iPhone Love Costs big money
When the original iPhone came out, you remember the model with the awesome looking silver back, the two most common complaints were the network and the price.
The network was attacked because the iPhone was the phone for the internet, why on earth would Apple go with the pokey Edge network when every other smart phone (seemingly) was bumping along on a relatively speedy 3G network? Those that asked the question were told that the decision to go with Edge over a 3G network was due to battery concerns, you'd be lucky to walk from the front door to your car without the battery dying if Apple went with 3G technology.
The other big objection was the price. Steve Ballmer did a pretty nice job summing up the price objection. Though these perceived shortcomings were talked about constantly from the iPhones introduction at Macworld to the eventual release date the faults didn't seem to add up to much if you went by the lines outside Apple and AT&T stores.
The original iPhone was a hit but Apple took the objections seriously. A year later Apple addressed the main issues. The price was moved from "completely absurd" to "smart phone standard" and the network went to 3G. Most users found the battery life under 3G completely acceptable so those with long memories were wondering why 3G support wasn't in the iPhone all along.
The second revision of the iPhone was greeted with unabashed glee. Not only was the network faster but the idea of web based apps was abandoned and developers were allowed to generate any number of farting apps until the air was filled with the sounds gas leaking from a million virtual orifices. Even with all the excitement about fart apps there were still some questions. Why did the camera suck so much in comparison to other smart phones? Why couldn't you make movies with the iPhone? Questions that were understandable when you could get video on a hacked iPhone and when phones with better cameras were everywhere the iPhone wasn't.
A year passes and it is time for a new iPhone model to roll out. What shows up? A phone with a better camera, a phone with video, a phone that is what the original iPhone should have been.
You can interpret Apple's actions in a myriad of ways but there are two obvious conclusions. The first is that Apple misjudged the market. You could argue that with the original iPhone Apple saw the trade off between speed and battery life as a necessary concession for a device that had to be a great phone first. You could further argue that the high price of the original iPhone was just a bit of hubris on Apple's part, since the iPhone was revolutionary why not a revolutionary price?
With the second iteration of the iPhone you can argue that Apple never really understood that people wanted to take video with the iPhone. You can also make a strong case that the camera was on the weak side because, well, the iPhone isn't a do everything device. Hence, the camera functions should be way down on the list.
The second interpretation is the "Fuck you, pay me" take. If you remember Goodfellas you remember what happened when a mobster joined the business. And if you don't here's the dialogue:
Now the guy's got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with the bill? He can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guy's gotta come up with Paulie's money every week no matter what. Business bad? Fuck you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? Fuck you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning huh? Fuck you, pay me.
The second interpretation is also easily arguable. Why release an iPhone with 3G out of the gate when that is a feature users will pay for? Why include a half decent camera when you can get people to upgrade for the feature down the road? You want what the iPhone should've been out of the gate? Fuck you, pay Apple.
Will there be lines outside the Apple store for the people to cough up $399 for a 16 GB iPhone and sign another two year contract? Probably. Were the features of the iPhone carefully chosen so people would have incentives to upgrade over the years? Who knows. One thing is certain, if you waited until now to get on the iPhone bandwagon you'll get a much better deal than early adopters.
The strategy of planned obsolescence isn't a bad business decision (if that is actually Apple's plan) and generally it wouldn't even be objectionable but Apple says time and time again that the company isn't about market research and such, it is a company about making cool products. Right now it seems like Apple thinks the coolest products are those with obvious holes that ensure future sales. Nothing wrong with that strategy but before you upgrade remember that whatever deficiency you think the latest iPhone has will likely be remedied next year. And that defect probably rhymes with horizon.
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Slashdot
StumbleUpon
Comments
You poor bastards up there! Your problems are as much to do with AT&T;as they are with Apple (as your last sentence alludes).
Down in in Oz land, we can buy the iPhone outright, contract free.
So if I want a new iPhone, I buy it, slip my sim-card into it and away I go.
And if I get jack of the iPhone (pffft!) and want to switch phones, I buy the phone I want, and slip my sim-card into it.
