The Apple iPhone!!!

Apple splashed MacWorld three days ago (like they always do) with 2 new products: the Apple TV and the Apple iPhone. There's nothing like a Steve Jobs keynote. I watched the keynote and I was blown away by the Apple iPhone (as everyone knows I'm a gadget freak, hence the name, Gadget Man). I wasn't too blown away by the Apple TV (which they changed from iTV, and which Steve Jobs kept saying iTV because he still thinks it as that). I guess Apple changed iTV to Apple TV because there was another product out there that is called iTV. The Apple TV is basically Apple's version of Windows Media Center from Microsoft (although it's much sleeker and doesn't crash :)). It's basically packaging TV functionality in a box which allows you to stream your movies, music, videos to your big screen TV wirelessly over WiFi. It synchronizes your media to the Apple TV. It also allows others to sync their media to the Apple TV so they can play their media. Like always, the interface is easy to use and cool, but in my opinion, nothing revolutionary.

What was revolutionary was when Steve Jobs announced that Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And that's when the audience at the keynote started cheering really loudly, because they knew it was the long awaited iPhone. And in typical Steve Jobs fashion, he delivered. Funny though, because there is another product called iPhone, it is trademarked by Linksys, which is part of Cisco. It is interesting that Linksys had the name iPhone since the 1990's and didn't launch their iPhone product until last month (December 2006), so they beat Apple to the punch. Linksys always had the iPhone name, but they didn't release it publicly until December. They probably knew that Apple would announce something like that in January at MacWorld, so they decided to announce it before them. Apple really wants the iPhone name, but apparently Cisco is suing Apple for an infringement on their name. Nonetheless, the Apple iPhone is impressive as you can see below.



The Apple iPhone is three products in one: a widescreen iPod, cell phone, and internet communications device. But what makes it revolutionary? First, it doesn't have a stylus. It makes sense, how many times, have you had a PDA and just used your fingers to tap on the screen (I do that all the time on my Palm Zire 71), because you couldn't locate your stylus or it was just too cumbersome to take it out? Second, it has an accelerometer so if you move the iPhone to landscape mode, then the screen will automatically adjust the image. Way cool. Third, it has the best colour multi-touch screen that I have ever seen. Fourth, you can shrink or expand the image just by moving your fingers!!! How cool is that? Fifth, it runs MacOS X, I can't believe that Apple was able to run MacOS X on this phone! Actually, it must be a stripped down version, but still that's impressive. You can run applications on the iPhone just like you would on a desktop, so you're not constrained because of the form factor. Sixth, you can easily scroll the menu of items just by running your finger, so it has some type of physics spring motion. All the syncing is done through iTunes. It seems that iTunes is the brain of the entire system, iTunes syncs the iPod, it syncs the Apple TV, and it syncs the iPhone. Can you see the Apple ecosystem around iTunes? Brilliant move by Apple. And it also includes Google Maps and Yahoo Mail. Oh yes, the iPhone also includes a 2.0 megapixel camera as well.

So, the ultimate question, is Gadget Man going to get it? Well, $499 US for this phone seems steep for me, and it's only available from Cingular in the US. Don't know when it will come to Canada. So, the answer is no, I'm not going to get this phone. I think I'll change my phone after I finish my PhD, because I'll probably want to also replace my Palm Zire 71 as well.

What do others think of this phone? Is Apple raising the bar on what a cell phone is? Is this the next revolution of the phone? How do other companies like Palm, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, etc. compete? Will there be an iPhone killer?

On Technorati: Apple, Apple TV, Apple iPhone