Just try to look at Apple’s new iPhone without cursing. Go ahead, try it. You know who else is cursing? Microsoft, RIM, Nokia, Verizon, and Sprint, to name a few. This daggum rickafrackin thing is going to smash the bejeebers out of everything else.
There are a lot of blue chip companies in on creating the iPhone, but let’s start with who’s not in on it. The only wireless carrier for the iPhone is Cingular, a.k.a. AT&T, which leaves the rest to the now suddenly low tech BlackBerries and BlackJacks. The iPhone is a phone, a computer, a video iPod, a camera, and an Internet machine.
Next loser: Microsoft. Apple, Inc. (they dropped “Computer” as of today) CEO Steve Jobs made a passing mention of Zune’s reception by the public, for that’s all it deserved.
“We had a new competitor this holiday season, Microsoft’s Zune,” said Jobs at MacWorld in San Francisco. “How’d they do? They garnered 2% market share in November 2006… we don’t have data for December.”
As Microsoft was busy releasing yet another copycat product (a kind of ugly one at that), Apple was busy making a phone that was also a widescreen iPod, among several other things, and years beyond even the Asian market (iPhone won’t be released in Asia until 2008).
“iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone,” said Jobs.
He says it’s revolutionary and magical because it doesn’t have a keypad. The face of it is a touch-screen, operated by the fingers, not a stylus, with both the number pad and QWERTY keyboard accessible through the video screen. Of course, that also means if you break the screen, you’re screwed.
“We are all born with the ultimate pointing device — our fingers — and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse,” he said.
Ooh. I love it when you talk all high-tech, Steve.
Before we talk specs, software, operating system, and partnerships (which include Yahoo and Google), let’s talk sensors. This thing knows when the user shifts from portrait to landscape view and adjusts the screen accordingly, by using the 50’s sci-fi sounding “accelerometer.”
It also knows when a user puts it up to their ear, using a proximity sensor, and turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent key touches. An ambient light sensor adjusts the brightness automatically.
Okay, now the nitty-gritty:
Release date: June 2007 in the US (time enough to get FCC approval); late 2007 in Europe.
Price: 4GB model for $499; 8GB for $599
Features:
OSX operating system
Visual Voicemail (for choosing which voicemail to listen to directly);
SMS with full QWERTY soft keyboard;
Calendar application that syncs with PC or Mac;
2 megapixel camera and photo management software;
Quad-band GSM phone with EDGE and Wi-Fi for data networking
Widescreen iPod that syncs with simultaneously launched Apple TV.
HTML email client compatible with POP3, IMAP, MS Exchange, Apple .Mac Mail, AOL Mail, Gmail, and Yahoo! Mail.
Safari web browser with full web display and zoom-in capability activated by double-tapping the screen.
Googel Maps
Yahoo oneSearch
Unlockable by sliding finger across screen
Jobs says the goal is to capture a one percent market share in 2008, or sales of about 10 million units.
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