A couple of things that make people nervous about the iPhone: no mechanical keyboard and AT&T/Cingular’s EDGE network.
If anybody’s poised to perfect the whole touchscreen keyboard thing, it’s probably Apple. Nokia almost got it with the 770/N800 but for people with gargantuan thumbs, “tapping” ASDF in one fell swoop is about as fun as riding a bike with no seat. Hats off to Apple if they can get the keyboard right.
The EDGE network is another story. There’s only so much that Apple can do to make the iPhone zip along and, at the end of the day, the iPhone would be much faster on just about any other network. So the whole AT&T/Cingular partnership has been a bit of a puzzler for a device that’s so dependent on data.
Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 skipped the iPhone altogether, instead opting for a Blackberry 8830 on the Verizon network.
“Bottom line is: The network MATTERS – a lot. It matters for voice and it matters for the ultra-hyped mobile web. Verizon’s high speed network IS faster – it’s not full broadband speed, of course, but it blows away the slower networks I’ve used, i.e. the kind of slower network the iPhone has with AT&T.
So much of the Web’s promise went unfulfilled in Web 1.0 because the network simply wasn’t ready. Buying an iPhone with AT&T would be like buying a laptop that only supports dial-up.”
I think that for normal run-of-the-mill web surfing, the EDGE network should be sufficient but once you get into downloading music and videos directly to the iPhone, the slow network speed could become painfully apparent.
None of this will likely matter, though. Apple could make the iPhone attach to other iPhones with twine and most everyone would still buy one.
Why I Didn’t Buy An iPhone: The Network [Publishing 2.0]
its about the money. its always about the money, not even Jobs can escape the hold of the beast.
As a previous user of AT&T/Cingular’s ridiculously slow EDGE network (now on Helio/Sprint), it is NOT sufficient for web browsing for anyone with a modern attention span (hehe). Its just too damn slow.
After browsing on 3G I’ll never go back to EDGE, latency be damned.
After watching the iPhone walk-through, I must admit I am very excited about the iPhone… in the next revision. Buy, buy, buy, early adopters!
The people with crackberries look like total nerds. holding a computer to your face to talk. or slung on your belt like a high school nerd.
Technology is great, but that’s not the way to go. Apple integrated a much better looking package with more consumer content and consumer value. I see plenty of people wanting version 1.0 before Apple differentiates their product into different functionalities and price points.
The free marketing will greatly aid in people trying new MACs too.
I think it was a wise decision. Let’s face it, as commented above, Apple went with AT&T based on $$. (Frankly, it was really only between Verizon and AT&T, in my opinion). That left the option of either 3G (HSDPA/UMTS) or EDGE. EDGE was the smarter choice. Why?
Because AT&T doesn’t have nationwide 3G. Thus, either they would have to geographically limit availability (not good) or they would have people who live in an EDGE area buying the 3G iPhone, and having an inferior experience. And we know how Jobs feels about inferior experiences with his products.
Personally, I don’t think the EDGE network is all that slow. They’ve been sprucing it up (I think it was called Operation Fine Edge) and I can tell, using a Nokia N95, I’ve seen data transfer speeds increase lately.
Plus, I don’t think the iPhone is all that data-intensive. I average 500MB/month on my phone currently, and that’s downloading music/podcasts, streaming video, checking Gmail obsessively, and surfing the net in general.
According to Wikipedia, EDGE has a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 473.6 kbit/s. That’s nowhere near EvDO (which I currently have on my Treo 700p that I hate with a burning passion), but it’s far faster than dial-up, and should be acceptable for web browsing. I keep hearing people saying they’re getting much lower speeds on EDGE (
theoretical maximum doesnt mean anything. whens the last time youve seen say… your comcast cable internet come to the “max speed”? (and even if you had, that doesnt matter either – AT&Ts EDGE never was that fast.)