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The Iphone, like the other Apple products, will be pretty pricey. The features are what you'd find in 3G mobile phones now being offered by Nokia and Sony Ericsson. This will probably appeal most to Apple users. The interface isn't fantastic and looks wise, it's very mediocre.

 

The sound quality is expected to be top notch though. :)

 

what are you talking about, the interface is the best part of the phone...mediocre? get real!

Edited by enkateam
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this news fresh from MacWorld...enjoy :D

 

Analysis: Filtering out iPhone speculation

 

By Jim Dalrymple

http://edge.macworld.com/2007/01/images/content/iphone350.jpg

The iPhone has been hailed as a ground-breaking wonder. And dismissed as a mediocre product. It’s clearly innovative—and also quite flawed. People will clamor for one—unless they decide not to. And competitors are already coming up with iPhone killers.

 

Not bad for a product that hasn’t even shipped yet.

 

It’s been a month since Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone during Macworld Expo. All that we know about the mobile device comes from Jobs’ two-hour keynote, a post-keynote briefing with Apple executives, and whatever iPhone information is posted on Apple’s Web site. And yet, that hasn’t stopped a flood of commentary on why the iPhone will succeed or flounder, what its flaws may or may not be, and what Apple needs to change about a device that isn’t even in the hands of one user yet.

 

It’s easy to understand the outpouring of coverage—since its January unveiling, the iPhone has piqued the interest of people like no product since the iPod. Yet, with the iPhone still four months away from its expected June 2007 ship date, there’s very little pundits can add about the phone’s features and performance. So what you wind up with is a lot of speculation—and all too often, that speculation turns into accepted fact.

 

To add some measure of a reality check to all this iPhone pondering, we’re taking a closer look at some of the more frequently asserted opinions to see which ones provide more noise than signal.

 

Closed system? Users of traditional smartphones often add third-party apps to the devices that augment the phone’s features—everything from utilities to document management tools. But some analysts seem to be interpreting Apple’s reticence to talk about third-party opportunities as a sign that developers will be shut out of the iPhone system.

 

“With a Palm or Symbian device you can add applications whenever you want and that’s important to some people,” said Avi Greengart, principal analyst for mobile devices at Current Analysis. “The iPhone doesn’t have the ability to add third-party applications.”

 

However, it’s not clear that’s necessarily the case. Jobs did tell the New York Times that Apple would “define everything that is on the phone.” But that’s not the same thing as preventing third-party developers from creating any sort of iPhone add-on.

 

“Apple has never said they would not open it up to the development community,” noted Tim Bajarin, president of high-tech consulting firm Creative Strategies.

 

Instead, what Apple might do is keep a tight lid on the iPhone through its initial launch, giving developers more opportunities as the phone gains greater footing. “If you think about it from a strategic standpoint with them being in control of the applications in the early stages they can control how the applications are written, but once the process is solid, they can open it up to developers,” Bajarin said.

 

Too expensive? Priced at $499 for a 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB configuration, the iPhone will not come cheaply. And that has some analysts throwing up their hands. “How can they expect people to spend that much money and it doesn’t even have 3G?” NPD research director for wireless devices Neil Strother told Computerworld.

 

Greengart agrees that the iPhone’s price could keep a lot of people from giving the device a try. With other smartphones available for $199 to $299, consumers may be unwilling to spend $499 for a phone that also requires a two-year commitment with service provider AT&T.

 

Then again, Bajarin counters, Apple has enjoyed some success with selling devices that were originally deemed too expensive to appeal to a wide audience. When the iPod debuted in 2001, Apple sold the 5GB device for $399—many early reviews called that price tag too high. With more than 88 million iPods sold in the ensuing five-plus years, Apple would beg to differ.

 

“I believe Apple will be very successful because of the pent up demand,” Bajarin said. “They will have a strong audience of prosumers as soon as [the iPhone is] released. If history is our guide, I expect apple to take a similar path with pricing as they did with the iPod.”

 

In the case of the iPod, after rolling out the initial device, Apple began dropping prices and adding features. These days, you can buy an 80GB color-screen iPod that not only plays music but also videos and photo slideshows for $349—$50 less than the original iPod.

 

It’s not inconceivable that the iPhone will follow a similar path—attract early adopters who will pay the $499 price tag right out of the gate while expanding to a wider audience as time goes by.

 

The iPhone’s price is “definitely high, but it’s going to cut both ways,” said Roger Kay, president of the market-research firm Endpoint Technologies. “Price-sensitive buyers are going to be screened out and high-prestige buyers won’t care. There is this strange part of human behavior that goes for the higher priced items that Jobs is gambling on.”

 

Legal woes? The iPhone faces a lawsuit before it even hits retail shelves. Cisco Systems, which sells an iPhone of its own, filed suit seeking an injunction to keep Apple from using that name a day after Jobs’ keynote.

 

But the legal wrangling over the name of the new smartphone shouldn’t have much impact on the end product, analysts say. “I don’t expect this to materially affect the iPhone plans,”Greengart said. “If Apple wins, they use the name, and if they lose, they change the name and we will still know it’s the iPhone.”

