OSNews

Why is that expected? I think you've embraced a bit too much of Apple's spin. Apple is trying to explain the drop in iPhone sales as some kind of seasonal phenomenon, but that simply doesn't ring true (pun intended). iPhone is a glorified mobile phone. It isn't an electric rotating tie rack. Or a box of holiday fruitcake. People buy mobile phones constantly. Perhaps the most obvious explanation is that they're still too expensive (urban hipsters can certainly spare some of their spare latte coin but, sorry, not Peoria), and the hype doesn't jibe with reality.

Are you serious, or are you being intentionally obtuse? I think you are embracing a crack pipe. People buy iPods, computers, and televisions all year long, but mysteriously sales increase around Christmas. Maybe because people give gifts for Christmas. Christmas tree sales plummeted last quarter too. I guess they are going the way of the Dodo.

A more significant financial indicator would be a comparison against same quarter sales last year, but the iPhone was not on sale in Q1 2007.

Here's another theory for you. AT&T pre-announced the release of the 3G iPhone quite some time ago, and the buzz has increased over the last few months. People are waiting for the 3G model, especially in Europe. It is actually impressive how many they sold last quarter considering this.

Cell phones, unlike iPods, aren't purely discretionary purchases. Everybody needs one. Contracts are expiring and starting constantly. So, really, the idea that people are going to wait until Christmas to buy a cell phone is (laughably) ridiculous.

Ah, but entertainment and opinion is what passes for journalism these days, at least here in the USA.

thats not the only place opinion slips in...

"It makes sense to assume a lot of these are MacBook Airs, confirming my predictions that the MacBook air would sell quite well."

i would be wary of assuming anything at all...

Quoi?

Editorial opinion / commentary is a tradition as old as journalism itself - if not older.

The distinction is that editorial/op-ed usually has it's own clearly defined place, and the editorial/op-ed staff is separate and apart from the news reporting staff. That distinction is becoming more and more blurred these days, and it affects the integrity of the news reporting process.

But none of that really applies. There are fundamental differences between OSNews and the sort of news organization you're describing - namely:

One, the writing "staff" of OSNews is effectively one person these days - how would it even be possible for their reporting & editorial staff to be separate in that context (unless Thom were to develop some sort of odd bicameral disorder)?

Two, OSNews has never focused on original reporting - the main focus has always been news aggregation-with-commentary. How can editorial writing be distinct from reporting when there is next-to-no reporting to speak of?



I agree in principle, but again - I don't see how that point applies to Thom's article/editorial/commentary/whatever. The real problem is when news organizations/reporter try to present editorial opinion as factual information - but I don't see any indication that Thom was attempting to do so. Looking at the quote itself:



That's pretty clearly a statement of opinion - it's not prefaced with "some people say," or attributed to un-named sources, etc (the typical signs of "subtle" editorializing). And he's stating a thoroughly-equivocated opinion one to boot. He's talking about a potential indication of a possible eventuality - you can't get much more equivocal than that.

Company 101: if a product is meeting demands, or exceeding demands, we'll know.

It is no mystery the Apple TV has been fledgling and not doing as well as Apple had hoped. They revamped the device majorly not too long ago, and if that had been doing well, they would have let us know during these sales figures. Seeing they don't means the revamp was not (yet) successful at turning the tide.

That's just following logic.

Amen, brother. It's difficult to say whether he just used an outrageous title to draw hits or really believes such nonsense. It is a little suspect Apple said so little, but the product update (arguably the first real release of the product) has been out less than one full quarter. Two months of sales and a slow delivery of movie titles from the studios will not give a very realistic long-term view. After developing all of these deals and infrastructure, does he think they should pull the plug after two months?

By the way, I love my Apple TV. I had three friends over, and they were all impressed. Two said they would like to get one. The other guy is kind of "thrifty".

I have used the iPhone and several of the competitors and I must say that no one comes near the elegance and flexibility the iPhone has, with its touch screen, interface, web browser etc.

I would guess that those who complain about the iPhone probably haven't used one themselves and are simply comparing features to features.

