that you are playing your music on a cell phone everytime you navigate to find the next song or playlist to play, skip or repaet a song.
With the touch of a "button", the iPhone turns into an iPod with all the function and feel of a MP3 player. You tend to forget that it's also a telephone. That is until you recieve a call and the music fades and an iPhone reappears on the screen.
If you really don't care about the music features of a cell phone, it may be O.K. to say that Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc. had all of this before the iPhone. But if the music features of a cell phone is important to you, then there's no way that Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc. had anything even close to the music features of an iPhone. They wouldn't even stand up against MP3 players from Creative, Sansa or a Zune. Let alone an iPod.
And it's not fair to compare the interenet experience you get now on phones from Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc. to the iPhone and then say that they had the interenet way before the iPhone came out. For sure they had the interent before the iPhone came out but it's only after the iPhone came out that they improved upon that experience. Before the iPhone, the interent on the other phones was really only useful for accessing e-mail accounts. Browsing websites was a far cry from what you see now.
You can look at it this way. For $400 you'll getting a $300 iPod. So you're only paying $100for the telephone. What do to expect from a $100 cell phone. At least when it's time to upgrade you will still have a $300 iPod (if you unlock it) How much is that $600 "high end" Nokia going to be worth when it comes time to upgrade? It probabally won't even pass as a $50 MP3 player.
With the touch of a "button", the iPhone turns into an iPod with all the function and feel of a MP3 player. You tend to forget that it's also a telephone. That is until you recieve a call and the music fades and an iPhone reappears on the screen.
If you really don't care about the music features of a cell phone, it may be O.K. to say that Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc. had all of this before the iPhone. But if the music features of a cell phone is important to you, then there's no way that Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc. had anything even close to the music features of an iPhone. They wouldn't even stand up against MP3 players from Creative, Sansa or a Zune. Let alone an iPod.
Ok... what exactly do you expect your MP3 player to do? Personally I find being able to put music onto the device, finding it by Playlist, Artist, Album and Genre, and then actually playing it, is exactly what an MP3 player should do. What's missing from that exactly that an iPod does?
And it's not fair to compare the interenet experience you get now on phones from Sony, Nokia, Samsung, etc. to the iPhone and then say that they had the interenet way before the iPhone came out. For sure they had the interent before the iPhone came out but it's only after the iPhone came out that they improved upon that experience. Before the iPhone, the interent on the other phones was really only useful for accessing e-mail accounts. Browsing websites was a far cry from what you see now.
I think you're slightly misguided. We've had access to the Nokia browser since mid-2006. So Nokia were doing the 'proper web thing' long before there was even a whiff of the iPhone, never mind it's release. It was certainly not Apple who mastered the proper web on mobile phones, not by any stretch of the imagination.
You can look at it this way. For $400 you'll getting a $300 iPod. So you're only paying $100for the telephone. What do to expect from a $100 cell phone. At least when it's time to upgrade you will still have a $300 iPod (if you unlock it) How much is that $600 "high end" Nokia going to be worth when it comes time to upgrade? It probabally won't even pass as a $50 MP3 player.
That only really has any bearing in the US. In the UK, a £269 iPhone + contract is going to be worth a hell of a lot less to me than a free N95 + contract. So with the N95, it's win win for the customer. A great phone, great features, no price, AND makes them money when they sell it.
Lol.
If you look in the dictionary, under the word "disaster", you will see a picture of Nokia's N-Gage.
A device which was supposed to merge telephony with mobile gaming.
It was Nokia's attempt to extend what mobile devices could offer in addition to being mere phones. And it revealed Nokia as utterly clueless in understanding both markets. We ought to have forgotten it, but Nokia keeps reviving the name.
They shouldn't do that. Screwing the pooch is one thing. But reminding everyone with photos showing the canine-abuse is just bad taste.
The money spent on promoting Nokia's "entertainment platform" was probably twice the development budget of the iPhone. Giant stands at E3 don't come cheap.
Thankfully no game developers were harmed in its creation.
What Nokia did during the two year development of the iPhone is stand completely still. Nokia is not so much resting on it's laurels, as nailed to them.
Yes, competition is great, and it would be awesome for the market if a competitor were to stand-up and respond to the iPhone. They might push the development of mobile devices even harder. But who exactly is going to do that?
It's not going to be Microsoft. Their customers are having to write their own interfaces.
Palm is dead already.
Rim will try to retain its niche. It's all it can do.
Only Google Andoid has a chance, but their platform is crippled as a platform. Linux and Java and OpenGL do not fit together to be a complete solution by a long chalk.
And it isn't going to be Nokia. You can't make better software with a soldering iron.
Oh well. Here's to iPhone 2.0 and a global roll-out.
C.
You failed to mention "Minidisk" as well.
You have a point again that Nokia did not bother with the US market as it should have and now the execs are formulating a battle plan. It will be interesting to see how this plays. Apple is equally as guilty of trying to shove a US model down European throats, and it cost them iPhone sales. I am also sure they got the message and will make more realistic offerings this time around. Either way, my money is ready for Nokia or Apple, or even both.
You failed to mention "Minidisk" as well.
You have a point again that Nokia did not bother with the US market as it should have and now the execs are formulating a battle plan. It will be interesting to see how this plays. Apple is equally as guilty of trying to shove a US model down European throats, and it cost them iPhone sales. I am also sure they got the message and will make more realistic offerings this time around. Either way, my money is ready for Nokia or Apple, or even both.
My money is ready too. I really hope Apple don't screw up their second chance!
You failed to mention "Minidisk" as well.
You have a point again that Nokia did not bother with the US market as it should have and now the execs are formulating a battle plan. It will be interesting to see how this plays. Apple is equally as guilty of trying to shove a US model down European throats, and it cost them iPhone sales. I am also sure they got the message and will make more realistic offerings this time around. Either way, my money is ready for Nokia or Apple, or even both.
Just out of curiosity, in what sense does "offering for sale" equal "shoving down one's throat"?
Just out of curiosity, in what sense does "offering for sale" equal "shoving down one's throat"?
It doesn't really. The expression should be that they were offering the wrong product at the wrong price. It was the right product at the right price for the US, but not for Europe.