 

Earlier this month, Apple and Cisco announced they had pushed back a deadline so that they could keep working toward a settlement in the naming dispute. It’s widely expected that a deal will be finalized long before the iPhone’s June ship date.

 

Too much competition? Apple rules the roost when it comes to portable music players while enjoying resurgent growth in the computer market, but it’s a relative newcomer to the highly competitive mobile phone arena. And taking business away from established players figures to be a tall order.

 

Take Research In Motion’s popular BlackBerry, which has a strong following in the enterprise market. Analysts like Van Baker, research vice president at Gartner, figure the iPhone could have a tough time supplanting the BlackBerry, which is bought in bulk by companies for its e-mail and communications capabilities.

 

“Enterprises are not going to pay for the iPhone,” said Baker. “It’s just not something that's going to appeal for them.”

 

Another potential hurdle for the iPhone is to distinguish itself from the crowd. While Steve Jobs hailed the phone as “revolutionary product” during his Expo keynote, many of its capabilities are offered in some form or another by already-established products. “SMS threading has been available for years, but certainly not as pretty as what Apple is doing,” said Current Analysis’ Greengart.

 

And that could be how the iPhone gets a toe-hold in the market, analysts say—by bringing Apple’s typical ease of use and simplicity to existing capabilities.

 

Take the iPhone’s interface. Apple has done away with all but a few buttons—apart from ring/silent and sleep/wake switches on the side, there’s only a Home button on the front of the phone to touch. Instead, users will control the iPhone using Apple’s Multi-Touch technology, where a finger on a touchscreen controls everything from typing out instant messages to zooming in on Web pages.

 

“I think it’s going to shake up the industry primarily because Apple is redefining the user interface on the cell phone,” Gartner’s Baker said. “It’s a very real challenge to what's out there now.”

 

And that may be enough to allow Apple to reach its modest sales goal for the iPhone’s first year—sell 10 million units, or 1 percent of the number of mobile phones sold around the world last year, in 2008. “While Apple is no threat to Motorola in the broader sense, they will make an impact in the industry because the iPhone will be the gold standard as to what a smartphone should be,” Creative Strategies’ Bajarin said. “It will send a lot of companies back to drawing board.”

 

To that end, Greengart expects Palm and Sony Ericsson to feel particular pressure from the iPhone. “Apple is coming into the market with a device that blows any Treo away,” he said. “I can’t tell you which one is more usable, but I can tell you which is more beautiful and that’s the iPhone.”

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  • 3 months later...
Guest airmax
Another reason why the iPhone _probably_ won't be popular in the Philippines is that Apple wants their phone to be tied to a single provider.

 

But then Steve Jobs has a way of making mindless zombies out of consumers these days.

 

right now cingular lang sya kahit sa ibang networks sa us di pede ang iphone.

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Only time will tell if the iPhone will sell. I heard a lot of negative review when the iPod first came out. The iPod is not the only MP3 player in the market that time. There's nothing innovative about it, and look where its going now. It now has a large chunk of the market share.

 

Its really too early to tell if the iPhone will fail or not. I actually think its a good concept.

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how true that may mga IPhone ng nasa market?

it was being quoted to at around P38k

saang market, dito sa philippines? i find that hard to believe.. kung meron man makaabot nyan sa philippines shores.. 100% di nila magagamit yan dito.. kasi lahat ng iPhones ay locked in for cingular..

 

malamang pag ready na i-release yan dito sa philippines Apple will tie it up with one of Globe, Smart or Sun.. walang open line open line yan.. ganun ang gagawin na market strategy ng Apple for all countries..

 

 

ps. P38K? grabe naman tubo nyan.. eh $500 nga lang yan sa US for a 2 year period eh :lol: mga P30K-32K pwede pa.. :thumbsupsmiley:

 

Only time will tell if the iPhone will sell. I heard a lot of negative review when the iPod first came out. The iPod is not the only MP3 player in the market that time. There's nothing innovative about it, and look where its going now. It now has a large chunk of the market share.

 

Its really too early to tell if the iPhone will fail or not. I actually think its a good concept.

in the philippines there is no question it will sell, alam mo naman mga pinoy they have a penchant for what is new or what is in or what is cool.. or should i say all of the above.. :)

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Yup, I find it impossible to have iPhone on the local market now. Apple stated that it will be available in Asian market next year pa.

 

Its realy impractical to get an iPhone in the state since you'll be locked down to cingular and you'll have to activate the roaming for it to work in the philippines.

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I won't advise buying the 1st model of IPhones.....it still has no 3G feature.....better wait for the suceeding models.....by that time....stable na ang supply and demand sa product nila.

 

I agree with this. As a long time Apple user I know that despite the good design and quality manufacturing, the first versions of an Apple product--especially a first model like the iPhone is bound to ran into teething problems. The batteries, the smart screen, the OS, whatever. Let the yanks debug the darn thing for us in their low-end mobile phone system. Why in terms of a feature set--if you will discount the "Apple" cache on the phone, the thing is about 2 years too late for the Philippines.

