- Apple's iPhone will launch friday, and the reviews are (mostly) positive. Here's a review from WSJ that calls the iPhone "a beautiful, breakthrough device."
- I'll point out the flaws, because we all know it has a cool interface. We know it plays music. And hopefully, we know that because it's not Microsoft, we won't have to reboot the thing a few times a week. But drawbacks? Also from the WSJ above, "the quality of voice calls was good but not great," and "took issue with the 'excruciatingly slow' data network."
- So my thoughts are that I'm sure it's great with music, and perhaps has a new wizbang interface for voicemail and your calendar. But will browsing the web be a fun experience? I'm not going to shill for other brands or even ridicule Apple. But aren't there other phones out there that provide the same or similar features at a better price and maybe even better overall performance?
- Again, I'm a power user and need power and speed. Maybe my view is a little different. If all I wanted was to make calls, get voicemail, play songs, and tap out an occassional text message, maybe the iPhone would do it. But I can do all that now plus a whole lot more, at a higher speed.
- Talked with a young coworker, who is a prime demographic for Apple. He said he'd love one, but he doesn't want to spend $600 and $60 a month for service. That's where the rubber will meet the road. Other than the surge of early adopters, will there be lines for the thing in a month or two? It's a big price tag compared to other phones that are now being discounted to counter the iPhone.
- Eventually, Apple will tap into higher speed networks and version 2.0 will have "lessons learned" built in. That's when I'll take a closer look. But my "cellphone soul" is currently owned by ATT on a 2-year contract that won't expire until 2009!