Granted, it's elegant. I suppose some people could buy it because of that, like the people who buy Gucci clothes and lamborghini cars. It's nice looking that is true, but flexible? You're kidding me! It's the least flexible phone out there. What is flexible about this phone?

Surfing the web on hand held devices is always more or less difficult but the iPhone does it very well. The multi-touch touch screen in combination with safari allows you to easily zoom in and out, move around the page etc.

The fact that its OS is based on OSX is also a plus of course, even if Apple's licensing terms for the SDK are retarded.

Edited 2008-04-24 11:53 UTC

Surfing the web is not a problem once you install OperaMini on any phone that supports J2ME (that is to say almost any phone except the iPhone). Try OperaMini, it's a far better than safari on the iphone, seriously.
When you think that for about the same price you can have a N95, anybody would gladly take the time to install OperaMini and have all the features that comes with the phone instead of the iPhone that look nice but that is terrible outdated.

Edited 2008-04-24 12:19 UTC

Elegance? Yes. Flexibility? Absolutely not. The Palm Treo, even the models runn klunky 'ol PalmOS Garnet, still run circles around the iPhone in that regard.

Umm, because the things it does do it does very well. In some cases it even surpasses the competition. The iPhone is not for everyone but I love the one I got. It don't have some of the features I had in my previous cell, like voice dialing, video recording, it even had a flash when I took pictures, but these are things I never used on that phone anyway. The features that I was most frustrated with on my cell, now are the things I love about the iPhone, which were texting and internet browsing.

Have you tryed OperaMini?

Edited 2008-04-24 13:28 UTC

I don't get things like this. I used Opera Mini for over a year. Then I got the iPhone. Two totally different experiences.

Opera makes web browsing passable on a cell phone. The iPhone make web browsing pleasant, and a step below using a regular screen computer. I get tired of seeing all these "Well you need to try Opera Mini!" posts because there's just no comparison. The iPhone is a universe above anything else out there for browsing the web.

I use Opera Mini on my phone with 3G data access and a 320x240 display. Version 4 is worse than version 3. It automatically wants to reduce everything to dots and makes me guess where some content might be that I want to read.

Safari on the iPhone is better but the speed of getting information is pathetic, unless you're on WiFi.

For all those claiming that the work-alikes are useful, they're no better than what I have. They just have touch screen displays and they're pathetically restricted.

Apple needs better hardware and it's apparently coming. If it's like the iPod, it will continue to improve and become cheaper. Right now, it seems that extra stock is being bought and sent to Asia to be unlocked and sold. China and Singapore seem to have plenty now.

"The iphone is not on par in features with similar products from the concurrents, and yet it is as expensive or more. Why would anyone buy it, is a mystery to me."

Haven't we heard this assessment before? Can you say iPod?

Now I am not saying the iPhone is going to repeat, but most of the pundits said the same thing about the iPod. What is so difficult to understand about the concept of making a product so easy to use that you don't have to carry around a 10 pound manual just to figure out how to use it?

Maybe because it works as advertised? Interesting that for a phone that is so featureless, it generates 50 times more search requests than any other mobile phone... And that for a phone that is so featureless, it generates 30 times more wireless data usage than any other mobile phone.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1316

Features, features, features... If its unusable nobody is going to use those features... With the release of the iPhone SDK, you're suddenly going to find a phone with many more features and they'll probably be usable too...

I know I've hated every single hand held device I've ever owned, but I may just get me an iPhone once the next gen comes out.

Horray for rabid fanboyism. As best as I can extrapolate, you don't like it because you have an unexplained grudge against Apple. That sounds like an well-balanced opinion.

You might be correct, actually. I hate Apple but I'd even hate the iPhone if it was manufactured by another company. It's too expensive, too glossy/shiny/etc, too restrictive, it's simply too "look what I've got" for me and I'm simply not that kind of person.

But as I also said, I'm glad that Apple released this, because other manufacturers will soon catch up and release something less expensive, but more functional. There are already some clones available, and I'd bet that some of them actually provide better functionality for less money.

