“If you’ve ever wondered how it works, this is how it works: I don’t call Steve, Steve calls me. Or more accurately, someone in Steve Jobs’s office calls someone in my office—someone at a much higher pay grade —to say that he has something cool. I then fly to the metastasized strip mall called Cupertino, Calif., where Apple lives, sign some legal confidentiality stuff and am escorted to a conference room that contains Jobs, some associates, and some lumps concealed under some black towels. I stare at what was under the towels. Everybody else stares at me,” Lev Grossman reports for Time Magazine.
Grossman reports, “This is how Apple, and nobody else, introduces new products to the press. It can be awkward, because Jobs is high-strung and he expects you to be impressed. I was, fortunately, and with good reason. Apple’s new iPhone could do to the cell phone market what the iPod did to the portable music player market: crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority. This is unfortunate for anybody else who makes cell phones, but it’s good news for those of us who use them.”
“The iPhone developed the way a lot of cool things do: with a false start. A few years ago Jobs noticed how many development dollars were being spent—particularly in the greater Seattle metropolitan area—on what are called tablet PCs: flat, portable computers that work with a touchscreen instead of a mouse and keyboard. Jobs, being Jobs, figured he could do better, so he had Apple engineers noodle around with a tablet PC. When they showed him the touchscreen they came up with, he got excited. So excited he forgot all about tablet computers,” Grossman reports.
Grossman reports, “The iPhone breaks two basic axioms of consumer technology. One, when you take an application and put it on a phone, that application must be reduced to a crippled and annoying version of itself. Two, when you take two devices—such as an iPod and a phone—and squish them into one, both devices must necessarily become lamer versions of themselves. The iPhone is a phone, an iPod, and a mini-Internet computer all at once, and contrary to Newton—who knew a thing or two about apples—they all occupy the same space at the same time, but without taking a hit in performance. In a way iPhone is the wrong name for it. It’s a handheld computing platform that just happens to contain a phone.”
Grossman reports, “All technologists believe their products are better than other people’s, or at least they say they do, but Jobs believes it a little more than most. In the hours we spent talking about the iPhone, Jobs trash-talked the Treo, the BlackJack, the Sony PSP and the Sony Mylo (“just garbage compared to this”), Windows Vista (“It’s just a copy of an old version of Mac OSX”) and of course Microsoft’s would-be iPod killer, Zune.”
Oh, there’s more. The full article, highly recommended, is here.
iPhone is the wrong name for it. Grossman’s correct: “It’s a handheld computing platform that just happens to contain a phone.” And that handheld computing platform is Mac OS X.
Related articles:
Analyst: Apple iPhone should be given its own category – ‘brilliantphone’ – January 09, 2007
Cingular to use Synchronoss Technologies’ platform for Apple iPhone – January 09, 2007
Is Apple building ‘The Device?’ [revisited] – January 09, 2007
iPhone photos from Apple’s Macworld Expo booth – January 09, 2007
Enderle: Apple’s iPhone is going to do very well – January 09, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
The Register’s Ray: Apple ‘iPhone’ will fail – December 26, 2006
Analyst: Apple iPhone economics aren’t that compelling – December 08, 2006
CNET editor Kanellos: ‘Apple iPhone will largely fail’ – December 07, 2006
Palm CEO laughs off Apple ‘iPhone’ threat – November 20, 2006
The iPhone is here to Pump….you up!!!
First
Someone smells like they just ate a Zune sandwich. Oh wait, that’s just Billy Gates brown pantlegs after seeing the iPhone during Steve’s keynote today.
S l u r p
Anyone care to guess how many chairs were destroyed in Redmond today?
The iPhone won’t crush any market until it becomes less expensive. That will happen it’s just a question of how long until it happens. I want one but will probably wait for the next model.
Did anyone else find this keynote long winded? It was soooo long winded that it actually became quite boring. At least half of the iPhone talk could have been easily cut out and replaced with some Mac news. That would have made it one of the greatest keynotes ever. As it stands last years keynote blew this one away from an excitement standpoint.
Reasonable article.
Nice intro…nice product…a nuclear bomb? Maybe a slow one…we’ll see when and where the fallout drops next year.
MW: “Cut” as in “Cut, print…now let’s move to the Macs’ set….”
It sucks that you can’t buy just the iPhone. You HAVE to sign up for Cingular service. Bah!
