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I may have to get one this year. My contract with V is up. Am waiting to see what comes out later. With the iPhone that is. Isn't it about the user experience with most things that counts.

Feb 16, 08 - 11:05 am Comment from: ron

They'd all make more headway & profit if they just copied Apple and fired all their internal 'experts'. Admitted, they would always be 3 years behind.

As the worldwide usage of iPhone in next few years progressively grows to 30-50 million range, I am sure the price of the unit will also come down gradually.

I hope these so-called experts remain stumped. That's just more good news for Apple and bad news for its competitors.

Feb 16, 08 - 11:22 am Comment from: Ampar

"Users’ love affair with Apple iPhone stumps Mobile World panel"

Opening a fresh opportunity for Spanish prosthetics manufacturers.

`i will get an iphone this year, when a new version comes out. whenever that is..

Feb 16, 08 - 11:41 am Comment from: January 24, 1984

When one considers the inevitable drive towards building a personality generator to live in virtual immortality after your passing, the mobile phone/device becomes the input to that tapestry of living moments.

That's the billion dollar, killer app - integrate the moments of your life into a mechanism to grant you immortality by creating an increasingly self-aware non-corporeal existence out on the web.

Steve, I'm open for discussions. LOL.

Feb 16, 08 - 11:42 am Comment from: theloniousMac

MDN has it in a nutshell right here:

"...With other phones, the features simply aren't usable. ..."

The iPhone does about 20% of what other smart phones do. That 20% is all that 80% of users want to do. The iPhone does that 20% so exceptionally well that the vast majority of users are mindlessly giddy with the thing.

Some of us (the remaining 20%) are still stewing about things like copy and paste, using the phone's storage, etc, etc. etc. etc. etc. but we don't really matter because we are the clear minority of users.

Feb 16, 08 - 11:45 am Comment from: maczac

See they keep looking at this from the wrong end of the telescope. The iPhone is not so much a mobile phone that does other things. the iPhone is a mini pocket computer and communications information devise that handles all the main forms of personal communications simply and with style.

chalk me up as one of the very satisfied.

Feb 16, 08 - 11:50 am Comment from: John

Hear, hear, great take, MDN. I love the fact that I now pay exactly $89.95 per month (for our two phone lines), not a penny more. When I was using Sprint + Treo 600 and 650, my supposedly unlimited rates were all over the place each month, and were $115 at their lowest ebb. The cost of the iPhone itself pales in comparison to the lower cost per month--and headache reducing consistency of the bill--than previously.

Good job to AT&T;, and especially Apple for making them create a consistent and mostly invisible billing process!

Feb 16, 08 - 11:53 am Comment from: theloniousMac

@January 24, 1984,

Are you my girlfriend?

If not, this idea is right out of a book we're working on. lol.

Feb 16, 08 - 11:55 am Comment from: marko

elegance, ease, and freedom from mounting user fees...

quite simple no?

A relatively measured , reasonable response not, for a change, declaring the really fine iPhone as some kind of life-changing miracle. Even though there are plenty of phones out there claiming iPhone-like characteristics that aren't worth owning, there are others now and more coming that will be every bit as wonderful as Steve's phone and at lower cost.

Saying that Steve's is great, wonderful, pretty, cool and all that is fine and correct. And, oh, his marketing skills are truly genius although bordering on dishonest - his products DO NOT 'just work' - they are full of problems pretty much like all the rest of the competition.

Feb 16, 08 - 12:14 pm Comment from: AlanAudio

The really worrying aspect of this story is that there are currently 4 million people who know why the iPhone works so well for users, but nobody on that panel who has a clue - and they're the people who call themselves experts.

You might imagine that Apple bringing a markedly better product to market might have provided them with a clear example of what they should be doing, but all they can talk about is nonsense like "pre-touch input".

Feb 16, 08 - 01:10 pm Comment from: alansky

In case y'all are just noticing, we live in a world where almost no one is who they pretend to be. Politicians don't give a damn about the welfare of their constituents; "experts" make pronouncements about subjects about which they are woefully ignorant. Families pretend that the world isn't falling apart right in front of their eyes as they toodle down to the mall to buy more stuff. The proliferation of incomprehensible amounts of information on the internet has made it more essential than ever for people who value the truth about anything to separate fact from fiction. Rotsa ruck!

