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Register: Clueless Mobile Phone Industry Should Fear iPhone

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 1:15 PM - by

The mobile phone industry has lost its sense of serving the customer, is wildly introducing unwanted features, has lost its sense of the coherence of a mobile phone's functionality, and is abusing its customers, according to an editorial at The Register on Tuesday. The industry should be very worried about the iPhone.

There was a time when mobile phones reached a certain level of maturity as a communication device. "The 3210 is the Model T Ford of mobile phones," Brendon McLean wrote. "By 2000, the phone was cheap enough that almost anyone could afford it. Yet despite its affordability, it was packed with features not yet seen in the mass market; most of them market firsts.

"Among other things, it introduced internal aerials, T9 predictive text input, downloadable ringtones, downloadable operator logos and a user interface as easy to use as a doorbell."


Steve Jobs Introduces iPhone at Macworld 2007

However, the recent introduction of widgets on their phone is, according to the author, "further proof that the entire mobile industry is a rudderless ship furiously innovating in circles."

Worse, features the should combine gracefully to make experience coherent are oddly lacking in some new phones: "The Nokia Communicator, a phone that can check all the "cool boxes", has no vibrate. The Sony Ericsson P990, loaded with more bullet points than a US Marine, has had the much acclaimed 5-way jog dial of its predecessors tragically neutered. The Samsung X820, which has a UI fast enough to make Nokia owners weep with nostalgic despair, has no automatic keylock. The K-series Sony Ericssons, otherwise almost perfect phones, have SIM card slots designed to punish the world's nail-biters and tragically have neglected a volume setting for message alerts.

Then there's the ring tone game. New cell phones come equipped with only the most "hideous" ones, and the user is forced to pay for a decent one. Finally, while the HDTV industry is "hell-bent on convincing anyone who'll listen that television can only be enjoyed on high frame-rate, 40-inch, LCD HDTVs," the mobile phone industry is taking a TV on a Post-It-Note approach.

The net result of all this customer abuse, incoherence in design and vision, is that they are opening themselves up for a serious blow from Apple. The author summed it up nicely:

"Not everyone agrees the iPhone will be as successful as Jobs hopes, but Apple does seem to make the perfect bogeyman for the mobile phone industry. What could be more scary than an organization capable of working in total secrecy, with a track record of creating highly desirable products, headed by a man who's beaten cancer and an SEC investigation and comes equipped with a Reality Distortion Field that would make Darth Vader jealous.

"Frankly, its just what the doctor ordered for this very sick industry."

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue May 22, 2007 1:50 pm

Shouldn't "Reality Distortion Field" now be called the Reality Prediction Field? It seems that most things Steve Jobs touches these days become reality. Not all, but most.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue May 22, 2007 3:57 pm

How are you going to review the history of the mobile phone industry and never mention Motorola? Sure, they are currently experiencing some problems, but they created what are probably the two most influential mobile phones in history, the StarTac and the RAZR. Those truly moved the mobile phone market, and while I can't wait to get my hands on an iPhone to see if it can live up to the hype, I don't know that the iPhone can even come close to that kind of impact.

I'm thinking the headline should be more like, Clueless Opinions on the Mobile Phone Industry

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gopher said:

member since 28 Mar 2002 with 291 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 22, 2007 5:45 pm

It isn't as if there aren't some cell phones out there that are pretty close to the iPhone in functionality already. And much less too. Sony Ericsson's z525 is an example of what I think a cell phone should be:

1. Compact.

2. Complete Bluetooth integration with iSync

3. Easy to press keys that don't make you press the wrong key.

4. Long battery life

5. Tells you when you have a missed call, and uses the addressbook to tell you where that call came from.

6. Ability to edit addressbook on the fly.

7. Built-in antenna

8. Flip open design.

And only $70 to boot!