The boring part was when people who weren’t Steve Jobs were talking. during his entire talk–I was going that is so freaking cool.
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Of course, I had decided I had to have one as soon as I read the update that it has OS X. Didn’t know what it cost, but I wanted it.
Still do, and the good thing is my phone contract runs out in June/July – perfect timing.
Now, how to we go abotu getting new programs for the IPhone – (maybe VOIP, so when I am home I can use my wireless network instead of a analog line?).
I am going to do my darnest to turn mine (when I finally get it) into a PDA/music/video/internet phone (oh yeah that’salready done), an ereader, and most importantly something to showcase my Delicious Library database on. I want to turn this into my own mini-computer. (I wonder if links to all blue-tooth stuff hmm.
BTW-does anyone know if it plays the Ipod games? I might as well turn it into a hand held video game too.
I will say it again — so freaking cool!!!!
Heard from all around Redmond, Washington today… Steve Ballmer was quoted as screaming, “I WANT APPLE *&^%#$% DEAD!”
ROTFLMAO!
Can you imagine 2009?
What will MSFT and DELL and PALM and RIMM be in 2009?
What will AAPL be?
I bought the very first iPod back in November 2001 at $399. I read lots and lots of reports about how that was too expensive and it would be a huge flop.
Yup.
The new iPhone is going to be bigger than the iPod. I have absolutely no doubt that 12 to 18 months after the first iPhones are sold, Apple will have a new model that is half the price, twice the capacity and triple the battery life. Fact is, it costs money to be an early adopter. I just hate that I have to wait until June to get one!
And it’s going to be a gas to see what sort of bad copy iPhone Microsoft comes up with.
I saw chairs flying across the highway all the way down in Renton. =)
I just have to look at this again….
“crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority”
One more time…
“crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority”
“crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority”
“crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority”
“crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority”
“crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority”
Music. Sweet, sweet music. ^_^
-c
MW: ‘business’ (as unusual)
no, really, where is zune tang NOW?
waiting for the inevetable dumbassed comment from Zune Tang.
face it Zune Tang, your irony has grown stale.
As cool as it already is, I can’t wait to see the hacks people will come up with for these.
And… those three guys don’t even look happy to be holding those pieces of junk. What a bunch of schleps.
After watching the keynote, the thing I took away was Steve mentioning how they patented the heck out of the UI,specifically the touch screen. This is what really makes the iPhone different than anything else that’s out there.
This makes me sorta mad. Apple waltzes in here with no experience from making mobile phones and creates a revolutionary kick-ass phone!
SonyEricsson, Nokia and Motorola have been serving us crap for years compared to this.
Thank heaven Apple comes along.
I would love to be at the meetings at the above mentioned companies tomorrow LOL
Not buying one though as you should never buy first gens.
Nice work Apple, crush the fscking lame phone makers!
But, but , Zune has wireless too! They copied Zune! M$ was first, oh how M$ innovates and sets trends!!
Agree with that buffalo, I really want to use one now. Pity they won’t be available in Europe until 4th quater.
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I was all ready for a very basic letdown that could iSync my contacts, but this blew me away! With this news I am letting my current cell contract die. I will save at least $50/month until the iPhone rolls out in June (or earlier as Apple has a tendency to do). My savings will mostly pay for the new Apple phone. There’s going to be a lot of angry words in competitors boardrooms tomorrow!
Oh yeah, and did you know the Zune can “Squirt”! Hahahahahahahahahhahahhahahahahahahahahahhaahahahah. ROFLMAO.
I just pray that they dump the iPhone name. Why bother coming to terms with Cisco over it when it doen’t even do the device justice. Apple should continue with the direction they took with the (Apple)TV. Dump the “i” and go for the brand recognition. Everytime someone says phone, they say Apple first. I love it and the logo just looks really cool.
MW enough, as in I can’t get…
Uh … fingerprints on the screen … ?
MDN Take nails it down tight. Greg M, it costs the same as a mini, does more, and comes with a display. Hell of a deal, it would have been a hot item at $800. This is a game changer, and whatever happened in Los Vegas today … did anything happen in Los Vegas today? Apple has sucked all the oxygen from that little event.
One question… how the ^$&# did that guy become the CEO of Cingular. No wonder Cingular has issues. Guess every company can’t have a Steve.
