You're joking right?
I love my iPhone 3G as much as the next guy, but in no way does the iphone/touch replace an entry level laptop. Hell. it doesnt even have cut and paste. The iPhone is a great SMARTPHONE, but not a laptop. You can get a 700 dollar HP with a 15.4 in screen, 3GB ram, duo processor, web cam, etc.. No way an iphone should be compared to that. Its not that its a bad product, its that your comparing 2 diffrent things.
^ I understand where you're coming from, but I invite you to read the rest of my post above carefully.
For the kind of people who don't use productivity apps (i.e. Photoshop, Word processing, spreadsheets, etc), they'll find that their information and communicating needs can be met with an iPhone. Entertainment can be enjoyed the most via
TV.
I couldn't imagine myself without a computer so I don't mind spending $3,000 on a powerful MacBook Pro. Light users who don't see the justification for even a MacBook ($1,200) will more often than not find their needs met with an iPod Touch/iPhone.
If you consider yourself a light user, make a list of what you use your computer for. I'm far from being one so I don't presume to think the following is entirely correct, but I think it's pretty damn close...
Let's take this fictional character, Bob as an example:
Bob: Hi, I'm Bob and I use my computer for:
- Checking and sending email
- Surfing the net
- Watching YouTube
- Listening to music on iTunes
- Storing my contacts
- Keeping track of my friend's birthdays and upcoming events on iCal
iPedro:So Bob, what surfing do you do on the net?
Bob:Hmm... I check the weather for the week, I read the news on CNN and the New York Times, I look up the Mets' standings, I have some stocks so I look at those every now and then and sometimes and when I want to know more about something, I'll pull it up in Wikipedia.
So there you have it. Bob doesn't need an 18 wheeler to drive to the grocery store. He doesn't need a $1,200 machine, he can do it with an iPod Touch and a few specialized apps:
- Mail
- Calendar
- Address Book
- YouTube
- iTunes
- CNN mobile
- NY Times app
- Weather
- Wikipedia webclip
- MLB At Base
A full fledged browser isn't necessary to retrieve the information and entertainment value he's looking for. Nonetheless, he'll have one for more in depth browsing.
Another fictional character, Sarah, is better versed with computers but doesn't take it much further. She represents another large chunk of computer users:
Sarah: I do a lot of what Bob does but I also
- Participate in Social Networking sites like Facebook
- Watch and listen to Podcasts
- Rent the occasional movie and buy some TV shows on iTunes
- Manage my digital camera's photo library and make small adjustments
Sarah can also be satisfied with an iPod Touch or an iPhone and would find that an
TV would enhance her entertainment experience over what she does on her computer.
Her last point begins to get into productivity applications. This is where a device with an iPhone like interface but with a larger screen and a little more power would come into the picture. A tablet Mac could fulfill that productivity need and make wider internet browsing easier.
As I've demonstrated, many computer users would do just fine with very specific applications, rather than running an entire computer for uses that don't require the complexity of a desktop based OS. This is why you see so many people with very anemic computers that they've had for five or more years (and probably were previously passed on by a power user who upgraded) which serve them pretty well.. and they're happy.
Now, to keep this relevant to this thread, where I'm getting at is that Apple seems to be following the strategy that I outlined above. They're looking at computer users in a different perspective: rather than having them sit at their computers doing what people do on computers, Apple is giving them devices with very specific applications.
This is why I think that iPhone and iPod Touch are trojan horse Mac's. Just like online music sales weren't counted in Billboard ratings and now are, these portable devices will give Apple a very large share of the market when all is said and done.