Friday, July 11, 2008

Quick Flipancy About The iPhone 3G


I'd like to say that I've been ignoring the foofrah about the iPhone 3G for the last couple of weeks, but I have to be honest and say that I've been ignoring lots of news, while I beaver away at a few urgent projects. That's more or less my half-assed, backhanded apology to my faithful readers for the dearth of blog updates lately.


Regardless, savvy CE expert and Marketnews editor Christine Persaud does a great job of summing up her frustrations with the endless gyrations in the media about the launch of the new iPhone.




It seems like all we've been hearing about for the past few weeks is iPhone, iPhone, iPhone. The device has finally made its way to Canadian stores today. In Toronto, hundreds lined up outside the Dundas St. store on the corner of Yonge & Dundas in the pouring rain just to have the chance to fork out at least $200 for the device, plus $30/mo. in data (in addition to the price
of a voice plan) for the next three years. (
see related story) Is it all worth it?


I will say that much good has come out of the attention the iPhone has garnered. It's nice to see that Rogers has (somewhat) relented to consumer pushback, vis a vis their mobile data plans. It's still not enough, but it's a start.


Also, as commenters like myself have noted, we're just now seeing the forward edge of more advanced handhelds, for which the title "smartphone" is kind of inadequate. Samsung, LG and others are bringing competitive handhelds to market, and fostering new innovations. Whether or not the iPhone achieves the same market domination that iPod has in media players remains very much in question.


Lastly, I'm eagerly awaiting the news to break that some clever dude somewhere has successfully unlocked the 3G iPhone. Despite Apple's best efforts at delivering an inert "brick" to customers, that can only be activated by Apple, that won't last forever. As the old No Fear t-shirt read: "It's Not If, It's When And How Bad!" My personal over/under on a cracked 3G iPhone is a week. Tops.

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

I know this is too weird to even contemplate, but if iPhones were sold as unlocked hardware that anyone could buy and then use with any carrier anywhere (who could supply them with service) then they would dominate the market in a very short time and no one would have to 'crack' them to use them. I know, I'm naive, but for me hardware is hardware and software is something else.

"Don't start nothin' - won't be nothin'!"

Lee_D said...

Open mobile devices!? That's crazy talk, FP, what were you thinking!? :)