I think $499 and $599 are good deals for what you get. You can’t compare the iPhone to other phones as it’s really Newton 2.0 with OS X. Apple shouldn’t have called it iPhone.
What does Redmond have? The Zune and Windows Mobile Crossbow? HAHAHA!!!
I agree that iPhone is the wrong name. Someone needs to tell Steve to drop the negotiations with Cisco. Just call the thing “iMobile” because that’s what it does. This device makes not only your phone mobile, it makes your music mobile, your photos mobile, your contacts mobile, your messaging mobile, your internet mobile, etc. To me, “iMobile” just works!
Personally, i think Apple shouldda let the iPhone name go after Cisco has released its phone, not only will it avoid the whole confusion for consumers but also all those money paid to Cisco… Of course Apple and only Apple coulda come up with a cooler, more unique & discriptive name for this greater than great product, Apple phone, XPhone (OS X)… or something. Too many companies already copy the “i” thing for their own uses making the name too common now, Apple shouldda gone to a dirrent direction. The only phone every should get starting June 2007 nevertheless, I’ll dump Motorola & Verizon in a second. Go Apple Go!!!!
I’m returning my Treo 700 tomorrow, waiting six months with my old Treo 600, to get one of the first iPhones. This thing is so cool, and does so many things I’ve wanted my Treo to do, that I can’t believe it.
This will be a BIGGER product than iPod in 24 months!!
I haven’t noticed anybody mention the significance of Steve jobs turning on the iPod portion of the iphone to…The Beatles. Is this foreboding of what’s to come…soon?? On iTMS
Apple wants the iPhone name because they want to emphasize that it is a revolution in phones for the mainstream consumer. Not mobile device, not Internet device, but phone.
Now we “geeky” Apple followers all know that this is much more than a phone, but just like with the iPod, Apple is aiming way beyond us with the iPhone.
Jobs knows it’s a handheld computer… this is about marketing. The iPod had a “halo effect”, but this “is” the halo. He’s telling you your buying a phone… but that’s the trojan horse. Now your an Apple Computer user… even if yer called Apple Inc. now. Welcome aboard one and all.
Surprised that MDN’s take was so mild.
‘We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,’ he (Palm CEO Cooligan) said. ‘PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.'”
From MDN’s previous take, the rude awakening for Cooligan just happened. There were quite a few people trying to figure out how to get around all those Apple patents today.
is right. I almost feel sorry for Microsoft. Almost. There is no way they can compete–this makes the Zune look pretty sad indeed . . . and once Leopard rolls out, holy crap! The apps I’ve been using with what I assume are Leopard touches (Photoshop CS 3 beta, Toast 8) . . . good grief. Apple are so far ahead of the rest it’s spooky . . . this is what they used to call a paradigm shift, and once again Apple leads the way.
Halo effect indeed. Those phone widgets look just like the Mac widgets. And Safari, that’s on the Mac only. And those SMS bubbles, that looks familiar too!
The iPhone UI is much more closely related to the Mac than the iPod’s is.
Everyone should just read Engadget’s coverage on the Michael Dell 1-hour keynote at CES.
It’s so boring you can’t help but feel sorry for the guy.
@Dr. Macenstein: exactly!
There are probably “top secret” things in Leopard that will work magic with the iPhone. The consumer can either hook up their iPhone to their boring beige box or buy a new Mac and have the new features of Leopard.
Enormously absent from the keynote was .Mac. .Mac will be perfectly suited to work with the iPhone: get to all your documents, send them as attachments, modify them with scaled-down iWork apps, all without having to “download” them to the iPhone.
The only limit to what the iPhone can do is what Apple restrict us from doing. What we saw today is the tip of the iceberg.
Gates are closing
Jobs are scarce
Here’s a wake up call
Answer it (as the music softens)
Looks like the Beatles are on their way to iTunes-too many hints
Jobs alluded to a 3G phone coming soon
I am looking forward to an announcement each month until June of new/improved products from Apple, Inc.
i have to start saving money from today…
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Haha, Zune Tang, is that the best you could come up with?
I’ll be waiting for the iPods that I predict will adopt some of iPhone’s capabilities in the next couple of months. Also, I forsee Leopard using alot of the same UI look and functionality of the iPhone. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if that OS running the iPhone is mini Leopard. Too bad we heard nothing of this in Tuesday’s keynote.
I inferred from the keynote that it is running Leopard mini. The iPhone uses Core Animation, which is a new feature of Leopard.
