monkeyandy I work in the telcoms industry here in the UK and I can tell you the concensus amoung a lot of people is that Apple have maybe bitten into an industry they do not really know enough about.
There are several problems with the iPhone
1) Its built for the US market, not the rest of the world, as it does not have 3g, so is simply not compatable with the business stratagies of network operators in the rest of the world which is a serious issue Apple will have to deal with! As many operators, esp ones here in europe are relying on 3G to bring in a major part of their revenue, and their price plans and services are being based round 3G.
2) Its price, most people on this forum clearly are not aware that phone makes produce a lot of models that never make it onto the market because it is the mobile operators that make the final decision (e.g. Sony produced nearly 50 handsets in 2006 that never made it to the market!), they have to subsadise the handsets so will only do it on phones they will make money on, regardless of demand!
Expensive phones (the price the OEM charges to the network - dont confuse this with the price of a handset without contract - they are very very different!!!) are not often subsadised as they will not claw back the money from the average person from calls unless there is a very clear market for them, e.g blackberry, and with no 3g on the iPhone that is a big loss in revenue too, one that many may not be willing to risk esp with mobile tv hotting up to be the next big mass demand service.
The price will place it in the expensive price plans region, e.g. for a businessman, and it can't do push and pull email like a Blackberry can so is no good for a business in reality.
If the average person was willing to spend £300 GBP on a phone, Nokia and Sony will have produced the same phone long ago.
3) 2Mp camera and no flash, thats not good compared to what the standard is fast becoming, expect 4MP+ with a flash in 2007.
4) Network operator response - not good so far here in europe from the people who actully make the decisions about which phones will be offered to the public on price plans.
5) No removable battery - a lot of people will not like this
6) There is no front camera for video calls - again showing no thought for the non-us market in its design.
The iPhone has been known about for a long time in the industry as have the major bugs it had when he first experimental models were produced and shown us network operators. Die hard Apple fans will love it, but I don't think the rest of the market is big enough as it stands.
If it had 3g, and was half the price then maybe, but the reality is if you look at the overall market, the proportion of people spending more than £75 on a handset is smaller than most people would think.
Though top marks in the design area, it looks good, can't fault it there, even if it is larger than what most people want.
But i think the major problem is it is simply not compatable with the current business plans of non-us mobile operators!
"Originally Posted by bmoseley07
I can't start my own thread yet, but here's an article by the LA Times about how Japan's cellphones already have many of these features and more and that the iPhone doesn't even scratch the surface of many of Japan's latest phones, nevertheless be revolutionary.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la...home-headlines
The reporter doesn't get all his facts right. He says that the iPhone will/can be used to download music, but this came out on the 11th so he just wasn't in the loop yet.
Still a good read and I wish we had a lot of the features that they have over there like:
-GPS
-3G
-Live TV
-Video conferencing
All of which can be added and probably will be added either by software or hardware upgrades"
You can't just add on the above on as a software or hardware upgrade to the phone alone as a they are network dependent and use huge bandwidth, thats the issue, hence why operators outside of the US have had to spend so much money upgrading their networks and getting additional liciences.
If you want those things soon in the US, you best bet is to write to GWB, as you FCC will have to assign more frequencies to operators, and take the required frequencies away from the current holders, the USAF. Its a real pitty you didn't try and take up GSM/GPRS at the same time as the rest of the world did, its put the US in a catch up position for what looks like a long time to come.
No disrespect but from my expereince most people in the US who use mobile phones are simply not aware of how backward your cell infrastructure, pricing plans and services avalable are compred to the rest of the world - which always really surprises me!
But the above post probably makes me sound a bit negative about the iPhone, but in all honesty, i think its pretty cool from a personal point of view having actully had a play with a demo model, but from a business point of view, i'm just not convinced Apple have got it right this time, I just hope they are willing to live up to and satisfy the demands of us network operators who obviously are the ones with the power in the industry!
And contry to what Apple execs seem to think, we actully do know what the vast majority of consumers - our customers want in terms of features, and what they are willing to pay for them - its the one thing were actually quite good at now!
