iPhone: Don’t forget the 1st generation iPod
I promised myself that I wouldn’t do an iPhone post, but I figure I may as well join in on the phun.
Six years ago in October of 2001, my (then) 12 year old daughter and I stood outside the Mall of America Apple store in anticipation of the release of this new music player called the iPod. I still own this device (and it’s still working) and when I hold it side-by-side with my current 60GB video iPod — or my wife’s nano — I’m stunned by how far Apple has come iterating this little music player and the category overall.
I expect nothing less from future iPhone devices.
In an increasingly mobile world, easy to use and fully functional computers on our hips or in our purses is key. When I did the post, “Mobile Global Grid: When the world is at your fingertips” I was really clear on the importance of having the world’s knowledge at our fingertips. The iPhone and the design bar Apple is setting will benefit all of us as mobile devices become more powerful, the network bandwidth larger and more of us with these devices.
I read Walt Mossberg (here) and David Pogue’s (here) reviews and it’s amusing to see how the blogosphere is leaping on to anything that smacks of a negative perspective. Mossberg’s “on balance it’s great” and Pogue’s seeming major concern about the AT&T network, “The bigger problem is the AT&T network. In a Consumer Reports study, AT&T’s signal ranked either last or second to last in 19 out of 20 major cities. My tests in five states bear this out. If Verizon’s slogan is, “Can you hear me now?” AT&T’s should be, “I’m losing you.” are clearly spot-on but many are leaping on them as harbingers of why the iPhone isn’t hype worthy and may stumble.
Look…any first generation “category killer” product has warts. There is no perfection but Apple has clearly entered with a disruptive device that will only get better as they iterate. Knowing Apple as I do, they’ve already got generations 2 and 3 well planned out and the mobile telephony device industry is undoubtedly shooting to meet-n-exceed the current iPhone design…
….but if they are, by the time they ship the next generation iPhone will be on the shelves.
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About Steve Borsch
Strategist. Learner. Idea Guy. Salesman. Connector of Dots. Friend. Husband & Dad. CEO. Janitor. More here.
Connecting the Dots Podcast
Podcasting hit the mainstream in July of 2005 when Apple added podcast show support within iTunes. I'd seen this coming so started podcasting in May of 2005 and kept going until August of 2007. Unfortunately was never 'discovered' by national broadcasters, but made a delightfully large number of connections with people all over the world because of these shows. Click here to view the archive of my podcast posts.
It’s going to be fun to watch. I don’t think the other phone manufacturers really know what they’re in for even though they can look back at the history of the iPod. They have their work cut out for them.
Like you, I use a lot of Verizon EVDO, if the iPhone had 3G instead of EDGE, I’d be in that line Friday night. Hopefully the Christmas model will do 3G.