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Ever get that sinking feeling?

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thesnowman16

thesnowman16

macrumors member
Original poster
Every get the feeling that apple is spending tons of time and money on a phone that isn't really targeted at anyone?

It's not the best phone for business users, or the best for personal users and it's too expensive for kids.

The iphone is going to be marketed at business users, I was discussing this with my father (Who owns an architectural firm) and he says the iphone would not be suitable for him at all because it can't open office documents, can't use 3rd party software and because of the short battery life (He can be out of the office all day talking on the phone with no chance to charge it).

I know from a personal user point of view this phone would be good for me! great! However, at the price I could never get one. How about as a top for rich kids? Well that is the only real market I see the iphone fitting into, I think allot of people will get it because it's 'apple' and 'trendy'. But really it's just going to be a fab that apple are spending millions on to develop (Let alone pissing off there existing customer base by sacrificing leopard for it).

I have the honorable feeling that the iphone is going to be a big fat flop. However I want to be proven wrong! I Desperately want to get proven wrong because I don't want to see apple lose money chasing a white elephant!

So there is my opinion, anyone else think apple has gone off on the wrong tangent with the iphone?

Anyone have any ideas what apple could have done differently to target the phone more to a particular demographic?

All thoughts and comments welcome!


(Please note this isn't a slam of the iphone, as I said I would love one but just can't afford it 🙁 )
 
Welcome to the USA

I think they will easily hit their projections. Especially considering the disposable income of large portions of the US population.

I personally use a 'smart-phone' for my email, and have hated all of the third-party apps that I have to install in an attempt to sync my phone with my computer. Just contacts and calendar alone - so for me - despite the hefty price tag, I feel I will be rewarded with a much better user experience for mail, calendar, and contacts - let alone the bigger screen to view movies or tv shows on when I travel.

I know I'm not alone.

I was a relatively late adopter of the iPod (2nd Generation) considering what a fan I am of Apple. But now that they have hit 80gig - there is no more debate about which music to travel with - any of my songs that pop into my head I can hear. So - the iPhone won't even replace my iPod (yet).

However, if the iPhone provides the user experience usually delivered by Apple products - than there will be no competition - maybe the first generation won't dazzle the business users, or the people like me who would really like 1 device, but - if I have to carry an iPod and a phone, at least the iPhone will be properly synced with very little effort.

So - whatever that number was for their target. I think it is quite low in this land of personal trainers, personal chefs, professional dog-walkers, and homes where there are more cars in the driveway than there are people to drive them. It's a sad statement on our consumption driven society here, but ...

edit - now that's funny - after signing up in Aug 2003, I'm a 'newbie' here almost four years later... I don't post often, most of the time the threads are so long several people have already captured my thoughts...
 
we don't know yet if it will handle word docs, let's be patient.

let's remember that it's an iPod also, adn that the price will come down.

i understand what you're saying, but i think you're a little too pessimistic. i see a lot of iPod owners getting iPhones - that's a huge target market.
 
I had some similar feelings about the Razor when it first came out, and thats just a phone... I was like cool but the price 😱 isn't worth it. How wrong was I because next thing I knew everyone around me at work had one.

I don't think the iPhone will flop because so many people have come to trust their iPods that they will jump to be the first to have the iPhone.. My guess is that it will be a status thing at first. I want one but I am waiting for generation 2 of it.
 
zim said:
I had some similar feelings about the Razor when it first came out, and thats just a phone... I was like cool but the price 😱 isn't worth it. How wrong was I because next thing I knew everyone around me at work had one.

I don't think the iPhone will flop because so many people have come to trust their iPods that they will jump to be the first to have the iPhone.. My guess is that it will be a status thing at first. I want one but I am waiting for generation 2 of it.
Click to expand...

I think generation 1 will probably not be the best, I'm sure generation 2 (Hopefully with 3G or something like it) will be better and that apple will learn from it's mistakes.
 
Everyone is talking about what the iPhone "doesn't" and "won't" have when the phone hasn't even been released yet. The iPhone has been in the works for literally years, so don't think that Apple will not take careful thought to give users all they expected, and more! I think that the iPhone will definitly be able to open office documents, and as far as the short battery life goes, even if you are out of the office all day with out an electrical outlet in sight, I guarantee you'll have time to charge the phone in your car. Sure it's a bummer that the phone has not-so-great talk-time, but just get used to using a car charger and you'll be set.
 