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 22, 2007 9:32 pm

gopher wrote:
It isn't as if there aren't some cell phones out there that are pretty close to the iPhone in functionality already. And much less too. Sony Ericsson's z525 is an example of what I think a cell phone should be:

1. Compact.

2. Complete Bluetooth integration with iSync

3. Easy to press keys that don't make you press the wrong key.

4. Long battery life

5. Tells you when you have a missed call, and uses the addressbook to tell you where that call came from.

6. Ability to edit addressbook on the fly.

7. Built-in antenna

8. Flip open design.

And only $70 to boot!

That's not even close to the iPhone in functionality. The phones that are are also about the same price, like the Prada.

article wrote:
The mobile phone industry has lost its sense of serving the customer ...

What? When did the mobile phone industry ever have a "sense of serving the customer"?

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insidethenebulous said:

member since 31 Aug 2006 with 5 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 22, 2007 9:54 pm

Guest wrote:
How are you going to review the history of the mobile phone industry and never mention Motorola? Sure, they are currently experiencing some problems, but they created what are probably the two most influential mobile phones in history, the StarTac and the RAZR. Those truly moved the mobile phone market, and while I can't wait to get my hands on an iPhone to see if it can live up to the hype, I don't know that the iPhone can even come close to that kind of impact.

I'm thinking the headline should be more like, Clueless Opinions on the Mobile Phone Industry

The StarTac, which was my 1st cell phone and even though it's still cool in my book, it took Moto almost 10 years to bring a much improved product like the RAZR to the market. Any fan or happy iPod/Mac owner can easily tell you that in spite of the history of all cell phone manufactures Apple will make a huge crater in the market! Why? Just take a look at what Apple has done in it's recent past with the 1st generation iPod way back in 2K1 and now we were up to gen 5 by 2K5! I don't think it wasn't that Moto couldn't do it faster or better it's just that they didn't have to, until now. Unlike the Apple TV, almost everyone out there can own some type of cell phone and I truly believe the iPhone is not unlike the 3G iPod in respect that it enhanced the market for both Macs and Windows users with the dock connector and iTunes music store combo. Yeah, the iPod was compatible with MS before that but from what I've read and observed personally the 3G iPod was the 1st mass market model. Now the 1st iPhone has many, many more advantages than the old 1st gen iPod and I don't have to list them here since everyone knows what they are. It can be easily argued that the iPhone is way better than any RAZR or variation thereof or any Moto product to date. I foresee the iPhone to make a huge impact crater in the cell phone market and again just look at the history of the iPod and you'll see what I mean, not too mention Apple's other product lines like the original iMac's impact on all types of markets just in PC copycats and in a simple color matching schemes in virtually anything imaginable. Just a quick stop by http://www.looprumors.com and see what AT&T is doing to get ready for it's release! I'm a happy T-Mobile customer but I know as soon as I can I'm switching to AT&T wireless for the iPhone and that's the only reason except that most of my friends and family will be happy as they've been Cingular customers for years and have always wanted me to switch. The great news for the non-belivers/switchers and such is that this phone WILL make the other guys get busy making BETTER cell phones so the folks that don't want an iPhone or whatever will have more improved product choices.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed May 23, 2007 2:45 am

when are these iPhone fuzz going to end anyway?>>>>>>>

now i am bored to hear any of these iPhone thing/..

come on .it's just a phone

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed May 23, 2007 3:52 am

Anonymous wrote:
i don't think iphone is That fearsome,,

---------------------------------------------

DVD to iPhone

http://www.crapspamaddress.com/

It may not be "fearsome," but you sure don't miss the chance to advertise your software, do you?

