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What does "CDMA" mean? Does that mean it won't be sold without a new contract?

If thats the case, screw Apple and their overpriced phone. :)
 
Horrible horrible news for me if this is true. I had so much bad experience with Cingular not even a free iPhone would make me switch back to them.
 
Difference 1: The iPod was already entrenched when everyone else woke up.
Difference 2: You don't need to spend $500 and sign a 2 year contract to get an iPod.
Difference 3: The iPod is not a 1st gen device. (We know how reliable Apple's first gen devices are.
Difference 4: There are already plenty of similar devices on the drawing boards that will be out before the end of the year. Some which were announced before the iPhone even.
Difference 5: $500\$600 vs. $80-$350

1. The iPod was about the 20th or 50th MP3 player when it hit the market. Hardly "entrenched." It was decidedly an uphill battle, in a less well-defined market, as well.

2. Correct, but the iPod wasn't a cell phone, either, which has a history in the US of requiring contracts. So, the point being?

3. The iPod was a 1st Gen device when introduced. 5 years later, we've have four more generations and four different models. Most of Apple's 1st gen devices are perfectly robust & reliable. It's only the gaffes we remember. Once again, the point?

4. See #1. "On the drawing board" is even less of an argument than debating a device that has not seen the (public) light of day. And, as you note, while "they" may have been announced prior, the iPhone will be in hands (and hearts) sooner.

5. Quick - someone name the price of the iPod (in today's dollars) when introduced...

I'm not busting your chops (really, I'm not!), but the arguments are a shade, well, weak, and deserve a response. Appy Polly Loggys for being a tad snarky. :)
 
AppleT&T has one thing going for it that the others don't: truly seamless integration with the desktop. Others will no doubt copy the iPhone's form and functions, but they won't be able to achieve the same level of integration.

But that's not enough: If the iPhone isn't up to par, it won't get far. I don't care what the iPhone does if it can't make reliable calls. That's why I stick with Verizon, despite their pricey plans and poor customer service (I've had reps make contradictory offers, not return calls, etc.)
 
That's why I stick with Verizon, despite their pricey plans and poor customer service (I've had reps make contradictory offers, not return calls, etc.)

Their pricey plans and poor customer service are what drove me away from Verizon. Sure, now that I'm with AT&T, I don't get coverage EVERYWHERE like I used to, but I live with it. Because to me, I'd rather have my money going to a company that actually gives a **** about me rather than a company that says "**** you".

You have two restaurants.

Restaurant #1 has a 30-minute wait time to get a table, a waiter who's condescending, tables that are a pain to sit in, a menu that's barely legible, another 30 minutes to wait for drinks, and an additional 20 minutes for food.

Restaurant #2 takes reservations and is extremely kind. The waiter greets you with a smile on his face and seats you in comfortable seats. The menu is descriptive and the waiter is knowledgeable. You get your drinks in under 5 minutes, and your food in under 15 minutes.

Who had the better food?

Restaurant #1 was better---but customers like me appreciate good service and are going to pass Restaurant #1 and visit Restaurant #2 again.


That's how I feel about Verizon vs. AT&T.

Rep #1: "Oh, Treos don't work on Macs. We don't support them. Maybe you should switch!"

Rep #2 (Tech Support Department): "Didn't someone tell you? Macs don't work with 99% of all the peripherals out there, like this phone. As a matter of fact, none of the phones we have work with Macs."

They told me this last year. I immediately switched to Cingular who told me outright: "Yeah, we support Macs. But not every one of our reps is trained to work with them. Just ask for one, there's always one on duty. There will always be one and they will help you out."

Unfortunately, not everyone is as educated on the Mac. Verizon said the same things to some of my colleagues at work, my colleagues who I had worked so hard on switching to Mac...and they switched back to PC thinking they had no way of syncing a Palm OS, BlackBerry, or Windows Mobile device to their Macs.

Damn Verizon for not training their representatives.
 
GSM is garbage in this country, anyone living in a city will tell you that. Ya know, areas with buildings where the GSM reception drops my an order of magnitude when you step inside?

Or in the mountains - GSM sucks there too... maybe skyscrapers are just artificial mountains to the GSM signal path. If you live on the plains of Kansas it's quite good. Except when your tower gets killed by a tornado.

