Apple iPhone ... Should You Buy One?

Answering these questions was not as easy as it seems. Apple's executive Steve Jobs kept a close eye on the specific information released about the iPhone. True, the television commercials extoll its many virtues, but is that the end of the story? Not quite:

The iPhone is a tour-de-force and a remarkable work of art. Apple has left other phone makers in the dust with over 200 patents, which will make it impossible to exactly clone the iPhone.

The iPhone appears set to be a big money maker for Apple, and looks like it will continue to be for years to come. With a large investment in technology, programming and third-party chips, Apple will, of course, laud the iPhone to the heavens. Granted, the iPhone has some remarkable new concepts. Steve Jobs, Apple's founder, has always been dedicated to making his products user-friendly with an eye to what people want: A simple, impressive, multi-tasking portable phone-computer, and in this he seems to have succeeded.

According to industry research by iSuppli, for every dollar consumers spend on the iPhone, 55 cents goes back to Apple as profit. It is estimated by the El Segundo company that Apple will ship 4.5 million iPhones this year and 13.5 million next year. This is beyond Apple's own target production.

Apple charges $599 for the 8-gig version of the iPhone, which hit store shelves July 6^th. The total cost to make the device is $265.00 and change, according to iSuppli. Apple has long been able to charge premium prices for its products, but the iPhone appears to top its other product lines.

In the first 6 months of its fiscal year Apple posted a net profit of 33 percent. If the company can maintain this profit margin, Apple will have a "cash cow" for years to come. ISuppli expects Apple to ship approximately 30 million iPhones by 2011.

CEO Steve Jobs predicted in January that Apple would sell at least 10 million iPhones by next year. Analysts have estimated the company has already sold 500,000 or more in the first weekend.

So, what's all the hype about? Well, the iPhone is Apple's first entry into the cell phone market. With it you can make telephone calls, surf the web, check email, and play music and videos with its built-in iPod media player. The iPhone features the full Macintosh operating system, not a cut-down version.

The iPhone exhibits only one button on the unit. Everything else is navigated by touch-screen. Videos, photos, net surfing, email and phone calls are all called up by touch. The disadvantage of this is the virtual keyboard, which can be hard to get used to. At first, you will have many typos, causing a slowdown in sending email and typing in URLs. Also, in surfing the net, the iPhone has no Flash player, so some web sites that use Flash won't work properly or at all. Another problem is the net connection. While you're in a "hot spot" surfing is fast and fine, however, outside of a "hot spot" the unit defaults to Edgenet, which can be excruciatingly slow.

AT&T is the only service provider for the iPhone, so anyone who has a different provider will have to change and pay off their contracts to other service providers. The AT&T 2-year plan for using the iPhone is $60.00 per month, with 450 minutes free and unlimited surfing and email.

Why AT&T? AT&T is the only service provider that complied with Steve Jobs insistence not to meddle with the phone. No AT&T software, no icons, no branding. Everything in the iPhone is done by Apple. Indeed, AT&T signed the contract without even seeing the iPhone. Although there is a small AT&T icon on first start-up, there is no other reference to the network.

Why not just construct the iPhone on the Neonode model? The Neonode incorporates very similar touch-screen commands and gestures, with a GSM SIM card. You just buy the phone, go to a local service provider, purchase a GSM SIM card and stick it into the slot provided. Any carrier, anywhere. So why didn't Apple just make the iPhone GSM and sell it as a standalone item in its own stores? This is obviously a joint venture, and Apple must be getting a piece of the AT&T action. I'm sure we'll see that in the annual report, but it must have been one sweet deal.

Hackers are already trying to reverse-engineer the iPhone to unlock it so it works on any network, with threats from AT&T of law suits against anyone using an unlocked phone. John C. Dvorak predicts the iPhone will be fully unlocked and running on T-Mobile within 14 days!

Software updates may be in the works, but forget Windows add-ons, this is a Macintosh, remember?

While the iPhone has the biggest screen and highest resolution of any mobile phone, it has no Internet Messenger, potentially cutting you off from your IM friends. On the plus side, the iPhone can take photos with a 2 Meg resolution, but cannot take videos. It does have a YouTube function built-in.

Another drawback is the iPhone's inability to link to a computer and be used as a modem to connect to the Internet. So, you will still have to have a third-party service provider for your desktop or laptop PC.

There is a nice Google map function similar to MapQuest, but no GPS. You'll know how to get from point to point, but not where you are at any one time. Also, you can't choose any ringtone you want, no search tool for the address book, there is no real word processor, and other little kinks.

Granted, most of the flaws and missing elements can easily be fixed, but will that cost me another $600 for the next generation iPhone? Probably. Watch for the "We listened to the Customers" hype in a few months when they add what should have been there in the first place.

So, should you buy one? Well, I'm going to wait and see, considering the high price and the potential for bugs in a new technology.

By the way, the iPhone also has a backdoor in its browser that allows hackers entry by generating a "stack overflow" error. Something you'll also probably want to consider. And, as with the iPod, the battery on the iPhone CANNOT be replaced by the user. It must be sent back to Apple for replacement for a "minimal fee". So forget swapping batteries if yours goes dead. Apple claims battery life of 4 to 8 hours, depending on how the iPhone is used.

TECCHIE STUFF:

Samsung is the leading supplier of parts for the iPhone. Approximately $76.00 of each unit cost is Samsung parts. Including the flash memory, SDRAM and application processor, according to iSuppli.

Infincon supplies the antenna that permits access to AT&T's network. Infincon also supplied some power management devices.

The proprietary touch-screen is provided by Epson, Sharp and Toshiba-Matsushita at a cost of $24.00 per unit.

Marvell Technology and National Semiconductor both provide chips for the iPhone, along with a processor that connects the display to its graphics controller. Marvell also supplies the WIFI chip.

Greenpoint Enterprises makes the plastic case.
Can't wait for the iPhone? Then skin your PocketPC

It's a custom "iPhone-like" interface running on an Eten M600 PocketPC. Amazing how they got the screensaver/lock thing to work! [found on gizmodo] www.gizmodo.com

References and sources:
iSuppli, www.isuppli.com
John C. Dvorak, www.dvorak.org
Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org
Google, www.google.com
Gizmodo, www.gizmodo.com and http://uk.gizmodo.com
Bestdamntech, www.bestdamntech.com