Apple Launches iPhone

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One of the most interesting and most Digged items in the web world yesterday was Apple’s Launch of the iPhone. I will not aim to give you any pointers to people covering this launch, simply proceed to any site that you like and am reasonably sure that you will find a mention of the iPhone. Well come on guys Apple is always known for its innovation and ability to come out with products which are strikingly different from what ever exists in the market at that point of time. Just think of the Mac, iPod and now the iPhone.

In today’s already over crowded mobile device market what were the drivers that Apple thought it can capitalize on to launch ‘another’ mobile phone. To me I see the following as the top factors

• The rate at which people change their mobile is much faster than any product before – in fact it’s even faster than the PC’s also. Apparently people change mobile phones every 15-18 months and that gives Apple two benefits,

• It’s target addressable market does not run the risk of saturating at least in the near future - new mobile users are increasing in some markets (BRIC countries for example) where as people are changing mobiles in some of the mature markets.
• When a consumer keeps changing his or her mobile phone every 15-18 months who better than an innovative company like Apple to take benefit from this.

• Although Apple has sold over 40 Million iPod’s and has been a hugely successful product for Apple – it needs to realize that the media is converging and users might move on to other products which support multimedia (voice, internet, audio, and video).

Below is how Apple describes its new kid of the block

“iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a wide screen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight hand-held device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone”

What I like about the iPhone,

1. As you can always expect from an Apple device the iPhone has an excellent design.
2. One of the most interesting features for me is the ‘touch sensor’ which in some sense removes the distinction between a portrait and landscape mode – this is great. Have not seen it in any ‘mobile device’ till date.
3. Supports convergence to a good extent – telephony, internet and features of its iPod all rolled into one device

What I don't like about the product,

1. The device is a quad band GSM Phone – In today’s scenario where 3G is the upcoming technology can’t understand the reasoning for this. Well yes the US in general is way behind on ‘mobile technology adoption’ and I guess this product suits most there
2. Touch screen – This is good for a low interaction device such as the iPod, but for something like a convergence device I think it might cause some problems to users
3. Cost – I sure think that it’s a costly device. But for such a product which company does not think of milking the market anyways
4. What does memory cost – why should at all anybody differentiate in price on a 4GB memory device and a 8 GB memory device.

What I would like in the coming versions,

1. GPRS, EDGE, and 3G support for sure
2. Lower Price :-)
3. More memory on the device – for the converged device I think 4/8 GB might be very less
4. Don’t know if it already has a USB port – if not having it might be good

Tags: apple, iPod, iPhone