Apple’s iPhone: Fiction From Fact
- January 10th, 2007
- 8 Comments
Kevin from Digg famously claimed a source had told him that the device would have two batteries: one for music and one for everything else. A revolutionary idea, but one sadly wrong. Sorry, Kev. What do you know about the Megatron redesign?
Also rumored was an Apple iTunes- or iLife-branded MVNO to compliment the iPhone. This would be an Apple controled network sitting atop and existent 3G network (probably Cingular’s) that would allow for Helio-like service plans for the phone. This, of course, is not the case, as Apple’s exclusive arrangement with Cingy demonstrates. That being said, we’re fully expecting special iPhone-centric voice and data plans come this summer when iPhone hits the streets.
We’d heard talk that Steve would be debuting two or three different phones, in a product matrix much like the Mac or iPod line-ups: one low-end, one mid-range, and one high-end, the latter being a full-on smartphone (much like the iPhone launched yesterday). We have one iPhone. But, when you think about it, one might be enough.
A few things we didn’t expect made their way to the device, notably the super-hi-res screen (2x that of other smartphone screens of the size) and the use of Widgets in the OS. We’d heard the OS was going to be OS X-based, which it is, but what Apple has done with it was a little more than we expected.
Also, the inclusion of WiFi is a welcome touch, but one we’d relegated to the trash bin of fanboy lusting. Thankfully, the fanboys won out on this one.
But what have we missed? Let us know, as there were more rumors than there are plot twists in Season 2 of LOST, so there must be something we overlooked here, much as His Steveness apparently overlooked 3-frickin’-G capabilities.
Sascha (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Let’s not be foolish here. Everybody KNOWS that Steve-O did most definitely not overlook any 3G technology out there, and I keep wondering why there is always so much superficial bashing going on without ever looking at the actual reasons.
When developing a handheld device, there are four things you have to keep in mind:
1. Price
2. Size
3. Processing power
4. Battery lifetime
Looking at the iPhone, price and size are definitely at the upper end, processing power seems fine for now, but battery life time seems to be rather moderate. Now let’s imagine what adding 3G to the phone would do to it: It would be more expensive, the necessary circuits might have required a bigger phone or something as ugly as an external antenna (which I don’t get why we still see so many phones with them out there), and it definitely might have affected the battery lifetime.
Sure, you could have kicked the Wifi or something else out to make up for it, but obviously these guys took a good look at the market and made a business decision here. Not a technology decision, a BUSINESS decision. Sure, 95% of the geeks and geekesses (I made that up) reading this blog would prefer a phone that comes with a nice broadband network connection, but let’s face it: The majority of those 957 million cell phone users won’t miss the lack of 3G functionality.
The only people I know who have data plans with their phones are people that got their phone from their company. I don’t have a data plan now and depending on what Cingular comes up with I might not get a data plan with the iPhone, either, but instead use Wifi, which (at least where I live) you can get pretty much around any corner.
So please everybody stop saying Apple “forgot” 3G or that they were out of their minds when not integrating it into the iPhone. We all know that it won’t make the iPhone any less successful, and from all the people I know who will buy one maybe one will actually come back and say ‘I wish it had faster internet connection’.
Feel free to prove me wrong!
Goodo (Who am I?)
1 year ago
What’s missing from your blog is mention of the 1,001 purported photos of the device. I don’t recall any that resemble the reality shown yesterday.
In addition, there were plenty of rumors about a future iPhone and a full screen iPod with no buttons (a la Multi-Touch), but I don’t recall many, if any, predictions that it would end up being a single device.
Tom (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Why on earth would Apple agree to a seemingly-unending exclusive contract with Cingular, effectively limiting their potential sales to less than 1/3 of all U.S. wireless subscribers?
NW Guy (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Sascha, external antennas are ugly but they do improve overall reception. They are only removed from devices due to the size/form factor limitation; I bet that all the engineers would love to have customers have devices with the extended antenna - less support calls to answer!
Tom, exclusive to a smaller market may help them negotiate a better subsidy from Cingular?
Matt Hickey (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Goodo: about the photos, you’re right. Good call.
mobile dude (Who am I?)
1 year ago
No doubt the reason they did a deal with Cingular is because the phone is GSM, not CDMA. In the US, there’s only 2 GSM carriers: Cingular with almost 60M subs, and T-Mobile with 24M.
Since the vast majority of users worldwide are GSM, this makes perfect sense. Plus, they don’t get screwed by Qualcomm on CDMA/BREW licensing fees.
Geurtr (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Most important will the screen be scratch proof ?
Roger Smith (Who am I?)
1 year ago
iPhone is available with Cingular ONLY!? And what if I am stuck under contract with a carrier OTHER than Cingular but still want a iPhone?
Well, the only solution I could fine was http://www.Cellswapper.com - they get you out of any cell phone contract!