They should’ve named it the “iGo”.
As mentioned in another post.
I would have gone for iMobile (though that name has probably already been by another company too).
It sums up the device perfectly. It is your mobile phone, mobile music, mobile movies/TV, mobile e-mail, and as mentioned with OSX your mobile computer too
My 2 cents,
Luke
Someone from Apple please copy what “ace” wrote above and show it to Steve J, (that other Steve)
ace hit the nail on the head, he couldn’t be more right!
BTW – Does anyone believe Apple is going to wait till June to release this thing? They are just giving themselves a buffer. Just in case.
Palm CEO Cooligan said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.'”
Look who ‘just walked in’.
And ‘they’ are fixin’ to beat him up and steal his lunch money.
LOL
MW ‘deep’, as in Palm and the rest of the industry are in deep do-do
LOL again
GregM wrote “The iPhone won’t crush any market until it becomes less expensive”
Yeah, everyone said the very same expensive thing about the ipod also. We all know how that turned out. Talked with a friend after the keynote, he spent more than $600 on the new 8gig nano and a smart phone. I’m not a big all-in one device person, this phone has changed my mind.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned this is Mac OSX taking all the info off Windows machines. Many will buy it just for the phone/iPod/Palm features/interface and will unwittingly be switching platforms. Many may realize they no longer want or need their PC or desire a Mac as a replacement. The best predictor of future behaviour is by looking at the past, and just like the iPod, Apple may release more software enticements to the Windows crowd, perhaps Safari and iCal to assist the iPhone users. It is very likely that MS will try to block compatibility with their software by breaking the protocols with every “security update”. Leopard itself will leverage some features not demonstrated today such as WiFi content delivery, syncing and the reason behind Apple’s recent patent application for the phrase “Mobile Me.”
“It’s so boring you can’t help but feel sorry for the guy.”
I don’t. Say it with me now!!!
“I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”
-c
MW: ‘forces’ (quite beyond your comprehension)
I think they should have called it the iWant.
Why don’t they name it the “iCom”
iComputer/iCommunicator
Apple, Inc.’s new device runs MacOS X. Call it “Mac mobile”, then. Even if the name remains “iPhone”, this revolutionary product will sell like hotcakes.
The iPhone may be a computing platform that contains a phone, but if you think about how something like this would need to be brought to market, then it becomes apparent that the mobile phone market is the most lucrative. I don’t consider it revolutionary since it doesn’t really change what you do with a phone, but it is an outstanding integration of technology and function. This is what Apple brings to the table along with its usability prowess.
What I am most inspired by in this product is how it will bring gesture-based interfaces into the mainstream. Pending licensing and patent issues, other hardware makers will be incorporating this into their products not only to stay competitive and to develop it further. Its a given this will find its way to other hand-held devices, possibly TV/media remotes, and other input devices. It would be nice to have a “custom” keyboard where the home row is wherever I put down my fingers, key spacing is determined by my finger span, and where I could easily transition between pointing, gesturing, and typing on the same input device.
I hope the iPhone is successful, simply because I want to see its technologies become what we will take for granted in the next few years.
The name iPhone is perfect because the minute you say “Mac Phone” or “Mac Mobile” or “Apple Phone”, 90% of PCers out there will think it is only for Mac users. iPhone says generic to any platform even though the realities are very different.
Brau,
I think the point is to avoid using the word “phone” in a name. “MacPhone” is no better than “iPhone” for that very reason, not because it might show bias for Macs.
I mean, why did Apple call it “Macintosh” instead of “Apple PC” or “Apple 4?”
Macintosh is a classic name because it set it apart from the crowd, and almost instantly, it became synonymous with GUI computing.
“iPhone” simply doesn’t rise to that kind of standard. Apple would have been far better calling it “Leonardo” to reflect the Renaissance Man nature of the device.
“Hey, you got one of those Apple Leonardo phones! How cool!”
To me, that just sounds a lot cooler than the utterly drab “iPhone”
I have been reading all the post on the iPhone and am surprised that no one has even mentioned the obvious…
Fortget the phone, I want the next line of portable computers from Apple Inc. that uses the UI hardware developed for the phone. The second computer revolution is around the corner…
Expect new iPods, iBooks, and iPDAs with this hardware interface!!!
Apple…what next!?
The typical suspects…whatever.
