My obligatory iPhone post

Posted on | January 10, 2007 | 6 Comments

I don’t know what I can add to the discussion around Apple’s latest unveiling, but I feel obliged to say something.

In 1993, Apple released the Newton. This was CEO John Sculley’s big dream project. It was going to be his Macintosh. However, from a standpoint of market acceptance, it failed.

Now, Steve Jobs loathes John Sculley. He’s been quoted saying about Sculley, “”What can I say? I hired the wrong guy. He destroyed everything I spent 10 years working for; starting with me, but that wasn’t the saddest part. I would have gladly left Apple if Apple would have turned out like I wanted it to.”

So, I just get the sense that, every step in the 2-and-a-half year development of iPhone, Jobs had this bone to pick with Sculley, and that Jobs’ portable computing device was going to be nothing short of “insanely great,” and that at every step, he was determined to not just surpass, but blow away his predecessors.

Because, that’s the thing with the iPhone. Everyone knew it was coming. No one knew how it was going to transcend their expectations. It is such a quantum leap forward, not just for a phone, but for the whole field of consumer electronics, and I don’t think we’ll understand the implications until a good year or so after its release.

Other thoughts

This is a remarkable Trojan Horse on the whole netphone front. Yes, it’s a GSM mobile phone and there’s an exclusive deal with Cingular. But also, it’s a mobile wi-fi device, and so, why use Cingular if you can just Skype?

2 megapixel camera — impressive. But does it only have still picture capability? Considering they’ve put an iSight in everyone of their computers, I’m surprised that iPhone doesn’t have a video camera built in.

I drop my mobile phone with some frequency, and my iPod occasionally. How rugged is this device?

It’s a little strange that they ended up calling this “iPhone,” considering it’s essentially a small tablet PC. I mean, it probably makes sense from a marketing perspective, but I’m curious as to what happens when “the street finds its uses” for the device. I wouldn’t be surprised if phone calls is not the primary function.

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