I have no reason to have a multi-touch, proximity, accelerometer or any other cool, but worthless gadget in my phone. It looks cool when you spin a picture around with 2 fingers, but it serves no purpose. I’d rather give that up and have 3G which does have a purpose. Or how about a battery I can change myself like Windows Mobile devices? If your phone goes dead you sit there bored. If mine goes dead I change the battery and continue doing whatever I need to do.

“Above all the iPhone has modern OS (OS X) with a REAL web browser and Wi-Fi to boot.”
Windows Mobile 6 was released in 2007.. I’d call that modern. My Windows Mobile based phone has had a REAL web browser and Wi-Fi for YEARS before the iphone was ever thought of. You wouldn’t know because you’ve never even touched a Windows Mobile device have you? And if I didn’t like the browser I could go download one of the countless other browsers since 3rd party applications are allowed. If you find that a feature is missing from your browser then you’re just out of luck because Apple already decided what you should/shouldn’t do with YOUR phone. Oh and since Jobs decided for all users that Flash isn’t good enough, your “real” web browser doesn’t support one of the most commonly used technologies. I wouldn’t call that a “real” browser. I’d call it “missing features”.. just like the rest of the iphone.

“Slapping together hardware, software, and services developed by different companies makes for a weak user experience.”
No, it makes for a great experience with lots of competition and innovation. When there is no competition (i.e. you have to get everything from Apple) then they have no incentive to make it better. A weak user experience is when you can only install Apple approved browser based applications. I can install all kinds of 3rd party applications (that are REAL applications) that give me a MUCH better user experience than a closed, proprietary iphone will ever have. A weak user experience comes from your cell phone manufacturer deciding which carrier you should be with. Fewer choices ALWAYS means worse experience for the user.

It’s a horrible business model and it’s why Apple can’t takeover Windows in the PC market either. With Windows you have tons of choices for hardware, software, etc. where the Macs have only 1 choice with 1 ridiculous price. The bottom line is Apple knows their products are shiny, but inferior in functionality. To stay in business they know they have to control every aspect of their products and consumers. Limiting consumer choices is the only thing Apple has ever been consistently good at.

Hype?

Also-ran phone makers like Samsung have learned nothing. They are following the same FAILED strategy that Microsoft used to develop it’s iPod killing Zune. Seven years after the debut of the iPod(iPhone), no one has come close to learning it’s lessons as Apple gobbled up 80% of the market, while becoming the #1 retail music distributor at the expense of Walmart, Best Buy, and Amazon (8%). Now we see the same cycle repeating itself with the iPhone.

There is no attack of the clones. These are simply recycled models with a touchscreen slapped on. Not a Multi-Touch (gesture) phone, with a Proximity Sensor and an Accelerometer (think Nintendo Wii) touchscreen, but the same-old tried kiosk touchscreen that adorns every ATM machine. Same goes for the software and services. The Symbian OS and Windows Mobile are junk, along with also-ran music services. Integration is key.

What hype?

The ground break triad of integrated hardware (iPod/iPhone), software (iTunes), and services (iTunes Music Store), developed using a non-commodity based vertical model, defies everything that this industry has thrived on since the rise of the Windows PC. Slapping together hardware, software, and services developed by different companies makes for a weak user experience.

The problem for iPhone competitors is not features and price, rather their entire way of doing business.

Watch the video about iPhone 2.0 developments… (a great section in it about games for the iPhone - think Nintendo Wii)
(link)

Apple has changed the wireless phone market forever. Just like they have with Music and the first commercial non-DRM tracks, Apple has changed wireless well beyond hardware and software, being the first company to get revenue sharing from a wireless provider and circumvent them as the frontman.

You need to do some research.

It’s funny how so many people these days think that when something is wildly popular and people are excited about it, it’s just a fad or or some kind of infatuation (love affair). But the industry has changed and you just can see it, because your using “last years thinking” in a new age of technology.

We just see something you can’t, because it’s what we’ve been waiting for all along. Change.

Apple’s iPhone vs Smartphone Software Makers
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/03/07/apples-iphone-vs-smartphone-software-makers/#more-1618

iPhone 2.0 SDK: Video Games to Rival Nintendo DS, Sony PSP
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/03/20/iphone-20-sdk-video-games-to-rival-nintendo-ds-sony-psp/#more-1650

That must be why the iPhone now exceeds Windows Mobile in marketshare. The crown doesn’t go to those in third place, like Windows Moblie.

iPhone trumping Windows Mobile ownership
(link)

iPhone Smashes Windows Mobile and Motorola in 4Q
(link)

Canalys, Symbian: Apple iPhone Already Leads Windows Mobile in US Market Share, Q3 2007
(link)

The Spectacular Failure of WinCE and Windows Mobile
(link)

Whahaha… another critic about to go down in flames…

The iPhone is a game changer in just about every way that counts. Yes, there were touch phones before the iPod and many more after, BUT not Multi-Touch (gesture), with a Proximity Sensor and an Accelerometer (think Nintendo Wii), with 300 patents to protect it from also-ran phones from Nokia and others.

Above all the iPhone has modern OS (OS X) with a REAL web browser and Wi-Fi to boot. Also, the iPhone is about integrated software design and a developer friendly SDK. For the average user this will result in a superior user experience that goes well beyond current phones with inferior operating systems and troublesome development models.

Apple’s iPhone vs Smartphone Software Makers
(link)

iPhone 2.0 SDK: Video Games to Rival Nintendo DS, Sony PSP
(link)

I hear Apple fans say that all the time, but it’s simply not true. Touch phones were in the mass market already thanks to Palm and Windows Mobile, and those 2 still enjoy a huge majority in market share over Apple. Apple brought touch to the people who care about “looking cool”. Those are the people who are shocked when I explain that touch screens really did exist before the iPhone.

“I’ve not used touch on a Windows Mobile device, so I can’t comment on that experience.”

I’ve used Palm, Windows Mobile and an iPhone. Without a doubt the Palm was the clear loser out of those 3. Between the other 2 I’d say the touch aspects are about the same, but Windows Mobile devices have far superior features that simply don’t exist on the iPhone yet. Good touch control is only as good as the features you’re controlling. Without 3G, 3rd party apps, active sync, GPS and tons of other features, the iPhone can’t “touch” a Windows Mobile device.

I like my buttons (or touch screen), thanks.

• Mr. Ludd