Great photo, the three stooges showing off their antique apparatuses. What a bunch of goofs, foisting uninspired technology and beleiving it is actualy original and ingenious.
The brain trust, in an effort to out-innovate Apple, announces a breakthrough in mobile phone innovation…color-coded plastic buttons.
“iMobile” is a perfect name, too. But it’s even more a kind of “iRevoluton”.
I really don’t want a cell phone, but the interface I found to be very interesting. I wouldn’t buy a first gen of this, I’ll wait until the flash memory is huge and the battery life is better, by then I’ll probably need a cell phone for some reason anyway.
What I find very funny is that over at Engadget, people are posting that the touch-screen interface won’t work, etc. because they use a touch screen on their current phone. They just don’t grasp that this is more than a “touch screen” interface. I hope it works as Jobs described, because it really could change a lot of things…
The UI Apple developed for the iPhone completely and utterly makes this a phone my mother could use, and probably understand. Big “buttons” that give you your options for what you are doing right then. No menus or anything. Terrific.
But, the multi-touch computing aspect is the most exciting thing for me. Jeff Han gave a talk at the TED Conference in 2006 demonstrating a multi-touch computing interface. His TED talk was/is available on iTunes as a podcast. It’s exactly what Jobs was doing when he demonstrated photo resizing on the iPhone. The TED video is worth watching.
Mike
So if this runs OSX, does it count towards market share like a cash register does for Windows?
It should have been called “macmobile.”
NickBob,
You’re comparing the iphone to a mac mini ????????? Are you NUTS? The iphone is going to be a great product but it’s far from being a useable computer. It can’t come close to doing what a mini can do.
CES a little event? It is bigger than Macworld. Macworld takes up 3 convention halls. CES takes up most of the strip.
darknite,
The ipod started in a very “young” market and didn’t crush the competition until Apple also offered less expensive models. The phone market is much different. Most people that have cell phones will not be interested in this. Most cell phones users go for the cheapest phone that they can get. Apple will NEVER get the same market share in cell phones as they have in mp3 players unless they eventually offer less expensive versions. They can sell 10x more phones then ipods and never approach the same level of market share.
Apple will eventually crush the phones in their category but that is a very small % of the cell phone market.
Funny, my MDN magic word is “never” as in Apple will never crush the cell phone market and they don’t want to. Apple doesn’t want to sell everyday basic phones. They want to sell the all-in-one devices that will wow people and the iphone is a wow product. Apple will be a big player in a small portion of the overall cell phone market.
However, dominance in that “small portion” of the cell phone market will be huge for Apple. More people will make the switch. I finally made the switch when I used itunes with my first ipod (which I got for free because I would never have bought one). The great experience was what finally made me look beyond the cost of switching and it was expensive to switch.
The reason it’s called iPhone is because a mobile phone is the most likely device the average consumer will carry. Think about it – how many people do you know who have a mobile phone v. how many people have a Blackberry, Palm, Treo, etc.? FAR more people have a mobile phone. So the name brings people into the fold, because they first think of it as a phone, and then understand the goodness that is iPhone.
Larry,
I think you’re on to something here with the Beatles piece.
1) Steve Jobs uses Beatle Albums in his presentation
2) Apple Computer Inc. becomes Apple Inc.
3) Beatles’ company name is Apple Corp.
This smells of an important deal between these Apples cause now Apple Computer is using “Exactly” the name of the other company. No more “Computer” to distinguish them and frankly I didn’t see Jobs tolerating these productless legal leeches very long. I bet Apple Computer has simply bought out Apple corp.
Is that headline for real! Sounds like something that might have appeared in one of the old communist newspapers in the former Soviet Union: “Triumphant five-year economic plan will bury greedy, western imperialist, bourgeois dogs – you’ll see”
You guys complaining about the name iPhone just don’t get it. Jobs is reinventing the phone. He’s telling the world this is what your phone should be. The name is perfect. It will become vernacular just like “iPod” did.
Wow, I used the iPorn to get a great blow job. Way to go Steve!
I’d call it the MacMobile. All the goodness of a Mac in a small, portable form factor.
Now my buying plans have expanded – iMac 24″ with wireless keyboard/mouse, Apple TV and iPhone. Where will the money come from?
Greg M’s spiel is reminiscent of the talk we heard from the why-the-ipod-will-fail crowd.
I would much rather have a T-Mobile WING anu day of the week…. Who uses Mac? common this is 2007 not 1994