Sarah Lipman, co-founder and R&D;director for Power2B, suggested an almost mystical solution, somehow tapping into users' 'neural networks' to navigate a mobile phone interface 'using touch and pre-touch input.' It's amazing how clueless these people are. If you need help to navigate a mobile phone interface by tapping into users' neural network, you already concede that the mobile phone interface is way, way to complex for practical purposes. IOW, don't use the goddamned mobile phone interface. Design something else. Duh!

Feb 16, 08 - 01:37 pm Comment from: elgruga

@ Alansky:

Very true - but its the stunning level of pretense that counts now.

My customers think I am an expert in my field, and they also think I am a nice guy, because I play this role so well.

Funny thing - the more I play these roles, the more I am becoming them.....

If truth becomes lies, then lies become truth...er..I think.

Feb 16, 08 - 01:41 pm Comment from: Cubert

I can't count how many products in my life I have used for the first time and it seems like no one at the company actually tried it before they sold it.

I can't believe these cell phone makers actually thought they had good products until they tried the iPhone. Or, did they really know that it was "just good enough"?

Feb 16, 08 - 01:49 pm Comment from: DogGone

The problem is that most companies rush their products out with the goal to making a fast buck.

Apple spent over 2 years developing the iPhone and have over twenty years experience in user interfaces.

That's the difference.

iPhone is the first, and current, incarnation of the fabled "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

Simple, elegant and practical.

Don't leave (your) home (galaxy) without it.

I've been anti-cellphone forever.. however I've finally decided to get an iPhone once the new version comes out (which I would assume is sometime this year).

@ January - Fascinating idea!

@ Congrats -"more coming that will be every bit as wonderful as Steve's phone and at lower cost" - not possible, really, due to Apple's combined extreme hardware/software expertise + iTunes mature, established ubiquity & functionality + OS X's mature. established functionality (over a decade in the making since you must count NextStep development) + Apple's patents.

So, no, it will not be equalled or bested nor offered at any price for years to come. And if by some remote chance someone gets close, Apple will have moved WAY beyond.

It is quite evident that during the current and foreseeable time period, in which this field is totally owned by Apple, the iPhone & iPod Touch will become an entrenched and un"touchable" mobile platform.

Want proof? The ideas knocked about in this panel discussion. These ideas so very much illustrate the extent of the industry's massive cluelessness.

Clearly the bullet train has shot down the tracks leaving the competition standing on the loading platform scratching their collective balls wondering how to catch up to it with their handcar.

The MDN take is sort of copied from FSJ blog that appeared yesterday.....

FSJ's take "It's not rocket science people"

Feb 16, 08 - 02:15 pm Comment from: TheConfuzed1

@ Ron--

"They'd all make more headway & profit if they just copied Apple and fired all their internal 'experts'. Admitted, they would always be 3 years behind."

Well sure, but that would still make them two years ahead of where they are now.

Feb 16, 08 - 02:53 pm Comment from: Hm...

@ alansky who said:
«"experts" make pronouncements about subjects about which they are woefully ignorant.»

I've lately been writing on student papers the phrase:
   You are guilty of willful ignorance here
They quote a statistic and then make an opposite conclusion to support their original (flawed) premise. Sigh.

Feb 16, 08 - 03:02 pm Comment from: The Other Steve

MDN's take is probably one of the best ones I've read in a long time.

To steal a line from another personality written about here recently, "ditto!"

A few points:

In a posting on 11 April 2007, I noted that:

"Apple has shifted the basis of competition well beyond its competitors to the point where it can now set the tune leaving others to merely mimic in a half-baked clumsy manner. Afterall, the originator of an idea being more passionate about it will always render a better result than one who stole it and tried to copy."