The only limitation is if I also want to change carriers which can incur a switching fee ($150 last time I checked for my carrier)
I dunno how it works on contracts here - haven’t had one of them for at least five years. But there probably will be some hassle in upgrading, but nothing like what AT&T;are doing to you guys.
And new features? MMS? We’re on the list. Tethering? One of our carriers is, and I expect the others wont be far behind.
You really are getting screwed over by AT&T;.
Chris Howard - you bought your iPhone outright? My wife (we’re in Australia) was choosing between US$40 (for 8GB) or US$140 (for16GB) on a US$54 plan. Paying US$600 or US$700 for those phones outright just seemed way too expensive. Of course, now she’s stuck for another year on her 2 year contract - but it’s worth it. We’re lucky to have 3 carriers competing here - of course our US$54 plan gets limited data and less minutes than AT&T;gives.
As for the original article…. negative much?
Chris Seibold - would you also argue that Apple doesn’t build the best computer it can so that next year it can build a better computer and people will want to upgrade?
Yes 3G was available on mobile phones 2 years ago and Apple was building a smaller phone than others were doing - with more functions - and 2G chips were MUCH smaller than 3G chips. Video too requires the extra processing power that wasn’t available to do well (though jailbroken phones gave it a go).... and perhaps Apple could have done that if it took something else out.
Apple does good things - and one of the reasons is that it takes out the things that the majority of people won’t use and focuses on making the rest simple. The majority of pc & phone makers think more features are better, and if some features add a little bit of weight or size that’s entirely fine.
Greg, plans though can end up costing an arm and a leg. The iPhone cost me AU$847 (16GB). Add usage on pre-paid of about $5/mth calls & SMS, and $10/mth for data (100MB which I only use half of most months), and it projects at about $1200 over two years.
AFAIK, no Aussie contract plan can better that, plus I’m not locked into a contract.
But it must be said, I’m not a big voice user. In fact, according to Ecamm’s PhoneView, I’ve made a mere 20 outgoing calls since August 2008. But I have sent 2740 SMSes (about 9 per day, most at 1 cent each).
Now, obviously, this works out best for me, but for others, contracts would work out cheaper.
It’s nice though, in Oz, to have a good range of choices, including carrier.
PS What I like about pre-paid is if I don’t use it, it doesn’t cost me. And if I use it a lot, I have the option of upgrading my pre-paid deal or, if need be, going on a contract.
No you are absolutely right. The contracts are useful if you know your spending, and it’s high enough that it’ll subsidise the phone well.
If you don’t spend much, it’s a different ball game.
Anyway, next month I’m hoping I can persuade Vodafone to let me out of my contract 6 months early and upgrade (on contract) to iPhone 3GS.
“Apple does good things - and one of the reasons is that it takes out the things that the majority of people won’t use and focuses on making the rest simple.”
I mentioned cut, copy & paste in the other article and think it’s a good example of why the above sentiment is malarkey. It took them 3 years to implement a basic feature that has been in every smart phone before it. Can you imagine if a Windows mobile phone or the Palm Pre dared come out without that? But Apple gets away with it because they’ve managed to convince their customers that a)they invented everything and b)if they don’t have it then you don’t need it.
I don’t think it’s even a question that corporations build products with planned obsolescence and Apple is just another big corporation. They make good products and the iPhone is really nice, but I don’t think it’s far fetched to say that they intentionally leave things out to get you to upgrade down the road, or to get people on board with the next generation of product.
Didn’t mean to imply Apple was inherently “good” - in fact if they had Microsoft’s marketshare they’d be scarey.
But I don’t think my belief that Apple removes little used features to make things simpler to use is wrong. I DO agree that cut/copy/paste (& MMS) should never have been left out and as we can see now, MMS will not make things more difficult.
I’m not sure what I think about the story that cut/copy/paste has taken this long because they wanted to get it right. But if they did it to force people to upgrade then they’re immensely stupid to give away the software upgrade for free.
I really don’t believe Apple could have doubled the processor power of the iPhone last year without losing something significant - but I’ve had that argument here already