iPhone: Everything wrong about a phone!
Apple, Industry News February 7th, 2008
Okay, it is about time that I put my idea on the iPhone, since it has been around for about a year. I live in the UAE, so everyone must know that the mobile technology advancement in here is way ahead of the known technologies in the USA, it is a fact and I’ve seen it in front of my eyes, and been hearing about it all over the net every time someone talks of some service in the USA or some new mobile. The simple equation is that if you have an open market like in the UAE, you are most probably going to experience some of the most advance gadgets in the world.
My point is really clear; I’m not a PC vs. MAC “guy”, I’m more of a technology lover, I like good stuff that gives me hope of a better tomorrow and a dream like future (which will happen wither we like it or not).
I’ve read all the talk that have been running around the Internet about this “Jesus” phone, I’ve heard of many competitors and many tries that for some reason Analysts and writers always called them “a failure” compared to the iPhone… So, I started questioning my self: is this just ridiculous?
So I reached into a simple conclusion: These writers and analysts are a bunch of air-head, talk-loving, rumor-spreading, unreliable sources, and for all what I know, they do their job because they are being paid for it. let me explain.
Why do I call them air-heads? Basically, because all their talk and hype lifting stories are only based on: the look, and the good talk from Steve Jobs conferences, without taking into consideration the bad side of every single feature the iPhone has, or may I say: don’t have.
Guys, at some point in history Steve Jobs had a great idea, he actually lead the start of a PC (Personal Computers) market from its “A” point, in other words, 20 years ago, Steve Jobs had a new thing to show the world, but now, sorry to say this: He is fooling people around by joining the Hollywood hype of advertisements and cheating marketing strategies. I’m not talking about Microsoft here, so don’t start bringing up names and other companies; I’m only talking about the Apple as it being the Apple brand, nothing more and nothing less. If you think that Apple is great then that’s good for you, and if you hate them then also good for you, because at the end life goes on and sticking to an opinion is not as bad as it sounds after all.
Anyways, the way I would like to think of this whole market war is: Give me more, in less price; I’ll then respect you until someone else brings up something good… If I buy a Samsung and love it and after one year I find a nice thing from Phillips then I will defiantly shift, especially if it suits my standard of life; I’m not going to stick around Samsung and defend them for whatever they do, I’ll not even care of them until they keep up with the commitment and potential they showed me in the product that I bought from them. I think that everybody agrees on this part.
And now, after the respected reviews are out and the iPhone spics are revealed and been tested I would like to announce my full disrespect to Apple’s Steve Job for all the talk he did and all the dreams he made me had of a brighter future!
Around me right now people who own 3.5G compatible phones, with full browsing support, and full flash and JAVA support, with expendable memory that I think is really cheap in the UAE (2 GB card for DHR 200 = USD 50 ), with high resolution cameras, video recording, any song ringtones, nice and bright screens, audio and video playback, visual voice mail through the network, Mobile TV (through the wonderful 3.5G network we have), MMS and email support, free SDK support for developers, and much much more.
All of this makes me wonder why do people still talk of the iPhone? Then it pops up and the answer comes: it is because of the Multi-Touch Screen, the coolness of the flicking motion that you do to view lists and pictures… That’s it??????!!
History is repeating itself! Remember when Steve Started the PC evolution and everybody were hyped and cool about it, but what did actually happen next? Steve found himself stuck with no usable software, so bill takes the game and starts the real revolution… So, what do I want to say? Well, I believe that the iPhone is a real failure for Steve, maybe not money wise, but morally and technologically, simply because he has a huge fan base, but if you come to think about it very well, the iPhone cuts the human mental smartness into 2 pieces and grills the brains of people then stab us in the back with a handful of evilness and absolutely ugly intentions.
Eventually some company is going to take over the Multi-touch Screen and re-introduce it in a better way and better services or hardware; in a way that will really serve the human race the right direction, going parallel with the technology that people get from their networks and service providers.
The iPhone has nothing new except for the touch-Screen which might be the best thing around but with humiliation we cause to our selves by using this outdated, service wise, mobile that has got the attention of the entire human race.
