iPhonography

Perhaps this is the last blog in America (& the "developed" world?) to write a post about the iPhone, waiting just hours before its anticipated release tonight. Sure I've been an early adopter before of Apple technology (I bought an iPod the very first day they were released during college), but I won't be buying an iPhone today, or tomorrow.

People keep writing about the hype and glitz of this rollout from Apple. I've read something to the effect of "gosh I'm so !@#$%^& tired of all of the HYPE!," about a thousand times just this week alone. Uh, no you guys are not tired. You love it. I love it. The only thing I'm tired of is the word "hype," not the buzz. The buzz is All-American; it's our favorite national past time. The well orchestrated product launch! The cacophony of media coverage and screams/gripes about swollen price tags and expectations.

Regardless of wanting one or not, as a business owner and design fan I'm just happy to watch the way that a classy outfit who has a history of embracing design launches something cool. A couple of days ago I read this really disdainful PC guy's column full with all of this sarcasm about the coming revolution, etc., and it was just so dumb. The bigger point is that we are re-thinking this mostly useless device that ALL of us carry around everywhere, you fucking asshat! (Yes, you may feel free to use "asshat" dear readers - its my gift to you in honor of iPhone launch day).

Anyway, I'm not buying a 1st-generation iPhone because it demands too much of its potential users, which is completely backwards of how technology is supposed to work. Why should I need to re-arrange my life to take advantage of something that is supposed to make my life more cool/organized/shiny/musical/tactile? In order to support/pay Apple today I would have to cancel my service with Sprint ($175), get in a very, very long line for several hours ($500-ish, for my time), plop down my AMEX ($600), switch over to an inferior network ($80/month), and then cringe in 6 months when iPhone 2 comes out ($500, probably), which takes advantage of AT&T's much faster 3G network, comes with more features, applications, and a (hopefully) much larger capacity (8 GBs = less than 1900 songs, which is less than 1/6th of my iTunes music library, which doesn't even factor in putting a *gasp* movie on your iPhone).

My Sprint contract (everyone keeps saying how terrible AT&T is, but isn't that how we all feel...?) runs out in January so I'll wait and see. Even though I'll happily stay off the bandwagon for now, like most creative people I'm super excited to see the way that content explodes with a new generation of beautiful screens like the iPhone. The very thought of presenting multimedia photography projects on it make me weak in the knees, even though I'm pretty disgusted with how multimedia is growing up in the industry. But that screen! My pictures want a new home!

And so I'll end with my ill-informed theories: Apple will sell a shitload of iPhones over the next month. Verizon (who was offered the deal by Apple) will feel pretty stupid, and their CEO will resign under pressure. Apple will not capture anywhere near the same percentage of the marketplace with the iPhone as they have with the iPod, but it'll steadily grow up towards 2-3% over the next 24 months. iPhone 2 will be released just in time for Christmas, and its most significant new features (for its own sake) will be that it works with corporate exchange servers (because that is a GIANT share of the market). Additionally, the 2nd gen. will have more battery life, at least 1 new KILLER app that people fawn over, and more capacity (~10/20 GBs). But most importantly, the 2nd gen. iPhone will still not work with AT&T's 3G network. Lame. But I'll stay buy it, and a new pair of Shure headphones, which will have created a new iPhone version also just in time for Santa.

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Comments (5)

Man you might have come up with a better word than assbag--asshat genius!

Man you might have come up with a better word than assbag--asshat genius!

What killed it for me is that you cannot use it as a modem for your laptop.

Brian -- I sort of am frustrated by a lack modem interface... but really I don't even need that anymore, and sort of never did. I think we all were excited to be un-tethered like that a few years ago, and then it never really became the thing. What is much more important that the iPhone also doesn't have, is that it can't be used in "disk mode" -- so you can't transfer files at all.

I find a USB drive is more convenient for transfering files, though the disk mode is nice as a backup drive when traveling. As far as phones go, I ended up getting a Samsung Blackjack. Cost me $25 and it modems for my laptop with no problem. It was nice to save about $600.

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