Apple iPhone

[Crispy]

Yes, but I'd wager a lot of the people queuing up to buy the iPhone are tech-savvy.

True. But there aren't 10 million of those people - there's always a gotta-have-apple crowd, but they're aiming for mass market here. Getting those people excited and buying it will be the real test.

 

[Crispy]

Channel 4 dispute this:
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/us+stores+almost+sold+out+of+iphones/584192

That's the AT&T stores. The Apple stores have loads of stock.

 

[editor]

True. But there aren't 10 million of those people - there's always a gotta-have-apple crowd, but they're aiming for mass market here. Getting those people excited and buying it will be the real test.

Well, they've done a pretty damn fine job of pumping up the hype so far!

Dish out some iPhones to a few celebs and they'll be halfway there!

 

[rocketman]

That's the AT&T stores. The Apple stores have loads of stock.

Typical Apple pattern that. Always stock in hand in Apple stores - even if Apple resellers don't have any, there's been court cases about that

 

[editor]

That's the AT&T stores. The Apple stores have loads of stock.

I've learnt a new phrase from that article. "Buzz kill."

Brad Bargman, Florida, who waited in line 9 hours on Friday to buy his phone, said excitement turned to dismay when the device stubbornly refused to activate, meaning it can't be used.

"It's a real buzz kill," said Bargman, adding that repeated calls to AT&T failed to get the device to work. "Now I'm soured on it a little bit.

 

[Crispy]

Typical Apple pattern that. Always stock in hand in Apple stores - even if Apple resellers don't have any, there's been court cases about that

It's the lucrative accesories trade innit. And getting people near a mac and an enthusiastic salesperson.

 

[rocketman]

It's the lucrative accesories trade innit. And getting people near a mac and an enthusiastic salesperson.

Yeah. They are a corporation and play plenty of tricks.

 

[editor]

This looks to be quite a fair iPhone vs Treo 650 comparison from someone who's got both:

http://qwan.org/2007/07/01/iphone-vs-treo-650/

I use Bluetooth syncing all the time, so I'm a bit surprised that it's not (yet) on the iPhone and there's no wi-fi syncing.
For the record you can add anti-aliased text to the Treo, but the guy's got a cheaper contract with the iPhone.

 

[jæd]

Yes, but I'd wager a lot of the people queuing up to buy the iPhone are tech-savvy.

Thats short-term... Wait a bit and I'd guess that the iPhone will attract the style concious mainstream market. Look at the ipod. Which do people buy...? The easy-to-use one or the spoddy one with all the features like .ogg playback...?

 

[Kid_Eternity]

That's the AT&T stores. The Apple stores have loads of stock.

It might have something to do with them telling people to go buy it elsewhere and not to come to the Apple stores because of the likely crowds.

Either that or unlike Nintendo, Sony etc Apple actually know how to make sure there's plenty of units available for a launch...

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Thats short-term... Wait a bit and I'd guess that the iPhone will attract the style concious mainstream market. Look at the ipod. Which do people buy...? The easy-to-use one or the spoddy one with all the features like .ogg playback...?

Well said.

 

[jæd]

This looks to be quite a fair iPhone vs Treo 650 comparison from someone who's got both:

http://qwan.org/2007/07/01/iphone-vs-treo-650/

I use Bluetooth syncing all the time, so I'm a bit surprised that it's not (yet) on the iPhone and there's no wi-fi syncing.
For the record you can add anti-aliased text to the Treo, but the guy's got a cheaper contract with the iPhone.

Some good points in the article about the address book + some poor ones. (ie, just because Google update one app they're supposed to update them all simultaneously...?) But its the usual blogger take on things.. Personally, I've tried sync-ing my treo via bluetooth and it takes *ages*. But then, whats wrong with the bundled usb cable...?

 

[jæd]

They key thing is that although the feature set is smaller, it's geared towards the less tech-savvy, the same way the ipod was. It will be very interesting just how open the SDK will be though - for geeky fiddlers like us, the 3rd-party software scene will be of prime importance if we're thinking of getting one.

Basically. It seems a nice decent phone out-of-the-box + might have more functionality later. Also has the Apple + iPod name behind it... Windows Mobile has lots of features but is unreliable. Treo is nice but looks dated. I wonder which one everyone would rather have...?

 

[editor]

Personally, I've tried sync-ing my treo via bluetooth and it takes *ages*. But then, whats wrong with the bundled usb cable...?

The speed of your Buetooth sync depends on what apps you've got on your Palm, but it is slower than USB.

I just prefer having one less set of wires on my desktop so it's good for me (and I always install MP3 songs/vids and apps via a card reader anyway)

 

[editor]

Basically. It seems a nice decent phone out-of-the-box + might have more functionality later. Also has the Apple + iPod name behind it... Windows Mobile has lots of features but is unreliable. Treo is nice but looks dated. I wonder which one everyone would rather have...?

Depends on what you want it for and your budget

Palm still has a massive business base, particularly in the US, and tons and tons of apps, but I can definitely see the Apple phone taking a bite of some of Palm's user base, although some may still prefer to stick with their Blackberry/Treos.

Thing is, the iPhone a very expensive phone so it's not going to be for everyone.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

500,000 iPhones sold so far -- but can Apple keep up?