Don’t get me wrong people, but the iPhone really is nothing but a cooperation game which Steve decided to play with AT&T, throwing away all of his nice and respectable morals and way of thinking.
iPhone is: a system that works so good that it reminds me of a Flash game; a system so damn good that it is actually a flash game and you’ll eventually get bored of it; a system that is so money-sucking that it reminds me of a GAME!
Enjoy the hype people; I’m still waiting for a better phone, a better device, or maybe a better iPhone! :)
Peace out.
February 8th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Like many reviewers coming at this from the traditional smartphone market, you seem to have missed the point. It’s not about features: it’s about pure, unadulterated user experience.
How else do you explain that, despite being latecomers to the smartphone market, not supporting 3G, and having a comparatively insignificant (~2%) marketshare, iPhones already make up a disproportionate portion of all mobile internet traffic as seen by Google? (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/technology/14apple.html). It’s because, as with the rest of its other ‘limited’ features, the iPhone makes it easy, even pleasurable, to browse. It literally encourages frequent use through design.
‘More features=Better” is an outdated mindset, which is no longer valid in the evaluation of new and consumer technology. User experience is everything now that computing is becoming increasingly ubiquitous.
As the iPhone platform is now being opened up, with an official SDK coming out at the end of the month, the little multitouch tablet may yet reveal itself as one of the most versatile of consumer gadgets currently on the market. Anyone with a jailbroken iPhone can attest to that potential - and as that versatility is built on top of a solid user interface framework, third party applications can and will benefit from a superior user experience.
February 8th, 2008 at 12:23 am
Well said Giuliano! I own a mere Ipod Touch, and it is such a awesome machine that I cannot live without it anymore. It’s about using the thing that makes me so happy. I have had dozens of cellphones, and I’m just so disgusted with them that I promised myself that the only cellphone II will buy, must be an Iphone! I don’t care about numbers,features, bla bla bla, if it takes me to a college course to use it!! With my Ipod touch (jailbroken) I can do sooo many things, all day long with joy, and pleasure, that when I read some articles like this I can’t help myself to reply. Here in Brasil, we don’t have Iphones, this is the real shame for apple, not to allow everybody to have one.
February 8th, 2008 at 1:11 am
@Giuliano Maciocci:
So you are saying that fooling the consumer and taking them back 5 years in software and some hardware technology is: “pure, unadulterated user experience”! And why in god’s earth would you think that having adulterated experience is bad? or maybe you are implying that iPhone is for kids?!
Listen, I really believe that you are misunderstanding that article you posted from the NY Times; that article has nothing to do with what I’m trying to say! I’m not saying that people are “not” buying the iPhone; I’m not giving statics and analytics and excel spread sheets! What I’m trying to say in my original post is that Apple is simply fooling the world and making them go to basics when the world is actually in a whole new level of technology and software goodness!
More features is always better and this explains why Apple is going to release their SDK; they need developers to build more software hence more features, and if “more features” is outdated why don’t you buy a phone with nothing special in it, how about a 5 years old NOKIA? less features, suits your taste and mind flow!
Guys, my problem here is not about Apple selling the product or not, it’s about the real deal in this product and why this whole “I want one” thing is popping up everywhere?! I can understand that people are loving the multi-touch screen, but other than that why would anyone buy a mobile phone (it is not a smart phone, never) that has 1/4 of the features that you would get from many other years older phones out there? Don’t tell me because it is better; it is a big marketing scam from Apple to sell something that will take you to basics and make you an illiterate slave hoping for less in this world, which works great for Apple, not so much for the people!
February 8th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Yeah, but the iPhone is so much fun to use. It’s not about which is the fanciest or fastest, or else everyone would be driving Porsches. Some people like smaller cars with good gas mileage that are put together with well, you know, with farvegnugen. That cool feeling you get when you use something. Sure, there are faster cars, but isn’t a convertible bug simply fun to drive?
BTW, this is my first cell phone EVAR!
February 8th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
You just don’t get it… do you? I don’t need a spaceship phone! I want a phone easy to understand, that makes things that I need it to do, fun to use, nice to look at. Maybe you are a Nasa engineer that needs a weird lot of superadvanced gadget. I need a phone that I like to work with! Imagine that even my 78 year old Mom, is playing with my Ipod Touch. And she will buy one! What else can I say? Have a nice day.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
The old-fashioned mindset of “features are everything” is still, sadly, prevalent, and the author appears to be of that school of thought: archaic thinking that leads to arcane interfaces.
