Get ready for the iPhone invasion
I've lost count of how many people have asked me why I don't have an iPhone. All my friends know I'm a bit of a gadget freak and I'm usually one to buy the latest, coolest device around. So, they can't understand why I've held off from buying an iPhone.
Although the iPhone is widely available in various malls in the city and through online tech forums, these are basically unlocked phones that are illegally brought into the country. As such they do not carry any warranty.
What if something goes wrong with the phone? Apple won't service it since the product is not even supposed to be in the market. I've been told that some vendors offer their own warranties but I don't trust such third party guarantees.
Besides, the initial version, though elegant, has far too many technical shortcomings. These will all be pretty much resolved when the latest version becomes available in the US this month and to the rest of the world in the coming months.
Version 2.0 of the iPhone is a 3G phone. That means you will be able to access the Internet at a faster speed (assuming you have 3G service, of course).
It has a lot of cool things that the original one didn't such as GPS satellite-positioning technology that can facilitate a whole range of location-based services.
It even caters to corporate needs with features like the ability to do "remote wiping" of crucial data if the phone should get lost or stolen.
Best of all is the price. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has said that the iPhone will be available around the world at around US$199. At current conversion rates, that's about RM650 – pretty amazing, right?
By reducing the price to a level where it's almost a no-brainer to buy an iPhone, and increasing the product's availability from merely six countries to nearly 70, Apple is set to become a major player in the mobile smart phone scene.
Granted, the iPhone's current market share is still tiny compared to the likes of Nokia or Sony Ericsson. However, its potential is huge. Not only is it an object of desire – the likes of which no other handset maker has been able to achieve – it is also the only phone that is widely used for other activities besides voice calls and SMS.
According to Jobs, 98% of iPhone users browse the web, 94% of them use it for e-mail, and 80% of them use 10 or more of its features. These are amazing usage statistic, if they are true.
To really understand how revolutionary this is, try to think: When was the last time you browsed the web on your phone (if ever)? How often do you check your e-mail through your phone? And just how many of the myriad features on your smart phone do you actually use?
All these things are already available in some form or another in other phones but usage is generally low. Apple's magic is its ability to bring it all together in one seamless, elegant package and thus encourage actual usage.
Most importantly, the iPhone could be the one handheld device that encourages the take up of mobile Internet. When that happens, a viable mobile advertising industry will finally emerge.
It might seem ironic that a company not known primarily as a mobile handset maker could very well turn out to be the one that gives the mobile phone industry the VAS fillip that it's desperately seeking.
But if you think about it, it's not like Jobs has not done this sort of thing before. After all, it was he who made the personal computer really user-friendly in the mid-80s. Similarly, it was he who made legal music downloading popular through his iPod hardware and iTunes music store. Jobs is now hoping to score a hat-trick and revolutionize the mobile industry in the way that he had done for the PC and music industry. Given his track record, I wouldn't bet against him.
Oon Yeoh
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Reader Comments (2)
Just read your article in The Edge on the iPhone invasion
For someone who has never owned the iPhone, I am surprised that you are singing the praises of the iPhone based on hearsay.
I owned the iPhone for a few months and sold it off in exchange for the Nokia N95 because it couldn't meet my expectations of what a smartphone should be ...yet.
Yes, it is great for web surfing, POP mail and the iPod features are great but it ends there. Version 2.0 will be 3G enabled, so web surfing will be a little faster than EDGE, built-in GPS and that's about it. As for the rest, unless you are an avid Mac OS X or Apple user, it's no big deal.
The price you quoted at US$199 is with a 2-year AT&T contract so it should costs a lot more without one. The latest rumour is that the 8GB version will be sold at US$599 without a contract which is RM2,460 about what most other smartphones are retailing for anyway.
When I owned it, I found that I was essentially using an iPod trying to be phone at the same time. Most of the features are not as easy to use as it should be. I hated the fact that I couldn't even forward an SMS with the default SMS software built-in, you can download one but it's just not the same.
Even wonder how the Mat Salleh is able to type anything on the teeny weeny keyboard with their big fat fingers when we hardly can? It's simple. Americans and Europeans love their voice mail which is great since you don't need to type too much on the touch screen keyboard whereas us Asians love texting so much.
So while it is a great device which will mature in a couple of years, I think the magic of the iPhone is just pure timing. If the iPhone had been released 5 years earlier, it would have been a flop like the Apple Newton and Apple will never have a phone to its name. In fact, it is the iPod that enabled Apple to be where it is today and hence launch the iPhone.
You could have done better there.
I hope you can do more articles about where our ICT industry is going and give your views as a researcher about what the country should be doing to become world class in ICT. There isn't enough critique from anyone in the industry. The recent WCIT showed me that all the government is interested in is attracting investment in land and buildings in MSC. Most of the local companies are just trying to grab a piece of the action by offering outsourcing services to potential investors. The dearth of real ICT intellectual property actually is due to the lack of quality ICT education in the country.
Hope you can highlight the missing areas!!
PS Let's meet up for teh tarik sometime!