The growing momentum about the not-so-secret iPhone adds serious cred to the idea of Apple introducing its own phone.
This is great news for the ease of use of cell phones, and a death-knell for the Blackberry users who think obscure knowledge of how to turn off their ringer is somehow a badge of honor.
Dave Pogue's most recent public rage against the cellphone user interface is one signpost along the path, and even mac-agnostic Joel Spolsky delivers a bitingly critical review of a free Samsung phone he was sent. But of the Apple iPhone, you can count on a few things for certain.
1. The iPhone will sport an iPod like user interface, and be like an iPod that you can make phone calls with. It will be a humble phone.
2. The integration with iTunes will be superb, scrolling through the store and listening to previews like the web experience.
3. The iPhone will sync contacts with Address Book (and Outlook on Windows?), and hopefull iSync will finally be useful.
4. It will have Bluetooth and the awesome feature, of having the id of the caller appear on your computer without having to unleash your phone, will become ubiquitous and indispensable.
5. You'll be able to access your phone book and reach anyone on it will take less than 5 seconds, 2 scrolls, and 1 button press.
6. The iPhone will support both the bluetooth wireless headset and stereo specs. so your experience of listening to tunes and switching to take an incoming call will be apple-smooth, getting to choose whether the music pauses while you take a call, dims to background level behind the conversation, or mixes in with the call so your caller can hear what you're listening to.
Several other vendors have apparently created small network brands, buying a share of bandwidth from the larger cellular coverage networks, but this might be Apple's Achilles Heel in the venture, for as good as the user experience will be with the iPhone, if the carrier reception is poor or easily overloaded, listening to the cool tunes will be cold comfort.
1 comment:
I recall reading Joel's "review" with amusement. Wonder how the Samsung marketing folks took the news - "Hey! Look! We got the product name on a high profile geek website!"
I have often wondered why phone interfaces are so terrible - I can't even walk down the street while looking up an address on my phone without being distracted enough that I walk into traffic. And would anyone think I need those crappy little games on my phone?
I'm really optimistic Apple will make an unlocked, simple, easy-to-use phone for less than $300. I'd be seriously tempted by such a nifty little iPhone. But if they made something like this I'd be forced to buy it an any price!
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