Thursday, December 07, 2006

The Apple phone flop | Perspectives | CNET News.com

A successfully provocative perspective on the rumored iPhone.  Read the article for details. 

Apple is slated to come out with a new phone. Reports say that it will have a slide-out keyboard, 4GB or 8GB of storage, and work on CDMA or GSM cellular networks. It will start at $249 before subscription rebates.

And it will largely fail.

Initially, of course, it won't look that way at all. As with any Apple product release, it will be ushered into the world on a wave of obligatory gushing. "It's the greatest advance in communication since cave painting," some will proclaim. "Like Star Trek, but without the clingy Qiana shirts."

I think there's another interesting dynamic in this context: if Apple directly takes on the major phone handset manufacturers, the leading vendors will probably be much more receptive to expanding their relationships with Microsoft -- i.e., doing more with Windows Mobile.  tbd if that will ultimately be a net loss for Apple, but they probably have to do the phone regardless, given the expanding overlap between phones and media players.  It's going to be a milestone product, one way or another...

Source: The Apple phone flop | Perspectives | CNET News.com

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"It's the greatest advance in communication since cave painting..."

Iceman: you're as funny today as you were in Clark hall. I wish I could get to the East coast one of these days.

pbokelly said...

Alas, I can't take credit for that line; it was a quote from the article. I think I may need to update my blogging template to make the quote blocks clearer.

In the meantime, not-so-anonymous, emails I try to send to you at the work address I had keep bouncing; how about sending me your current address?

Anonymous said...

I'm having troubles locating your email address, which is partly why I posted that comment. I have a few more places to dig. I like your blog, BTW. Sorry about using your space for IM instead of real bloggage. I'll be in touch soon.

pbokelly said...

No worries

Check the acm.org email address at http://www.burtongroup.com/promo/columns/column.asp?articleid=168&employeeid=157