Cell Phones (and yes, the iPhone)
By now, of course, you know it happened: Apple, Inc. announced the iPhone.
As cool as the phone looked throughout the entire demo, I was upset the whole time (and continued to rant all day…) that it’s a GSM/EDGE device. I am in no way a fan of Verizon Wireless as a company, but the bottom line is that they have the best network (in all measurable areas: coverage area, call quality, call setup time, etc.) in the area I live. EvDO is also significantly faster than EDGE, which for a mobile device such as the iPhone is going to be important. But more on the cell carriers later.
First, the iPhone itself. There’s not much to say other than “drool.” How can you not want one?
Warning: boring digression!
Perhaps a digression is in order: the iPhone announcement comes at an interesting time for me because I recently evaluated—and briefly tried—the switch to smartphone-land. My first attempt was a BlackBerry Pearl with T-Mobile, which had a fabulous web browser but otherwise I wasn’t a fan of the interface and capabilities. RIM has its (admittedly large) niche, but I wasn’t necessarily looking for real-time Exchange integration to be my killer-feature. I was coming from fantastic call quality and coverage with Verizon Wireless, so my experience with the BlackBerry wasn’t quite doing it for me and I switched back to my old phone and old plan.
My other option, then, was the Treo 700p. I’d have to pay an arm and leg for the device, but I used Palms long ago and know I’ll like their PDA functionality, so it was just a question of online data access. Sadly, it was a joke. The web browser (if it could render the page at all) was horrendous compared to the BlackBerry web browser, and the most important feature for me in a smartphone is web browsing. Also, despite being on a data network that is an order of magnitude faster (EvDO) than what the BlackBerry had access to, browsing the web on the Treo was painfully slow. It was clear the whole device was single-threaded at the operating system level and it was just an awful experience. So I’m sure the Treo is fantastic in every other way, but if it couldn’t browse the web decently, why even sell it?
I’m not interested in Windows Mobile-based devices, and I have a huge financial incentive to stick with my current (voice-only) cell phone and plan, so I left off my thoughts of smartphones around the end of November and decided to give the market some time to get better.
End digression!
Which brings us back to the topic at hand: the iPhone just came along. It looks to be exactly what I want: non-Windows-based smartphone with a fantastic web browser and nice interface. And a mail client that can do direct IMAP or POP3 on top of that (this was a problem with the BlackBerry and, as far as I could tell, the Treo—they each had to proxy IMAP or POP3 stuff through the wireless provider, I think. This was an extra charge with T-Mobile and I don’t know how Verizon handled it. I want the phone to make a direct TCP connection to my mail server to check mail!).
I want one.
But… there are snags:
- Cingular??? Puh-leeze. They are the worst carrier (call quality/coverage/dropped calls) in this area from everything I’ve seen. At least Apple could have gone with T-Mobile to throw in the “hip and cool” angle.
- GSM/EDGE? This one is understandable (sadly), but still not what I want. CDMA/EvDO is just plain better, if for no other reason than EvDO is truly broadband-like speeds and EDGE isn’t. The international market is almost exclusively GSM, though, which is why this decision is understandable. I don’t know much about higher-speed GSM data technologies but we’ll have to see how quickly Cingular builds out their network with better tech and if Apple follows with a matching phone.
- This is a very expensive setup. The phone is very pricey and really isn’t a suitable iPod replacement (8GB in the most expensive model which is a bit of a joke for their first “widescreen video iPod”) so you can’t use the “well you’re getting a phone and an iPod for the price of one” argument. You will still want to buy the real widescreen video iPod when it comes out, so budget another few hundred bucks for that. Also, I don’t think most people realize how much an unlimited data plan costs: expect your cell phone to double if you have a regular 450-900 minute a month plan. In the Cingular case, unlimited data looks to be $45/month on top of your voice plan.
Points 1 and 2 aren’t likely to affect the mass market, I just don’t like them. Point 3, though, is interesting to me. What market is Apple going for with this phone? I don’t have any data on this, but I would guess that the majority of the cell phone accounts that have the extra $45/month data plan are corporate lines of service. There’s nothing out there yet indicating Apple has any kind of over-the-air Exchange integration story for the iPhone, which will prevent its adoption as a replacement for most of those corporate devices currently tied to data plans. That will still leave lots of people who are interested in doing this sort of setup on their own (like me), but this isn’t exactly something like an iPod where Mom-and-Dad can sink a one-time cost to buy the device and the kid is happy. Will this be a compelling device without a data plan? Perhaps. Is part of the Cingular/Apple deal a special service plan to get people on board? Perhaps. There are different data plan options (most BlackBerrys are on special BlackBerry data plans, with additional services like IMAP/POP3 mail checking requiring an additional charge), and Cingular looks to have a web-browsing only plan for certain smartphones, but in the case of the iPhone that gets back to the question of direct mail client connections versus proxying through some webmail service.
But forget all that: my big question about the iPhone: what does “runs Mac OS X” mean? It sure doesn’t mean that it’s literally the same operating system distribution that runs on my desktop machine. I suspect it does mean there’s parts of Darwin underneath with some key APIs to make it look like MacOS X for development purposes. (Which segues into the next question: what does developing for an iPhone look like? New XCode module? Will there be a simulator? etc…)
On that note, potentially show-stopper (for me, at least, not most people) news I ran across during my iPhone-news-roundup here at the end of the day: is it true that there will be no third-party development for the iPhone? This seems to be confirmed by another source on the show floor.
Anyway, at the moment, I want one. We’ll see what’s happening in the second half of this year.
Oh, and as promised, my quick thoughts on cell providers in the Portland, Oregon area:
- T-Mobile. I really like T-Mobile because they have great customer service and the best plans/prices. The downside is limited coverage area and GSM/EDGE.
- Cingular. Good luck actually getting through a complete call with someone and having both parties actually be able to understand each other the whole time! If you could even make good calls, it would be unfortunate that it’s GSM/EDGE.
- Verizon Wireless. Pure evil. They cripple their phones so that even if the phone is capable of (for example) sending pictures you took to your computer via BlueTooth, that feature is disabled so you have to use Verizon’s $0.25-per-picture over-the-air picture deliver service. There was a class-action suit against them because of this and folks got new phones, but unfortunately this didn’t result in Verizon changing the practice of crippling phones going forward, they just added more fine print to cover themselves from future lawsuits about it in the future. The most mega of the mega corps when it comes to cell phones. BUT (and this is important) they have the best network in terms of coverage, reliability, etc. They are also CDMA and have great EvDO service around the country. At the end of the day I’m not paying my cell phone company to let me take pictures with my phone, I’m paying them to move my voice and data. It’s incredible how much better Verizon does this than the other carriers I’ve dealt with, so…sadly…Verizon gets my business.
- Sprint/Nextel. Irrelevant. (yeah, I know, harsh! But at the moment, they are. Come on, you go to Radio Shack to buy them. That can’t be a good sign!)
That’s it for now. As I said, I’ll be curious to revisit the iPhone after the first round of people gets them and takes them for a spin.