Friday, January 12, 2007

iPhone Rant (Or Rave)

Another entry on the iPhone. The New York Times alone has had about ten stories about iPhone, which is pretty unprecedented for a gadget that was announced only 3 days ago and isn't even out yet. Now, I'm pretty sure everything's been said that there is to say about the device, so normally I wouldn't bother posting about, but this Toronto Star article caught my ire.

Basically, the article is saying that in Japan, the iPhone isn't such a big deal, because they already have phones there that can play music and surf the Internet. Well, guess what? So do we! I'll concede that Japan's phones are usually more advanced than those in North America, but I'm pretty sure they haven't got anything like the iPhone there.

See, the iPhone isn't about all the features it has it in. There are any number of phones out there that I could go out and buy right now that have music playing, email, Internet surfing, etc. But the whole point of the iPhone is it doesn't get bogged down by those features it packs in. It makes everything really easy to use. Every phone I've ever had has had a pretty disastrous and irritating UI. The whole point of the iPhone is that it's easy and pleasant to use.

And for those saying it will only sell because it looks nice, they're wrong. The RAZR looked great, and did get a lot of sales because of it. But ask someone who owns one how they like their phone, and they'll say they're really bothered by it. Ask anyone who has an iPod what it's like to use, and they'll say it's great. I think a lot of those burned RAZR users and devoted iPod users will be lining up for, finally, a nice experience using a phone.