Here's a company that will sell you a different application to convert each video for for the iPod/iPhone, when we can get cheaper shareware that will convert many formats. Advertising shouldn't be allowed on this forum.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed May 23, 2007 10:29 am

insidethenebulous wrote:
Any fan or happy iPod/Mac owner can easily tell you that in spite of the history of all cell phone manufactures Apple will make a huge crater in the market! Why? Just take a look at what Apple has done in it's recent past with the 1st generation iPod way back in 2K1 and now we were up to gen 5 by 2K5! I don't think it wasn't that Moto couldn't do it faster or better it's just that they didn't have to, until now. Unlike the Apple TV, almost everyone out there can own some type of cell phone and I truly believe the iPhone is not unlike the 3G iPod in respect that it enhanced the market for both Macs and Windows users with the dock connector and iTunes music store combo. Yeah, the iPod was compatible with MS before that but from what I've read and observed personally the 3G iPod was the 1st mass market model. Now the 1st iPhone has many, many more advantages than the old 1st gen iPod and I don't have to list them here since everyone knows what they are. It can be easily argued that the iPhone is way better than any RAZR or variation thereof or any Moto product to date. I foresee the iPhone to make a huge impact crater in the cell phone market and again just look at the history of the iPod and you'll see what I mean, not too mention Apple's other product lines like the original iMac's impact on all types of markets just in PC copycats and in a simple color matching schemes in virtually anything imaginable. Just a quick stop by http://www.looprumors.com and see what AT&T is doing to get ready for it's release! I'm a happy T-Mobile customer but I know as soon as I can I'm switching to AT&T wireless for the iPhone and that's the only reason except that most of my friends and family will be happy as they've been Cingular customers for years and have always wanted me to switch. The great news for the non-belivers/switchers and such is that this phone WILL make the other guys get busy making BETTER cell phones so the folks that don't want an iPhone or whatever will have more improved product choices.

Judging by what you have written, you don't understand your history. The 1st generation through and including the 3rd generation were not the hits you think they were. It wasn't until the 4th generation iPod that sales took off and Apple saw the huge growth in market share and made the impact on the marketplace that it has had. The iPhone certainly does have advantages over the iPod, but it lacks many standard features of a smartphone (such as a fast data network, the ability to swap a battery, etc). Copycats on color schemes, icons, well, whatever, Apple makes pretty things, but pretty and functionally acceptable are different animals. But, if you are going to rely on the iPod's success model for predicting the success of the iPhone we are 3 years away from the iPhone making a real impact. iPod sales were essentially flat for almost 4 years, it wasn't until Q4 2004 that quartly sales hit 2 million, then up to about 5 million in Q1 2005, with significant sales spikes around the 2005 & 2006 holiday seasons. This was all after the 4th generation came out in July 2004. So, judging on Apple's past success in the handheld device market (Newton died quickly, iPod took almost 4 full years to catch on) we are still quite a distance from the point where the iPhone will have a real impact on the cell phone marketplace.

As a side note, it's worth pointing out that the first major sales increase in Q4 2004 coincided with the October release of the U2 television advertisement. Apple's marketing machine is a monster. Happily, I can say I got my 4th gen iPod a full two months before that ad came out. I made my decision based on the capabilities of the players that were on the market at that time. I still do that, which is why I don't have an iPod anymore, there are devices out there with greater battery life and richer feature sets these days. Hopefully Apple can adopt some of these features into the 6th generation iPod.

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Dirt Road said:

member since 24 Oct 2002 with 1239 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed May 23, 2007 5:23 pm

Quote:
How are you going to review the history of the mobile phone industry and never mention Motorola? Sure, they are currently experiencing some problems, but they created what are probably the two most influential mobile phones in history, the StarTac and the RAZR.

Bah. I don't know about the StarTac, but the RAZR (like most Moto phones of the last few years) is mediocre functionality in a slick but fragile package. Moto could certainly do better, but they're best ignored until they start producing to their potential.[/quote]

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue May 29, 2007 2:15 pm

Which is all people want. The iPhone is missing a lot of key features of a smartphone, but it looks nice, and look at the hype its getting. The RAZR however, redefined the form factor for the cell phone. It's a 4 year old phone at this point, and the other manufacturers have followed this design.

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