Take away most of the iPhone‘s extras—phone, camera, wifi—and drop the US$600 price (including required two-year cell contract) and you’ve probably got a nice, reasonably-priced media device that I’d consider buying; it’d probably be on par with a current video iPod, if the memory capacity were bumped up sufficiently. I don’t need a lower-resolution camera than the one I’ve already got, and I don’t need to be connected to the net 24 hours a day (which, granted, is only about 3 hours more than I am right now). Frankly, I don’t need video playback either, although it’d be nice to replace that functionality with some more open and/or lossless audio codecs.
But most of all I don’t want a cell phone! Don’t use one, don’t need one, don’t want one. Can’t think of anything less desirable that doesn’t involve physical pain.
It’s an impressive bit of tech, cramming all that stuff in there, but it’s not for me. Given the level of similarity I’ve discovered I share with the average consumer, they’re gonna sell billions of these things.
Couldn’t agree more on the topic of cellphones. I’m always amazed that most people I know who carry them almost seem to consider it a badge of honour that they’re constantly being interrupted by calls from their spouse, friend or co-worker, with matters so urgent that they can only be justly be classified as banal. I’ve been asked more than once in my career to carry either a cellphone or other tracking device, and I’ve always declined. When I’m not available, I’m not available. It’s called downtime, and without it, I go crazy and start taking hostages!
First I’d like to say that I agree with the ‘badge of honour’ thing – cell phones are a tool. I’ve said it many times, but my dad resisted getting a cell phone for many years, even though it would have been useful to his business, until he discovered he could TURN IT OFF. He never takes calls, he makes them.
Anyway, I really like this device for a couple of reasons. First is the multi-touch interface. I think it is a revolutionary interface. A professor has presented this concept and several usage videos are on the ‘net, somewhere. The next thing is that it runs OS X, according to Jobs, but we’ll have to see what that really means. Essentially, it has all the things I care about in one mobile device: 1) audio (video too) 2) wireless internet (useful when you want to use it, not for the always-on aspect) 3) unix-like OS (ssh and so on) 4) compact interface that is easy to use
I’ve been looking for something that will do all the possible functions I might want when going out, like audio, phone, diary/contacts, email would be nice. This puts it all there, even if I don’t use all of them. It’s still one device. The modern Apple fit ‘n’ finish gives me hope that it will be excellently executed and not doomed to be “ahead of its time”.
I agree with Peter on this. It’s nice, but not for me. I already have a better camera, a better iPod, and I don’t want a cellphone. (And I thought I was the only one! Glad to see there are others out there…) I’ve discovered that if you can swallow your shame, you can always borrow a cellphone. It’s sort of like herd immunity.