Apple iPhone

So Apple had their big keynote address. Steve Jobs got in front of all the fanboys, and fangirls and announced a bunch of new products. The product getting the most press right now is the iPhone.

The iPhone has been rumored in the works for the last year. It basically is the morphing of a video iPod and a cell phone. For $499 + a 2 year Cingular wireless contract you can get a 4gb version. For $599 you can up that to 8gb. The phone also has some other useful things like a large touch screen, Bluetooth, WiFi, a 2 mega pixel camera and other applications like Google Maps, Safari, and iTunes (of course) with CoverFlow. Jobs said the phone will ship in June if you live in the US.

Now lets break this down a bit.

First, it is not a smart phone. There does not seem to be SDKs to support third party development. For example, where I work we do a lot of business applications that run on pocket pcs, this includes devices that have phones. By not allowing for third party development I believe the business world will not adopt this phone. So that only leaves consumers as buyers. I realize there are many people out there ready to waste money on this product but most consumers will find cheaper alternatives that offers similar options. I personally don't want or need a smart phone, so this is not the deal breaker for me.

The deal breaker for me is the iPhone ties you to Cingular wireless. Where I live Cingular provides terrible coverage. Sure Milwaukee is in there plan, and has good quality, but If I want to visit my parents, I might as well leave my phone at home. In fact you venture to far from our interstate highways, you lose coverage quickly. So Even if I wanted to drop $499 for a phone, I would never sign a contract with Cingular.

So a quick wrap up.

On the plus side...

• the phone looks cool
• has a new interface
• nice set of applications
  

On the negative side...

• Cingular
• Cost
• No third party development
• Small amount of memory

So there are my thoughts on the iPhone.

Again I have not been given one of these to test nor have I been paid by anyone to give this review. I recieved my information from other websites, like Apple.com and Cingular.com. Also information was provided by Cingular users who phones do not work at my parents house or other places in Wisconsin.