Would this prevent Apple from making a 3G version for European market? They said it would be available here in Q4 but an Iphone without 3G wouldn't make it far here.

Apple isn't doing 3G here because AT&T is insisting on selling their own music service on all of its 3G phones. Apple only wants iTunes, so they stay with 2.5G.

So far as I understand, there's nothing in GSM or CDMA which would make either one more likely to transmit through walls.

CDMA deals better with multipath reflections, which you'll get indoors.

First off, Apple doesn't have a "cultlike" following any more than Microsoft or Linux or Sony or Nintendo or any other company or OS does.

Don't get angry, friend - he's just a Microsoft shiner who's ticked at the way Apple is succeeding. He may have even be a 'consultant' for them, who knows?.

Actually I believe the cube still made Apple money. Just not as much as they were expected to make. It was only unsuccessful relative to the success of other products at the time.

Cube 2.0 (mini) was pretty successful. The Cube was dumb next to a CRT and at the time a CRT was the only thing affordable.

Can't wait for Dell to buy Palm so they can fix that ancient PalmOS

Put down the crackpipe, Skunker. Dell would destroy any value in Palm. Besides, the PalmOS on Linux phone (Quadro?) will be out by the end of this year. I'll be in line for it (Cingular doesn't even write contracts in this state). Funny, this will be the first Apple product I'll never use.

What does "CDMA" mean? Does that mean it won't be sold without a new contract?

If thats the case, screw Apple and their overpriced phone.

Dude, take a chill pill.
 
WHAT?????:eek:

FIVE YEARS????

This is like Apple telling us that we (Verizon customers) have to stick with a core 2 duo machine for five years.

Apple should not have been so greedy to get a cut.
Apple should have just sold iphone like ipods, working with all carriers.
Heck, Apple is now selling music files to be used in any player, why not with the iphone and cell networks?
AT&T should have gone with the name Cingular.
Verizon blew it.

I teach high school.
With Cingular, I couldn't get reception in my class. All my students with Verizon had full bars.
I couldn't get good reception anywhere with Cingular (Los Angeles).
Switched to Verizon. Great service!!! Great coverage. Full bars in class.

If I go back to AT&T (Cingular) to get the iphone, I WOULD JUST HAVE AN IPOD FOR $600 + $60 for the insurance + $30 for the activation + $48 sales tax + a $20 car charger + a $45 dock + a $25 case . That's about an $800 investment with no service at $100 a month for the full plan.

Apple, this bites:mad: :mad: :mad:

And don't worry, ClimbingTheLog, I just took my chill pill:) :) :) HA!!!
 
Apple isn't doing 3G here because AT&T is insisting on selling their own music service on all of its 3G phones. Apple only wants iTunes, so they stay with 2.5G.

Ah so that's why. Well I guess apple had to make some sacrifices to get such an incredibly sweet deal with ATT.

Lets face it - the deal they got was revolutionary for a phone manufacturer and unfortunately it came with exclusives. But 5 years - i understand everyones pain, however it opens up a brand new and lucrative business model for Apple.
 
=I am looking forward to the iPhone as well, too bad its going to be Rev 1 of the iPhone Pro or whatever they come out with in 5 years.:(

Yeah, don't you hate progress? Doesn't it suck when they keep improving a product every six months? You should wait until Rev 22 so they can work out all the problems.
 
iphone

has anyone really made an ipod or a mac look a like to compare...

i've always had pc everything i'm so sick of drivers and crashing...

the iphone may have some bugs as do all new products- but once addressed those who like it or love it will be very happy.

i'm looking forward to the iphone
 
Well, this news blows. Screw the iPhone. Le sigh, if only it was NOT a Cingular... errr ATT exclusive. Why apple? Why?
 
5. Quick - someone name the price of the iPod (in today's dollars) when introduced...

Not quick but better late than never.

It was sold in 2001 for $399. Assume an inflation rate of 2.5% (CPI), it will cost you $463 in 2007. The consumer price index number is the best I can think of which sadly doesn't factor in products such as the iPod or a house. But if you factor in the quality and product improvements, tech products in general have always had deflationary pressure.
 