Locked to a crappy carrier, unreplaceable battery, no 3rd party apps, no 3g, expensive...i'd be surprised if this thing isn't a flop
 
yg17 said:
Locked to a crappy carrier, unreplaceable battery, no 3rd party apps, no 3g, expensive...i'd be surprised if this thing isn't a flop
Click to expand...

Agreed.

Its very expensive. Apple will have to lower the price or let providers subsidise the phone.
 
yg17 said:
Locked to a crappy carrier, unreplaceable battery, no 3rd party apps, no 3g, expensive...i'd be surprised if this thing isn't a flop
Click to expand...

AT&T is not that bad.... and the battery life that he announced might not be the final one. You have no idea what the real battery life is because you have never seen one, used one, or even licked one!
 
zim said:
I had some similar feelings about the Razor when it first came out, and thats just a phone... I was like cool but the price 😱 isn't worth it. How wrong was I because next thing I knew everyone around me at work had one.

I don't think the iPhone will flop because so many people have come to trust their iPods that they will jump to be the first to have the iPhone.. My guess is that it will be a status thing at first. I want one but I am waiting for generation 2 of it.
Click to expand...

The RAZR sucks. People should be banned from saying the 'name' or letters in that order!

I think video is the way forward now - even music video... so the iPhone wins there.
 
Stella said:
... let providers subsidise the phone.
Click to expand...
Providers don't subsidize phones, subscribers do.

But to the OP's point--it is just plain wrong. Just because you can't afford the iPhone doesn't mean that other people can't. Two months prior to its release, the iPhone is already a cultural phenomenon. Whining about not beeing able to play Doom or run an Excel spreadsheet on it is both premature and besides the point. It is premature because we don't yet know the limits of the iPhone's capabilities. It is besides the point because this phone is a game-changer technogically with the cool-factor to be the phone to own.

For me personally, I will get an iPhone as quickly as a I can. My nephew who lives on college scholarships will also get one. We will leave it to others to complain about how bad AT&T is.
 
iphone seems attactive at this point, and i know quite a few people that says they will definitely buy it. But when the time comes (a year away in oz) i know they will be thinking about the price.
 
MisterMe said:
Providers don't subsidize phones, subscribers do.

But to the OP's point--it is just plain wrong. Just because you can't afford the iPhone doesn't mean that other people can't. Two months prior to its release, the iPhone is already a cultural phenomenon. Whining about not beeing able to play Doom or run an Excel spreadsheet on it is both premature and besides the point. It is premature because we don't yet know the limits of the iPhone's capabilities. It is besides the point because this phone is a game-changer technogically with the cool-factor to be the phone to own.

For me personally, I will get an iPhone as quickly as a I can. My nephew who lives on college scholarships will also get one. We will leave it to others to complain about how bad AT&T is.
Click to expand...

Spot on mate!
 
MisterMe said:
Providers don't subsidize phones, subscribers do.

But to the OP's point--it is just plain wrong. Just because you can't afford the iPhone doesn't mean that other people can't. Two months prior to its release, the iPhone is already a cultural phenomenon. Whining about not beeing able to play Doom or run an Excel spreadsheet on it is both premature and besides the point. It is premature because we don't yet know the limits of the iPhone's capabilities. It is besides the point because this phone is a game-changer technogically with the cool-factor to be the phone to own.

For me personally, I will get an iPhone as quickly as a I can. My nephew who lives on college scholarships will also get one. We will leave it to others to complain about how bad AT&T is.
Click to expand...

Couldn't have said it better myself!
 
yg17 said:
Locked to a crappy carrier, unreplaceable battery, no 3rd party apps, no 3g, expensive...i'd be surprised if this thing isn't a flop
Click to expand...

depends on how many rich loyal fans out there. I think apple overestimated the per capital GDPs of US.

But to the OP's point--it is just plain wrong. Just because you can't afford the iPhone doesn't mean that other people can't.
Click to expand...

exactly, again, depends on how many rich loyalties out there, when we are talking about general market, what you or me or op, an individual, will do means absolutely nothing.
 
papadopolis1024 said:
AT&T is not that bad.... and the battery life that he announced might not be the final one. You have no idea what the real battery life is because you have never seen one, used one, or even licked one!
Click to expand...

I had Cingular for 2 years and I found it to be horrible. Lets just say that I will never, ever be going back, and if ATT is going to be the only carrier that the iPhone is available on, I'll never own one
 
Just want to give my opinions (not that they are worth much...)