I love my iPhone, and it has nothing to do with the fact that it's made by Apple. Here's why:

1. It integrates perfectly with my main computer. If you IM me, your "buddy icon" gets linked to your account in my Address Book which hands it off to the iPhone, all in one fluid shot.
2. It's a joy to use, both as a phone and as a internet browsing device. It's easy to read, easy to type on, and easy to manipulate. No other mobile browser has even come close.
3. Even ugly standards, like text messaging, are beautiful on the iPhone.
4. Google Maps is killer, and as you type in an address, you can easily insert the entry into a new or existing contact. Type "Outback Steakhouse Orlando, FL" and it will bring up all the information on the map and all the info - website, phone, address, etc - is available. Killer feature just killed 411.
5. iPod and coverflow. No other phone comes even close.
6. At work Outlook syncs to Google calendar, iCal is subscribed to my google calendar, which goes onto my iPhone. Beautiful integration of multiple services.
7. iPhone optimized websites. Yummy.

The fact is, people who complain about the iPhone usually are complaining about nonessentials like the phone being locked down. Every handset ever realized on Verizon (up until VERY recently) is more locked down than the iPhone. The iPhone started a phone revolution, and the only reason to dislike it is a person's own unreasonable dislike of the company behind it.

Yes - they started a revolution, and as I said, I think this is very good. I just don't like this specific Apple revolution model but if you like it, that's no problem for me, I even do believe that there are some people out there who actually love it for what it is. But you can't deny that there are also lots of people who just have it so they can SAY they have it, and there are also lots of people who like everything that Apple produces


"and the only reason to dislike it is a person's own unreasonable dislike of the company behind it."

BTW, who says that it always has to be unreasonable? I have my reasons, actually. Maybe not everyone might agree with them, but that shouldn't matter, should it?

Edited 2008-04-24 14:12 UTC

humm... I like Apple actually. They're inovative. Look at MacOSX! It's beautiful, everyone copies it.
But let's be serious here. Look at the N95 man!
It has GPS, 5mg pixels, videos, 3G, everything.
And you can install on it! I seriously believe OperaMini is better than Safari.
I don't dispute the fact that the iPhone is pretty, it sure looks better than the N95. But do you seriously believe people put down the iPhone because of unrational hate for Apple? Compare it with phones in the same price range. I don't care if it looks shiny when the pictures I take look like crap. I don't have a phone just to look at it!
Seriously, it is you who is unrational here. You fell in love with a cute box that have nothing inside!

Edited 2008-04-24 14:34 UTC

yep, apple have always been good at integration, as long as you by their products...

can someone spell lock-in? imo (very much so) its not worth it...

oh, and google has this nice j2me app that does a similar lookup or just about any device. only diff is that it does not integrate with the phones address list (but then i rarely have to look up where most of the people on my phones list lives).

also, i would rather see pages that would adapt to any device that browse it rather then pages specifically made of a single device. i thought that IE only pages was bad, but iphone only pages are good?

Edited 2008-04-24 15:24 UTC

This is a joke right? I have used my AT&T service in most of the places you mentioned and it worked fine. In the SF bay area T-Mobile is horrible. Most people I know have switched to AT&T or Verizon.

Did I say I was joking? No, the service is horrible in all those places. I can name specific towns/cities if you'd like. In Chicago, it's useless.

Then don't extrapolate Chicago to the rest of the country. Your generalized statement is pretty dubious.

I said:

"At my previous employer I used their "service" from downtown Chicago to Seattle to LA to Orlando to NY.

In all states I had to use my personal T-Mobile phone, because the service was so horrendous on AT&T/Cingular that it was pretty much unusable. This was with 3 different phones, 2 different manufacturers, so that's not a factor."

How am I narrowing down to just Chicago, when I said Chicago, Seattle, LA, Orlando, and NY? I also said "would you like specific towns"?

Try some reading comprehension next time.

Having used 3 different phones with 2 different manufacturers in those areas I mentioned in my first post with AT&T/Cingular, I find my opinion to be neither "dubious" or uninformed.

Edited 2008-04-24 18:53 UTC

I could be wrong, but I think Apple went with the exclusivity deal because they had an incredibly hard time convincing the carriers to modify their backends to work with the iPhone.

I certainly wish the iPhone worked with more carriers because it would be more convenient to buy one

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