TIME magazine got the scoop with this behind-the-scene article, The Apple of Your Ear, about the forthcoming Apple cell phone + iPod combo announced on Wednesday. The print edition has more photos than the online version.
Yes, the phone a beautiful piece of personal technology, tho’ pundits have mixed reviews on whether they’ll hit projected sales figures or not. Now I’m delibrating whether to wait until June for this patented smartphone or not. It won’t be called the iPhone b/c that’s a Cisco trademark, and I sure hope they don’t call it the Apple Phone. I don’t think they’ve reinvented the phone, but they have made it prettier and sexy.
[update] 5 notable concerns about the “iPhone” according to Paul Kedrosky and Robert Scoble: The touchpad. The closed system. The Cingular relationship. Its vaporware status. The price. Limited battery life. It’s Cingular only and GSM. The camera sucks. No GPS. Tim Bednar briefly deconstructs the hype. Plus, Business Week cranks out more than a dozen articles about “The Apple Economy.”
Yep, more and more, I going to bet that actually using the device will be an odd tactile experience which will not be so great. I was looking at all the photos of people actually touching the “thing” — and notice that every is holding it like its fragile, like not to get finger prints on the screen. It seems like something you look at, not something you use (meaning throw it in your laptop bag or in your pocket or shove it next to your kid while you lug the car seat into the house).
It seems to me the iPhone runs the serious risk of being like a glass coffee table. They look awesome in the showroom and in glossy magazine photographs — but in real life — they always look smudged. The same with stainless steal appliances in the kitchen — they always have finger prints on them.
The other thing — see photos of the phone off. It looks like a dead fish. It only looks cool on; laptops are much the same way. When I worked for a computer manufacturer I took product photos — we always had to Photoshop an image onto the screen — otherwise it looked dead.