 

Its not 3G even and right now, I am discarding my P990i because the darn thing is barely 3G, and is stupid--it won't sync with my Mac. Oh it probably will sync with Winblows but that doesn't change anything.

 

The international Asian version of the iPhone must have (probably will) HSDPA/3.5G capability otherwise Apple is going to be laughed out of this market. As for exclusivity through phones locked into a specific network, I don't think so. The reason Apple did this with Cingular was because they wanted the iPhone to immediately gain critical mass to justify better manufacturing economies of scale.

 

This one for sure, will talk to my Macs.

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Guest airmax
saang market, dito sa philippines? i find that hard to believe.. kung meron man makaabot nyan sa philippines shores.. 100% di nila magagamit yan dito.. kasi lahat ng iPhones ay locked in for cingular..

 

malamang pag ready na i-release yan dito sa philippines Apple will tie it up with one of Globe, Smart or Sun.. walang open line open line yan.. ganun ang gagawin na market strategy ng Apple for all countries..

ps. P38K? grabe naman tubo nyan.. eh $500 nga lang yan sa US for a 2 year period eh :lol: mga P30K-32K pwede pa.. :thumbsupsmiley:

in the philippines there is no question it will sell, alam mo naman mga pinoy they have a penchant for what is new or what is in or what is cool.. or should i say all of the above.. :)

 

kaso currently right now ang iphone naka hookup lang sa cingular. kasi kung pede sa ibang networks yan di sana nagkaroon na rin nyan para sa tmobile, verizon etc. balita ko in order for you to get an iphone here with cingular kelangan mag sign ka ng 2 year contract na ang monthly $t69.99 per month. ang masama kung talagang magiging exclusive lang sa cingular yan w/c means malabong ma release sa atin.

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Guest airmax
My friend has iphone and he's using it here in the philippines using our local network :goatee: pwede daw pa unlock :cool:

So far, wala pa namn shang reklamo tungkol sa iphone :upside:

 

talaga lang ha so mas nauna pa syang nagkaiphone dyan kasi dito sa june 29 pa irerelease thats quite strange hehehe. baka fake na iphone yan. if you're referring to the iphone found below eh walang ganyan sa us saan kaya nanggaling yang phone na yan tinatakan lang ba ng iphone kahit hindi iphone hehehe.

 

http://i14.ebayimg.com/05/i/000/a2/e5/87be_1_b.JPG

 

iphone from ebay.ph

 

http://www.telecomskorea.com/images/stories/news_07_1/apple_iphone_1.jpg

 

the real iphone from apple

Edited by airmax
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My friend has iphone and he's using it here in the philippines using our local network :goatee: pwede daw pa unlock :cool:

So far, wala pa namn shang reklamo tungkol sa iphone :upside:

 

Looks like your friend got pwned... that's not the real Iphone. Hopefully he didn't pay 30+K for it.

 

Is that fake IPhone for real? Who makes em/?

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saang market, dito sa philippines? i find that hard to believe.. kung meron man makaabot nyan sa philippines shores.. 100% di nila magagamit yan dito.. kasi lahat ng iPhones ay locked in for cingular..

 

malamang pag ready na i-release yan dito sa philippines Apple will tie it up with one of Globe, Smart or Sun.. walang open line open line yan.. ganun ang gagawin na market strategy ng Apple for all countries..

ps. P38K? grabe naman tubo nyan.. eh $500 nga lang yan sa US for a 2 year period eh :lol: mga P30K-32K pwede pa.. :thumbsupsmiley:

in the philippines there is no question it will sell, alam mo naman mga pinoy they have a penchant for what is new or what is in or what is cool.. or should i say all of the above.. :)

 

di ko alam... may kilala lang akong nagpaparating ng mga cel phones

and na-mention nya sa akin that may IPhone na hehe

I really wouldn't know how true this is not unless I see the phone for real!

 

I won't advise buying the 1st model of IPhones.....it still has no 3G feature.....better wait for the suceeding models.....by that time....stable na ang supply and demand sa product nila.

 

hahaha mas ok pag hindi 3G!!!

ayaw ko ng mga 3G phones!!!

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I think the iphone is due to be released in Asia in mid-2008 but it's out in the US and I think in Europe.

Personally, I think they held back a bit by not integrating everything into the Iphone such as 3G so that

they can still convince people to buy the second generation one just for that one feature. :thumbsdownsmiley:

 

Does that make Steve Job a genius or a devil? :lol:

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I think the iphone is due to be released in Asia in mid-2008 but it's out in the US and I think in Europe.

Personally, I think they held back a bit by not integrating everything into the Iphone such as 3G so that

they can still convince people to buy the second generation one just for that one feature. :thumbsdownsmiley:

 

Does that make Steve Job a genius or a devil? :lol:

 

Maybe having 3G technology meant another $100 added on to the pricetag??? And who would by a $600 phone nowadays. That case, he's a genius>.

 

I do agree, 3G is a big loss, but as long as I can get on the Internet, should be fine.

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