Why the iPhone is no revolution (and why you might want to avoid it)
Well, this is NOT another technical talk about some minor or major feature that is missing from the iPhone - if you want to read that type of info please take a look here, here, here or here !
The major point of this post is the almost total lack of innovation in the iPhone - which is not such a huge surprise from the company that claimed to 'invent' the modern computer UI after actually stealing it (together with M$) from XEROX ...
It is not only about technical innovations - there were touch-screens in mobile phones long before, and there are products with a lot better specifications already on the market - the problem is that the iPhone as a 'revolution in mobile phone PHILOSOPHY' is a major failure!
The first and most important failure is the one in regard with openness and control - Apple could have remained in the history books as the company that forever changed the mobile phone landscape (in the same way as initially M$ and later GNU/Linux changed the Personal Computers world) by 'setting the phones free' - instead Apple decided to play the same 'keep the customer hostage' game (which they also play on DRM and iTunes) so that the real innovator remains FIC ... And in case you don't really get why openness is so important just try to move your stuff (info, contacts, email, music and so on) from one closed platform (let's say Apple, the most restrictive one) to some other closed platform ...
The second "iPhone failure to innovate" is the one related to locking customers in long-term phone contracts - that is one of the oldest tricks in the mobile phones market and you might have expected Apple to try to come with a better idea - but no, Apple is so desperate (since the iPod cash-cow is dying) that they will take any quick fix available - even if that involves locking their customers with a single mobile provider ... and picking the one that isn't exactly famous for service quality or fair play is just what you would expect from a company that only cares about money ...
It remains to be seen if a future version of the iPhone might come with something better ... but somehow I doubt that ...
The major 'good thing' that I find in the new iPhone is that it will make things a little more competitive on the mobile phones market - but the key word here is probably 'too little, too late' :(
The major point of this post is the almost total lack of innovation in the iPhone - which is not such a huge surprise from the company that claimed to 'invent' the modern computer UI after actually stealing it (together with M$) from XEROX ...
It is not only about technical innovations - there were touch-screens in mobile phones long before, and there are products with a lot better specifications already on the market - the problem is that the iPhone as a 'revolution in mobile phone PHILOSOPHY' is a major failure!
The first and most important failure is the one in regard with openness and control - Apple could have remained in the history books as the company that forever changed the mobile phone landscape (in the same way as initially M$ and later GNU/Linux changed the Personal Computers world) by 'setting the phones free' - instead Apple decided to play the same 'keep the customer hostage' game (which they also play on DRM and iTunes) so that the real innovator remains FIC ... And in case you don't really get why openness is so important just try to move your stuff (info, contacts, email, music and so on) from one closed platform (let's say Apple, the most restrictive one) to some other closed platform ...
The second "iPhone failure to innovate" is the one related to locking customers in long-term phone contracts - that is one of the oldest tricks in the mobile phones market and you might have expected Apple to try to come with a better idea - but no, Apple is so desperate (since the iPod cash-cow is dying) that they will take any quick fix available - even if that involves locking their customers with a single mobile provider ... and picking the one that isn't exactly famous for service quality or fair play is just what you would expect from a company that only cares about money ...
It remains to be seen if a future version of the iPhone might come with something better ... but somehow I doubt that ...
The major 'good thing' that I find in the new iPhone is that it will make things a little more competitive on the mobile phones market - but the key word here is probably 'too little, too late' :(
posted by cool_stuff_or_not at 01:56
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