I would consider myself in the target audience for the iPhone. I'm a professional married to a professional wife. We make a nice income, but are not rich by any stretch. $500 is steep, but not out of line compared to other full-featured smartphones. This is, after all, a luxury device, and not something I truly "need".

We both currently have RAZRs... They are compact and relatively durable. (I've dropped mine a few times... a few scratches, but it still works great). RAZR syncs with my iMac / Address Book with a few hitches; namely, I lose the contact picture link (ie my wife's picture that pops up when she calls) each time I re-sync the device. It is very annoying, as it take a lengthy series of steps to re-link the pic with the contact each time. Multiply this by 20 or so contacts with pictures, and it makes for a huge hassle.

The RAZR calender function is basically useless... no real way to input new meetings, small writing, cramped spacing... I basically use it to check dates, and that's it.

What the iPhone is promising is a stylish phone with great entertainment (by far the best on the market for audio and video), and most importantly, seemless integration with iCal and iSync (iTunes, I guess). To me, the latter are by far the most important.

Battery life is an issue... we'll see. I think all of us have been pleasently surprised with the iPod battery life, and I suspect the iPhone will be a similar pleasant surprise. As far as the "closed system"... good. Palm became an unusable, unstable platform over the 4 years I used it, mostly due to external programs constantly crashing the device. My in-laws use company-provided Dell Axims... they are a complete mess, constantly crashing, needing soft and hard resets, not finding wireless networks reliably, etc.

I have no doubt that Apple will provide .doc, .pdf, .xls, etc as time goes on. To me, this isn't a dealbreaker, and I don't really understand the appeal of it to others (I never used it on my palm). MS would be dumb to block that addition anyway, as they make far more off of office than their mobile platform.

Will I buy a gen 1? I don't know. I'll have to wait and read reviews, and see how the service contract looks. I am definately going to replace my 2-year old RAZR... we'll see if it is with a new "cheapie" phone, or with an iPhone. I am definately not getting a MS based smartphone, Blackjack, Moto Q, or a Palm. Sony / Ericsson isn't getting one cent of mine, either.
 
thesnowman16 said:
Every get the feeling that apple is spending tons of time and money on a phone that isn't really targeted at anyone?

It's not the best phone for business users, or the best for personal users and it's too expensive for kids.

The iphone is going to be marketed at business users, I was discussing this with my father (Who owns an architectural firm) and he says the iphone would not be suitable for him at all because it can't open office documents, can't use 3rd party software and because of the short battery life (He can be out of the office all day talking on the phone with no chance to charge it).

I know from a personal user point of view this phone would be good for me! great! However, at the price I could never get one. How about as a top for rich kids? Well that is the only real market I see the iphone fitting into, I think allot of people will get it because it's 'apple' and 'trendy'. But really it's just going to be a fab that apple are spending millions on to develop (Let alone pissing off there existing customer base by sacrificing leopard for it).
Click to expand...


The business use issue is accurate, but I'm not sure that's such a problem. Many companies (like mine) have entirely closed systems so you cannot use the device they give you for personal activity. My company doesn't even allow us to use Blackberries for phone calls or web access. This means that I am loaded down most of the time with a cell phone, company BB, Palm Pilot and iPod. The iPhone replaces 3 of those 4, while adding access my personal e-mail and full internet.

It is an expensive item, but Apple are looking at garnering less than 1% of the overall cell phone market, and not even straight away. I think there are enough customers out there with the bank book to ensure that sales are brisk and the modest goals are reached.

Lastly, this is V1.0. Apple will come out with upgrades quickly and frequently as they always do. Support of widgets will add significant capability very rapidly, and the use of OS X gives them the base upon which to add the support of third party apps. Businesses are typically slow to take up new technology in any case, so Apple will perfect the device as they go and open up the true business market later on.

ETA: As to battery life, the talk time, as projected, is very comparable to other music-playing phones out there: circa 6 hours. Audio playback is a little less than a Nano, but I suspect this is because it's also being a phone whilst being an iPod. Not being able to swap out the battery will mean that very heavy phone users will be slaves to their rechargers, so maybe this device isn't for them. That's not a problem for me.
 
Microsoft FANBOYS

Its sound like those of you that think the iPhone will flop, are Microsoft fanboyz/girlz. Just Joking 😉.

