My thoughts on Apple's iPhone

A lot of the tech websites I frequently read are in a state of frenzy in anticipation of the June 29 release of Apple's first cellphone, the iPhone (glancing over the main page at CNet News just now there are at least seven links to iPhone related information). According to Apple's website, the "iPhone combines three amazing products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device". It sounds great but at this point I really don't see how the product can possibly live up to the hype.

I won't be buying an iPhone. It seems like a pretty neat little gadget, but as with all things Apple it has a couple of fatal flaws. First of all, it's just way too expensive, with two versions expected to sell at $499 and $599 with a two year service contract. This always seems to be the case with Apple products. I considered buying a Mac laptop about a year ago. At the time, Mac had just made the switch to Intel processors and the rumor (which proved to be true) was that you could run Windows as well as the Mac OS. I have a lot of Windows software that I wasn't willing to give up but this seemed to solve that problem. I would have liked to try out the iLife suite - I checked out Apple's site and the software seemed cool. Would it have replaced Photoshop or Cubase (for music production)? Probably not. But it might have served a purpose when I was more interested in ease of use than power. And the video production software would have been about as good as what I use or slightly better, but I don't play with video much. Apple does offer Final Cut, for me the only significant Apple exclusive, but the price is prohibitive for my needs.

What ultimately killed the purchase was that very same processor switch - it allowed me to much more easily compare the hardware and what I found was that the Macbook Pro was seriously lacking. I was able to configure a significantly more powerful PC laptop for $1000 less. At the time the Macbook only offered a single-layer DVD burner - I got a double-layer burner. I also got an additional twenty gigs on my hard-drive, faster processor and much better graphics and sound cards. Both laptops are roughly the same size and weight. I added an updated display and a bigger battery. There really wasn't any room for debate - in every regard the hardware ate the Mac's lunch. The difference, really, is the software. On a laptop I don't see that as significant. I've been running XP Pro for something like five years now - it's effective, it's stable and it's infinitely more versatile than the Mac OS, particularly if you know what you're doing. The ability to run OS X alongside it simply wasn't worth the money.

On a phone I can see how Apple's approach might be more desirable. Apple tightly controls their hardware design, making it more difficult for people who aren't particularly computer savvy to screw things up. On the iPhone, Apple is limiting third-party developers to writing applets for Safari, the web browser. OS X also has an excellent, easy to use interface, and from what I've seen the mobile version of OS X that will run on the iPhone is stunning. The iPhone won't have as many features as Windows Mobile smart phones but I have no doubt it's ease of use will be fantastic.

While the iPhone does have a nice set of features many of them suffer when you take a look at the details. The iPhone is available in 4- and 8-gigabyte versions. I just don't see this replacing my three year old twenty gigabyte iPod, which is almost full. Granted, my iPod doesn't play video, but even so do I really want to watch video on a 3 inch screen? Putting video on it would also mean a lot less space for my music.

I have similar misgivings about the phone as an Internet device. I like the email interface and Google maps. As a web browser, again, the screen is just too small. Even on Apple's website the page they've chosen to display is unreadable (other than one headline, which I liked: "Democrats take control of Congress"). The maps would also be much more useful if they included GPS like a lot of other cellphones. The unit has no physical keyboard - it's got a touchscreen keyboard. I suspect this will work for typing with an index finger but not using two thumbs. I can probably live with that although it's does seem like they went for flash over real ingenuity. I do like the widgets.

Of course, the iPhone is also a phone! Ironically, this is probably the thing that irritates me the most. Aside from shelling out the purchase price you're stuck in a contract with Cingular/AT&T, my current service provider until my contract ends (and I am free). These guys aren't cheap when it comes to data plans and in order to get the most out of the iPhone you will need a heavy-duty data plan. Yes, the iPhone has Wi-Fi, which would be great for Internet access in my home (and necessary, since I have to roam the house searching for a "sweet spot" to get cell phone service). But my experience searching for free Wi-Fi in the area with my laptop indicates it's limited at best. One cool feature: if the iPhone does find Wi-Fi access it will automatically switch to that.

Finally, the battery is supposedly not replaceable by the user. However, Apple is reporting amazing battery life. That's great, but if you can't replace the battery yourself (should it fail) without voiding the warranty I think that's a huge negative.

So here's what I'd like to see: first of all, lose the "phone", unless you can get Cingular/AT&T to offer a reasonable unlimited data plan (or in my case, some other provider that can actually "provide"). Add storage space - forty gigs would be nice, eighty gigs even better. Add GPS for the maps with voice navigation. Maybe give it a larger screen (but not too large - I really don't need to watch video if it makes the device significantly less portable, and I'm okay just browsing pages designed for mobile devices). Thumb typing would be nice - maybe an add-on bluetooth keyboard (I suspect someone will come out with something like this). I'm guessing that a lot of the technology developed for the iPhone will make it into the next generation of the iPod and I'm excited about that.