Its funny to read how things go in states. In Finland we are waiting for news what the price will be in here. In here it is illegal to do any contract with locked phones unless the phone uses CDMA/UMTS network. So we are used to buy the phone and then use the service provider we want. That is how we get one of the cheapest minutes in the world.

And in here no-one really cares about your credit.. prepaid doesnt mean you have no credit, it's mostly for teens for easy control of their money. The most common contract is a "normal" post-pay and you pay only what you use. Some operators use also take some monthly fee, but they are really rare nowdays. The monthly fee could be like 1$ per month.

So.. what happens when the iPhone arrives? If it costs in states like 500$ with a 2 year contract it will cost here like 700-800 euros. It would be the most expensive phone and not worth of that money. It can not be compared to Nokia N95 or new N90 Commmunicator which are lot cheaper that 800€.

The max price it could have in here would be 500 euros WITHOUT any contract, just a phone. Even then it would be one of the most expensives and way too expensive for its technology as most of the "good" phones in here uses CDMA/UMTS services.

I hope Apple will uprage iPhone to CDMA/UMTS device before carrying it to Europe.. it simply wont sell here with that price without CDMA/UMTS capabilities.
 
Wowza. I don't care which carrier I go with (they all suck equally) but AT&T better offer really, really good plans. If there is widespread customer dissatisfaction with AT&T's handling of iPhone, Steve is going to be putting his foot very far up Sigman's ass. Nobody messes with Steve's baby.

"... Nobody messes with Steve's baby."

Including leopard...
 
Wowza. I don't care which carrier I go with (they all suck equally) but AT&T better offer really, really good plans. If there is widespread customer dissatisfaction with AT&T's handling of iPhone, Steve is going to be putting his foot very far up Sigman's ass. Nobody messes with Steve's baby.

a phone manufacturer putting his foot up a cell carrier ass... fascinating. I thought the manufacturer needed the carrier, not the other way around. I'm sure AT&T will still be a carrier, regardless of whether stevie is pissed or not, just like verizon will be a carrier even though they turned down stevie.. where does apple fans get their arrogance from?
 
at&t simply cannot afford inaction, especially when you have a vip customer like apple. so in a sense, at&t customers now have a powerful advocate that can put the necessary pressure on at&t to keep the network running smoothly and to provide a great network experience, and neither company can afford to have the iphone fail. it could definitely have a rough start and i'm sure they'll be bugs along the way. anything else, however, would be unacceptable. execution will be critical here.

You could see that from Intel. Apple is the best customer you could have. They will be an absolute pain in the ****, but they will force AT&T to be the best. Before Apple, "we aren't doing well in this area, but Verizon isn't doing much better" would have been a valid excuse. Can you imagine what Steve Jobs would do with any manager coming up with something like this?

Before Intel Macs were introduced, Intel was behind AMD. Look at where they are now.
 
Absurd logic....

Before Intel Macs were introduced, Intel was behind AMD. Look at where they are now.

Let's see now.

Intel introduces a new model of powerful, energy efficient, dual-core mobile chips (Yonah).

About six months later, they introduce another new generation of dual-core chips that are even more powerful and more energy-efficient and that spans the range from mobile to server (Merom/Conroe/Woodcrest).

Less than six months after that, Intel is shipping quad-core chips, setting a new standard in power and power-per-watt (Kentsfield/Clovertown).

A few months after that, Intel is showing its 45nm follow-on chip, running faster and at lower power (Penryn).

These new chips are helping Intel (which ships 3 out of 4 x86/x64 chips sold) regain market share from AMD, which is now in serious financial trouble.
_________________

Now what does Apple have to do with Intel's gains? Are you implying that Apple's purchase of 1% to 2% of Intel's production is responsible for Intel's resurgence? If so, that's an arrogant assumption.
 
Their pricey plans and poor customer service are what drove me away from Verizon. Sure, now that I'm with AT&T, I don't get coverage EVERYWHERE like I used to, but I live with it. Because to me, I'd rather have my money going to a company that actually gives a **** about me rather than a company that says "**** you".

I don't disagree. But there's a coverage level below which I can't afford to go because of my work. If AT&T's coverage is above that threshold, I'll switch in a flash. The only question is how to test that coverage. I wonder if there'll be any way to test coverage on the iPhone with the option of canceling the plan if there are problems. Given the anticipated supply shortfall, that may be difficult to do.
 
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