In a recent artical in the Harvard Business Review entitled 'Mapping your Competitive Position' the author (Richard A D'Aveni) has an excellent analysis of mobile phones where he maps the Price of of the phone against its Primay Benefit/Advanced Functionality. In his analysis Apple, with the iPhone , has created a new very high-end 'Ultra Premium' category in which there are no other competing companies.

In a further post that day, I noted that:

</i>"The really astute bit is that in this way Apple has shifted the basis of competition well beyond its competitors to the point where it can even dare venture into an area it has never been in before and deliver a seismic shock to an entire industry based on a mere presentation back on 9 Jan 2007. The way Apple is going, there will soon come a day when all it has to do is sneeze and some industry or sector is gonna catch cold!</i>

Well they've caught a cold alright. Apple was not a participant at this event and yet here are a panel of experts jabbering on about what they should do next when the title of their session says it all:

t's the User Experience, Stupid

In my view, at its root Apple has a purpose that connects with the human spirit and its need for progress, innovation and excellence.

Based on this purpose is the offering: the complete widget - OS and hardware, seamlessly welded together with style and finesse.

That is all Apple have done - deliver to the consumer an offering that connects in a very basic yet profound manner.

Forgive me fellow Apple fans...

...but in my humble opinion the iPhone fails miserably in functionality.

It takes so long just to do anything on it, making mistakes and then going back, accidentially hitting links and so on.

Sure the Chinese might like it because it gets them the information they need without having to buy a computer, plus they have small hands and fingers anyway.

But nothing beats a 15" screen and a real keyboard, I'm sorry. I'm just not a tiny keyboard/screen smart phone user.

Now if anyone has hooked up a iPhone to something like a pair of video goggles?

BTW ZUNE TANG SUCKS BALLERS @SS

@Ben Dover

Call me.

bunch of fscking fools! Every day with this lovely window on the world leaves me thanking apple for the pleasure. From day one it has given me what I've wanted, knowing that the best is yet to come with the updates (loving mine jailbroken BTW).

Feb 16, 08 - 04:58 pm Comment from: Sixvodkas

Bought mine today!!!

Despite what negative press I've seen, the Multi Touch works far better than I'd ever expected, and I can type on it MUCH faster than I could with my old phone

Too bad Verizon passed up on iPhone, because they're going to see people like me migrating to AT&T;for a long, long time.

iPhone, I ♡ you

Feb 16, 08 - 05:00 pm Comment from: Rip Ragged

The World Mobile Conference phenomenon of stupidity is further explained at:

ripragged.blogspot.com

@ Hm...

Grammer and logical thinking at an academic level are not what you are wont to find in these forums.

@ tyk & ors...

dont hold you breath waiting for a new model iphone - Apple's built hardware to last, with many software updates to support it. The point is while you are trying to be smart, and may eventually buy one down the track, other people will have already enjoyed the phone for 12 months... they are 12 months more evolved than you... btw I don't have one... Australia is always behind

@ Mac Maniac

No need to apologize, mate. You merely represent the other 23% who are not "very satisfied." I'm sure there's a good Windoze mobile option out there somewhere that's just right for you.

Feb 16, 08 - 06:04 pm Comment from: DRM sucks

"Forgive me fellow Apple fans...

...but in my humble opinion the iPhone fails miserably in functionality.

It takes so long just to do anything on it, making mistakes and then going back, accidentially hitting links and so on."

With all due respect, I think your second sentence is not correct. Even though you experience these problems, that does not mean the "iPhone fails mieserably", it means that the interface is not suited to you.

Feb 16, 08 - 06:14 pm Comment from: Woody

@ elgruga: a friend of mine once said, when I was doubting my skillz, "Fake it 'til you make it." It works.

@ ../.: this is precisely why these "experts" don't get it. I dunno what drug this Sarah chick is on, but I want some!

Forgive me for saying this, but how fscking dumb are all these people? Apple has been top notch for years.

Feb 16, 08 - 07:20 pm Comment from: Zune Tang®

@Mac Maniac

Thank you for the kind words. And you're right. The I-Phone is a piece of crap. The experts know it too. That's they are stumped like me. Who the hell would buy a one button phone with a glossy screen?

