They've done it again

It's hard not to engage in Apple-frotting hyperbole, but the iphone looks absolutely gorgeous.

What's so incredible about Apple is not their vision (sit down with a sheet of paper for an hour and think hard about what you could do to improve on current mobile phone product design: you'll probably come up with something like iphone), but the fact that the vision is actually executed, and in such an uncompromising manner. I'd bet that, on numerous occasions, someone in Nokia, Samsung, Motorola et al produced designs for something like an iphone. But they were never acted on because of existing product roadmaps, manufacturing constraints blah blah. Apple manages to create step changes in markets because innovation is placed at the core of its activities, and all else follows suit. Sure, stuff on the v1.0 iphone probably won't work as it ought, and there'll undoubtedly be a minor backlash. But what excites me is imagining how it'll improve over the next few years; look at the ipod -> mini -> nano arc. In a few years, the iphone will be an inconceivably powerful, sleek, tiny, cool piece of kit. And most other cellphone manufacturers will still be playing catchup.

One other point of note: iphone could be one of the few handsets in history that consumers are actually prepared to pay for. So MNO's wouldn't have to subsidise handset costs through pay plans and tariffs. Which might mean a better deal for customers in the long run. Come to think of it, Apple could just acquire an MNO in each key territory and disrupt the entire telco industry by bundling cheap call plans with the iphone. It could even sell minutes through iTunes. Now that's a thought...

I must say, it makes perfect sense to extend OSX widgets to the handset, as does the use of CoverFlow for navigating your music collection. I'm much less excited about my 3 X-Series N73 now...

Posted by monoman at 03:07 PM on January 11, 2007