Interesting stats and outlook:

No matter how you slice it, moving 500,000 units of any product during its inaugural weekend launch is big. According to Gene Munster, analyst at Piper Jaffray, that's exactly what Apple's iPhone managed to pull off. After originally expecting Apple to sell "only" 200,000 iPhones on Friday and Saturday, he's now estimating that Apple sold a half-million iPhones from start of sales at 6pm on Friday until close of business on Sunday even with supply issues at AT&T store. According to their survey, 95% of buyers purchased the 8GB model with 50% of all buyers making the switch from another carrier to AT&T.

Great news right? Maybe, but in a potentially worrying trend, Apple is showing a marked decrease in iPhone availability at their retail locations this morning. While stores showed a 100% iPhone availability (they don't break it down by 4GB and 8GB models) on Saturday which dropped to 84% on Sunday, Apple's retail channel is showing a further decline in availability for Monday across Apple's brick and mortar retail business. In particular, Californians not living in San Francisco will have a tough time locating the device with 34 of 36 stores bleeding red on Apple's retail locator site -- a potential supply problem especially if AT&T shops remain void of product. Sure, you can still order on-line albeit with that same 2-4 week delivery delay we've seen since day 1.

Link

Also this video gives an idea of what it's like to type on the iPhone:

http://www.intomobile.com/2007/07/02/fast-typing-on-an-iphone-is-easy.html

 

[rocketman]

Interesting stats and outlook:

Link

Also this video gives an idea of what it's like to type on the iPhone:

http://www.intomobile.com/2007/07/02/fast-typing-on-an-iphone-is-easy.html

I don't feel that the supply is really constrained. They probably engineered this to keep the passion burning and drive consumers to shop in an avid and urgent way. Make a hot product hard to get, you get pre-sales and consumer demand shoots up.

Apple (I understand from unconfirmed reports) had 3 million of these ready or on the way, so i anticipate stock refresh just in time for the weekend, after a week of short supply panic hype to tease shoppers that little bit more.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

I don't feel that the supply is really constrained. They probably engineered this to keep the passion burning and drive consumers to shop in an avid and urgent way. Make a hot product hard to get, you get pre-sales and consumer demand shoots up.

Apple (I understand from unconfirmed reports) had 3 million of these ready or on the way, so i anticipate stock refresh just in time for the weekend, after a week of short supply panic hype to tease shoppers that little bit more.

One thing I was a little surprised about was that when I bought mine on Saturday morning at an AT&T shop, it was the 8G model they sold out of. Usually it's the cheap ones that go first

 

[rocketman]

One thing I was a little surprised about was that when I bought mine on Saturday morning at an AT&T shop, it was the 8G model they sold out of. Usually it's the cheap ones that go first

That's also interesting - I seem to recall that Apple had some problems sourcing the quantity of flash memory they wanted to deploy...

Could also be that the margins are higher on the low GB model, as the price difference is just $100, though I'm not sure right now what spot price on flash is,

 

[Kid_Eternity]

One thing I was a little surprised about was that when I bought mine on Saturday morning at an AT&T shop, it was the 8G model they sold out of. Usually it's the cheap ones that go first

I was wondering about that, according to the link I posted above 95% of buyers bought the 8gig model. Perhaps it's just consumer demand for the best version of the iPhone available?

 

[rocketman]

Quite an extensive review of the iPhone is available here

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ipod/review/apple-iphone-4gb-8gb

It may answer some questions about the current iteration of the product.
Enjoy.

 

[jæd]

One thing I was a little surprised about was that when I bought mine on Saturday morning at an AT&T shop, it was the 8G model they sold out of. Usually it's the cheap ones that go first

If you're going to pay lots of money for a gadget, you may as well get the best you can afford... Esp. if you can't add memory to it later...

Btw, how is your iPhone doing...?

 

[Kid_Eternity]

I wonder if they'll do a cut down version...iPhone Nano anyone?

 

[Crispy]

maybe. don't see how the touch keyboard would be any use on a smaller screen.

from the sound of that ilounge review, I'd wait until version 2 - which hopefully will have replaceable battery and updated software. but they've made a very impressive start.

 

[jæd]

from the sound of that ilounge review, I'd wait until version 2 - which hopefully will have replaceable battery and updated software. but they've made a very impressive start.

I think that's good avice for *any* device...

 

[editor]

from the sound of that ilounge review, I'd wait until version 2 - which hopefully will have replaceable battery and updated software. but they've made a very impressive start.

I'm taking the ilounge review with a little pinch of salt seeing as the site's clearly very biased towards all things Apple, but if Palm haven't got their act together by the time v2 comes out, then even Treo diehards like me might be tempted (but only if the software I need is available).

 

[Crispy]

*sarky incredulity*

 

[rocketman]

iLounge are quite fair-minded on Apple. They have had their scrapes with Cupertino, as a result of which they are far from being Apple fan-boys, but are the resource for iPod stuff. But they tend to be more or less rational - though evidently not as 'rational' as a Treo website may be when covering a competing product. But in general, any review, statement, or argument put forward by anyone at all is, naturally, worth taking with a pinch of salt.

 

[editor]

*sarky incredulity*

Well, I'm still very happy with the Palm OS, but if there's no new high end phones on the horizon, I can't see me buying another old phone.

Windows Mobile was *horrible" so that only leaves Apple, although I'm not going to sign a 2 year deal with anyone for any phone, neither am I prepared to pay more than £250 for an unlocked new phone.

I guess that might be a stumbling point, but I'm still hopeful that Palm will come up with the goods.

 

[editor]

But they tend to be more or less rational - though evidently not as 'rational' as a Treo website may be when covering a competing product.

I'm not sure what you mean by that.