Advanced features like
well push, as you mention it... been available on some other phones for some time.
The problem has always been that the features have not worked
well on other phones. Yeah, I've had most of the neat stuff that the iPhone has had years before the iPhone came out (well, except the GPS, the magnetometer, and the accelerometer, and the finger-optimized touch screen, and the awesome video playback...). Years ago I had a phone that could check e-mail, and "browse" the web, and do instant messaging and stuff. It just did these things very poorly. Forget about rendering HTML-formatted e-mails, or viewing a
real website. Or doing anything, really, and having it look and work nearly as well as it does on an iPhone.
It's been said over and over again, and yet naysayers and critics continue to ignore this: the innovation isn't in the basic features of the device, but how they are implemented. The specs on paper in and of themselves are not remarkable and never really have been. It's the fact that the iPhone does these features better than most other phones out there that makes it popular.
You can call me a fanboy for this, and that's fine. However,
I didn't spend my weekend in line at Apple stores throughout the weekend trying to get one. I ordered mine online and did away with that nonsense. But apparently, up to a million other people did wait in line. Annoyed the stuffing out of me too; being faced with having to wait 40 minutes in line just to buy a stinkin' sync dock on Sunday, I ended up walking off.
But I digress.
Anyway: There
has to be a reason so many people are lining up year after year for these things, leaving the response for other supposed "iPhone-killers" to seem tepid by comparison. For 2 years and counting now, phone makers have been trying to emulate the iPhone interface. The G1 was an admirable try. The Blackberry Storm was a comparative flop, though RIM and Verizon still try to get it useable, and they may succeed someday. The Palm Pre is about as close as you can get, but they had to poach Apple talent to get as close as they did. And even then, it still seems pretty evident that at least this go-round, the Pre will not equal, let alone surpass, the iPhone's success.
Then there's the N97. Heh. When will Nokia figure out that FM radio is pretty much dead?
nope, sorry, the precious little iPhone will eventually meet its demise. As will Apple, mac os, Jobs, et al.
Perhaps some day. But not today. And I think the past six months have proven that Steve Jobs has trained his people well. It'll be interesting to have him back, but Apple will clearly live on without him someday.
Besides, I doubt Apple is going to stop at the iPhone. They'll find some other market to enter and turn that on its ear, too, after they've messed with cell phones for a few years. They'll continue selling iPhones, as they've continued to sell classic iPods, and they probably will continue to dominate there for quite some time, and even be a major player if and when they finally stop dominating. But they will not stand still.
Let's also not forget: they
still make Macs. And those appear to be selling rather well, despite recession.
or still a fail since it would probably be a complete copy off the iphone os