What I'm hearing of the Zunephone interface is that it is out of this world. The phrase "I-Phone Killer" comes to mind. Microsoft has shown the world what they can do in terms of user experience with Windows for years. Prepare to be blown away by the user experience on the Zunephone.

Your potential. Our passion.™

Feb 16, 08 - 08:37 pm Comment from: jimhoyt

The whole bunch of 'em, cell phone providers, telephone companies, cable companies, etc., think of themselves as content providers. They really don't see themselves as what they really are: just a series of pipes. Transport. The content and how it's used/accessed has very little to do with them.

But nothing beats a 15" screen and a real keyboard, I'm sorry. I'm just not a tiny keyboard/screen smart phone user.

Hold that 15" screen and real keyboard to your ear to take a call sometime.

Different devices, different purposes. Ideally Apple wants to sell you both.

Wonder if the next step is the return of an eMate-like device, with a bluetooth headset for doing calls. Or cell integration in regular laptops for doing the same...

Feb 16, 08 - 09:21 pm Comment from: ken1w

The report from Google about 50 times more searches from iPhone users than any other phone, says it all. Since iPhones are still relatively small in number compared to other Internet-capable phones that have been on the market longer, the fact that there are so many more searches from iPhones means one thing. EVERYONE who has an iPhones uses it regularly for Internet access. Almost NO ONE with another phone bothers to use it regularly to access the Internet. Why? Because iPhone is useable. The others are not. That's not going to change anytime soon, even if the others make copycat iPhones, because the others do not have OS X, multi-touch, and Safari.

Feb 16, 08 - 09:50 pm Comment from: Ampar

To ken1w: I agree with you but please stop the e.e. cummings explanation. Stream of conciousness also worked for Hermann Hesse. Simplify.

I agree with Ting. It's the user experience, plus the advance in the underlying technology.

Use the Blackdingleberry, then use the iPhone and you'll see a big difference.

All our iPhones work flawlessly for email, web, tracking orders, contacts and everything we need for our Mac IT support business.

iPhone. Real Intelligent Design.®

Who can resist this about you know who?

"Thank you for the kind words. And you're right. The I-Phone is a piece of crap." And since MacManiac also says that " ZUNE TANG SUCKS BALLERS @SS" we can see that the iPhone is going to be a delicious addition to ZT's diet.

However, while the experts know that the iPhone is the model to follow, what is stumping them and others is how to follow up on it. Unlike ZT many many many others have been buying up the iPhone, the Chinese, and hey the iPhone is even giving Blackberry a run for the money.

Of course I certainly do agree with Zune Thang's phrase of "iPhone killer." it has such a nice ring with all the dead "iPod killers" on the wayside that believe the idea of subscription music. Maybe the Zune should include a warning saying that the device may cause mental constipation, it certainly would help rationalize the colour choice they made.

One button, many functions.

More "just wait and see...." Zune Thang, methinks you read the boy who cried wolf just one too many times. Why don't you tell us all about the X-box recent performance and how getting surpassed by the competition is good for the company and not an indication of a sinking ship rearranging the remaining rats.

The only day MS will blow anyone away is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.

Shame then... that it didn't win any of the awards at Barcelona! Not even nominated in the music category

Yeah nice take MDN ... But

"We've taken literally hundreds of times more photos and emailed them with our iPhones."

WTF, that is one bad ass sentence construction

Feb 17, 08 - 07:54 am Comment from: Ampar

Just imagine how many people have figuratively taken hundreds of photos with the iPhone.

Feb 17, 08 - 07:57 am Comment from: Ampar

"The only day MS will blow anyone away is the day they make a vacuum cleaner."

On the plus side, a MS vacuum would attract viruses.

@Ampar

The actual quote should be, "The day MS stops sucking is the day they start making vacuum cleaners."

@ Ben Dover: "The MDN take is sort of copied from FSJ blog that appeared yesterday....."

That's that great thing about truths. They tend to be universal.

Feb 17, 08 - 09:20 am Comment from: Ampar

Thanks, Van Vaals. But I was I was trying to put a new twist on something trite. And I failed.