“Zen” minimalism and a focused feature set are still poorly understood concepts when it comes to personal electronics… But we’re working on that.
February 11th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I agree with Giuliano, when are we going to stop designing by engineers and look at it from a users perspective. For someone that says they don’t discriminate you do a good job of attacking Apple, but that isn’t important now, what i find hilarious in your article is that you said:
“I like good stuff that gives me hope of a better tomorrow and a dream like future”
But that is what the iPhone is, it’s designed around the user to promote data connectivity, increasing the users ability to use data services which are not hidden 3 levels deep in a menu or worse like a mokia (yes i did want to spell it that way).
The other thing it does is has is a simple slick interface and all this using latest features and technology that the user will use. So if a user wants 3G fair enough they will look for another phone but seriously who uses 3G to the extend it was designed for? Not many users, infact there is probably only a few people that do use the internet on their phones but that is increasing, and Apple have shown a new way of incorporating new services that will drive data revenue while not compromising the usability.
You praise other manufacturers for putting in more technology, but if it wasn’t for Apple, how many of them would have started looking into better touchscreen models and trying to out-do Apple with more megapixels? How many of those devices would have even looked at multitouch or haptic feedback? As for the increased megapixels, well what is the point, the lens will still be shockingly bad, i have a Sony Ericsson K850 with 5MP and supposedly has a good lens from the Cybershot range, which is still nothing to write home about, but as long as someone else is using propaganda to promote their product thats fine as long as it’s not the man in charge of Apple.
To conclude you remind me of a baby that has had it’s toys taken from its pram, and lets not even mention your spelling, but again that’s not important right now, as you are really only interested in bringing more attention to your opinionated blog by using apple as a buzz word as well as iPhone,
In future if you are doing an article on Apple would it not be a good idea to at least spell Steve Jobs the correct way, it’s STEVE JOBS NOT JOB.
now i have nothing more to say and i will not be back to this blog again so no need to reply as i am not interested, your opinion is not worth reading again
February 20th, 2008 at 1:49 am
Here we go again.
No one can say anything critical about something your love. You are so blind sighted that you can’t see the limitations in anything.
It is American. The article is not saying hate your Iphones. It is talking about the out-dated Technology behind the product. Frankly all Cell phone technologies in the US is out-dated.
Apple had the opportunity to use AT&T’s 3G network but choose not to. The Iphone not only out-dated in the US, it is out-date everywhere else. The Iphone clones by the Chinese has more features and it is half the price.
Don’t go into a crying mode every time someone criticize your phone.
Point out what you think makes your phone the best. Or you just don’t want to feel bad you over paid for a phone.
February 29th, 2008 at 2:36 am
So I had a 3g moto razr with the Opera browser that was very fast but couldn’t accomplish anything. It would surf Amazon, Hotwire etc very fast but I couldn’t actually buy or bid on anything. With the iPhone I can accomplish lots of stuff: buy and bid on stuff, navigate with google maps, even send text messages (I’m 45, this stuff is new to me!) all while driving my truck at work. The iPhone makes it fun and easy!
I agree with both Saad and Giuliano, yes more features are better, *If* they are easily useable. The Moto took endless button pushing to do very little, the iPhone just a few taps to accomplish most of what I need to do.
Plus I’m sure in time the iPhone will have all the features Saad talks about, but of course Apple will dole them out very slowly so that we have to buy a new expensive phone every 12-24 months but for me it’s worth it. What price time saved?
Just as an aside, in 5 yrs time the most advanced cities in the world will be in the Middle East, China, Russia. The pace of development is amazing. 25 yrs ago I traveled a bit in the Middle East and it was beautiful and the people so very friendly but I would never have guessed it would be leading the world someday.
It is a very exciting time to be a young man in the UAE I believe, Mr Rabia! And yes I’m very envious of your 3.5 network!
July 19th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Nice blog, i have added it to my favourites, greetings