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Another is the addition of business-friendly capabilities, such as synchronizede-mail and calendar through Microsoft's Mail Exchange, and access to corporatedata. And of course, full support to third-party applications was touted andsome were showcased. In addition, the new iPhone also supports globalpositioning system (GPS), which is good for locating colleagues with supporteddevices and for navigation.
And probably the biggest news was the price: USD199 for the 8-gigabyte modeland USD299 for the one with 16 gigabytes. And the device will be simultaneouslyavailable in 21 countries on July 11, 2008, to be expanded to later in the yearto 70 countries including Cameroon, Egypt, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Jordan, Mali,Niger, Qatar, Senegal, and Turkey. The new price is a big departure from theUSD599 price tag of the first iPhones rolled out on
Except for the announcement on broadening the iPhone map into several dozen newcountries, every piece of information in Steve Jobs' keynote was widely rumoredahead of the event, though not confirmed. Exciting as Apple has made thesefeature to look, however, many users may not notice them. After all, Wi-Fi,which the iPhone has supported from the start, remains the faster, and most ofthe time cheaper, alternative to carrier-offered 3G. And what is the percentageof new young users who cannot live without Microsoft Exchange support?
What Is New in a New iPhone?
Still, the new iPhone is new in a curious way. It is the fullest realization ofthe bundling phase that mobile phones have been undergoing for the past eightyears. Ever since Sharp, the Japanese manufacturer, offered a camera-mountedmobile phone in 2000, a near-consensus emerged among commentators (and itturned out, manufacturers) that bundling more services and features was thetrend of the future for mobile phones.
And an arms race of sorts followed among manufacturers to add the most usefuland intuitive (and not-so-useful-or-intuitive) features: a video-capturecapability; a full QWERTY keypad; a gaming capability; MP3 player; support forbusiness applications like corporate e-mail, Wi-Fi, WiMax, expandable memory,capable Web browser, Bluetooth (wireless short-range technology), infra-red, TVstreaming, and bar-code reading; there were even experiments on addinglandmine-detection capabilities to certain models of mobile phones. A 2005 NewScientist article rightly described the mobile phone as the new Swiss ArmyKnife.
But as is always the case with information technologies, the "how much istoo much" question gradually arose. And it was not probably feasible topack all the features in a single reasonably priced gadget. With a fiercecompetition and little time to ponder this long-standing question, mostmanufacturers seem to have opted for an easier solution: to segment the market.The ultimate exemplary of this thinking is Nokia, so far the world's largestmobile phone manufacturer, with its tens of models geared toward differentaudiences. For instance, there is the "business" line, which isheavier on business applications, and the "media" line, with bettersupport for music and video.
With a few exceptions (such as the unexpected success of Motorola's extra-slimRazr, whose external design was its biggest selling feature), the segmentationparadigm seemed to hold. And other smart phones manufacturers, like Palm andBlackBerry, in fact toed the line, offering different models aimed explicitlyat different purposes.
Interface Supremacy :
Until the iPhone emerged. That was in December 2006, when Steve Jobs gave thefirst glimpses of the new keypad-less, multi-touch gadget, with a userinterface carrying visual resemblances to the Mac operating system, which runsApple's computers. On the new gadget, icons glowed, menus flowed, and the wide(3.5 inch) display seemed the first realistic option to browse the Internet andactually read stuff online.
If the ensuing media fixation on the iPhone, particularly after it was releasedabout seven months later, was any indicator, that was Apple's finest hour. AHarvard business professor estimated that the free media publicity Applereceived in coverage for the iPhone was in the vicinity of USD400 millions,Wired magazine reported last March.
As far as features were concerned, the iPhone appears to have struck asuccessful formula for the "how much is good enough" question. Mostimportantly, the sophisticated features were hidden under the hood of abreakthrough user interface. Internal complexity was cloaked in outersimplicity, similar to the Google homepage. Indeed Apple, which offered thefirst graphical user interface in 1983 in its Apple Lisa systems, made a pointin its iPhone: Features were important (the Wi-Fi, the camera, media player,etc.), but the user interface was even more so. The interface was the fabricthat held these features together and determined how they were, or were not,going to be used.
In its iPhone second act, Apple is focusing on making the best of its advancedinterface. Thanks to a powerful processor, the new games, map applications,GPS, media player, all look exactly at home on the iPhone. Most of what theiPhone offers, strictly speaking, has been offered by others for years. ButApple's focus on striking the right bundle (instead of multiple lines andconsumer segments) and superior user interface puts its iPhone far ahead of thecompetition. At least for now.
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