Think about this, I have a Samsung m500 paid $299 CND, The price of a iPod nano 8gb is also $299 CND. With the suggested price of the iPhone in the US and the current CND/US dollar exchange rate the price would put the suggested retail price of the iPhone would be around $570 CND (carriers are most likely to offer a subsity). You do the rest of the math. SAME PRICE (a little less actually). Plus other features as well, two devices in one, the only full mobile internet, touch sceen, and a number of others. The iPhone is going to go the way of the iPod and blow other phones out of the water , and if it doesn't the economical opportunity is NOTHING, the accounting cost should break even. Apple no matter can't lose, if the iPhone sells or doesn't.

I wrote an economics exam this mourning, can you tell?

The iPhone will sell, my mother who works for a Phone company that offers service in the US, all ready has people calling in wanting to know if her company carries the iPhone and that they want to buy one. She came home one day and was asking if I knew what an iPhone was, and told me people were asking for it.
 
alywa said:
Just want to give my opinions (not that they are worth much...)

I would consider myself in the target audience for the iPhone. I'm a professional married to a professional wife. We make a nice income, but are not rich by any stretch. $500 is steep, but not out of line compared to other full-featured smartphones. This is, after all, a luxury device, and not something I truly "need".

We both currently have RAZRs... They are compact and relatively durable. (I've dropped mine a few times... a few scratches, but it still works great). RAZR syncs with my iMac / Address Book with a few hitches; namely, I lose the contact picture link (ie my wife's picture that pops up when she calls) each time I re-sync the device. It is very annoying, as it take a lengthy series of steps to re-link the pic with the contact each time. Multiply this by 20 or so contacts with pictures, and it makes for a huge hassle.

The RAZR calender function is basically useless... no real way to input new meetings, small writing, cramped spacing... I basically use it to check dates, and that's it.

What the iPhone is promising is a stylish phone with great entertainment (by far the best on the market for audio and video), and most importantly, seemless integration with iCal and iSync (iTunes, I guess). To me, the latter are by far the most important.

Battery life is an issue... we'll see. I think all of us have been pleasently surprised with the iPod battery life, and I suspect the iPhone will be a similar pleasant surprise. As far as the "closed system"... good. Palm became an unusable, unstable platform over the 4 years I used it, mostly due to external programs constantly crashing the device. My in-laws use company-provided Dell Axims... they are a complete mess, constantly crashing, needing soft and hard resets, not finding wireless networks reliably, etc.

I have no doubt that Apple will provide .doc, .pdf, .xls, etc as time goes on. To me, this isn't a dealbreaker, and I don't really understand the appeal of it to others (I never used it on my palm). MS would be dumb to block that addition anyway, as they make far more off of office than their mobile platform.

Will I buy a gen 1? I don't know. I'll have to wait and read reviews, and see how the service contract looks. I am definately going to replace my 2-year old RAZR... we'll see if it is with a new "cheapie" phone, or with an iPhone. I am definately not getting a MS based smartphone, Blackjack, Moto Q, or a Palm. Sony / Ericsson isn't getting one cent of mine, either.
Click to expand...
Well said....

I too see myself as part of that target audience Apple is referring to. I own a small company in SoCal and have done quite well. I don't throw around $500 each and every day but as a one time expense, it's not a hardship.

In terms of whether or not the iPhone will be able to open Word docs? Eh....doesn't really bother me. I want a feature-rich, stylish phone that I can seamlessly sync iCal and Address Book with . I think the iPhone fits this bill.

I don't think the iPhone will be a flop. The buzz over this product has been tremendous and that's given the feature set we know. Who knows what else it will offer upon release.

I'm having a deja vu here.....

I was an early adopter of :apple: TV and I have read countless posts about what it isn't. I think some people forget about what it is......a device that elegantly streams iTunes content from your host computer to your widescreen LCD. No offense, but I'm getting that same feeling when I read posts such as this.
 
The iPhone will sell, my mother who works for a Phone company that offers service in the US, all ready has people calling in wanting to know if her company carries the iPhone and that they want to buy one.
Click to expand...
I can vouch for that. I went to see my local Cingular carrier and gave dude a, ahem.....*deposit*.....to ensure that I would get one when they got one. Needless to say, I wasn't the first one to offer up a *deposit*. I would venture to say that it's not such a bad time to a pusher. Oops, I mean Cingular distributor. 😀
 
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