The Phone I Really Want From Apple

I really hope that Apple doesn't do what a lot of people are speculating about and calling the iPhone (even though Motorola owns the name and is using it), which is like an iPod with a cell phone embedded. I don't want to listen to music on my phone. I actually want a phone that acknowledges that we all use computers and the internet.

I use a Macintosh. I want Apple to design and introduce a phone that works so well with my Macintosh that I am compelled to buy it. I want the Apple Phone (and I hope Apple uses this to introduce a third product line that is different from both the Macintosh and the iPod) to show me my email like my Treo 700p does but without using Microsoft Exchange to do it. And I want it to know about all 6,572 cards I have in my Macintosh Address Book and let me connect with them naturally and easily. And I want it to know that I am in a meeting from my schedule and keep the phone from ringing when I am. I want the phone to be really, really smart because it knows that I use a Macintosh.

After Mac users get this phone (and crow incessantly about special they are as a result of this magical device), then Apple can introduce a version for Windows users (who will be discovering that Vista probably doesn't work as well as everybody thought it would, no matter how pretty the desktop is).

Comments

[Sándor Mester]

It is really interesting to read your imperative lines, however, I don't think it is only Apple on earth who could provide you with a phone which is smart enough to communicate/coexist with your computer and your other gadgets--as you described. The problem is that the developers of high-tech hardware developing companies are often miss the target: they want to meet a set of needs which is much wider than a user would ever face, and still some important features for some nusty and vile users might not be embeded. How about a phone/iPod/a handy tool which YOU can design/configure/put together for you own sake?

[Magda]

Hi,

So now that Apple actually uvailed it, and are calling it iPhone, as you dreaded, what do you think of it?

Magda

[Jim Dempsey]

I see two big risks with the new iPhone:

1) Keyboard. While the touch screen data entry seems like a cool idea, such approaches have been relatively unsuccessful. Almost 20 years ago, I bought a universal remote control with a touch-sensitive LCD display that customized itself by device. The product was ahead of its time and remains so. Time and time again, we see the market abandon hard-to-input keyboards, from the membrane and chiclet keyboards of the 1970's/1980's Timex-Sinclair and PC computers to the more recent 1-click-away Handspring Visor software keyboard, which took away real screen estate in exchange for a poor tactile feedback keyboard. Even if Apple adequately addresses the tactile feedback problem, the real estate and keyboard width problems will remain. It's too bad Apple did not perfect the laser keyboardless keyboard approach, which would have made the product even cooler.

2) Business Model. In order to preserve its direct sales, Apple is preventing carriers from offering subsidies--resulting in a whopping universal price of $500 for the iPhone!!

With its strong brand and loyal followers, Apple will enjoy some initial success at least among the early adopters. However, *if* the company becomes serious about acquiring significant marketshare, prices will need to drop and the product will need to offer equivalent ease of data entry.

All of that being said, as a result of the iPhone announcement I am holding off purchasing a Nokia E70, whose software problems amazingly cause it to receive Cingular certification after Apple's brand new iPhone.