Raw commentary on the iPhone announcement

I'll do a post tonight with thoughts on the iPhone announcement (update: now posted here), but in the meantime here are some tidbits. During the announcement, Chris Dunphy and I did an instant messaging session as we watched feeds of the announcement (we're on opposite sides of the continent right now). Chris and I worked together at Palm, so we're both mobile veterans, and we used to spend a lot of time talking about industry trends.

I thought you might like this transcript of our comments. It's sort of a color commentary on the presentation. It gives you a little insight into how a couple of tech industry people think, and which features stood out to us at first glance.

My only hesitation about posting this is that I feel like I'm participating in Apple's hype. But in this case, I think the impact of the announcement actually justifies the hype. Mostly.

Chris Dunphy says: Total lust.... Are you following the iPhone details?
Chris Dunphy says: wow.

Michael Mace says: This isn't a phone, it's a PDA reinvented for 2007.
Michael Mace says: Extremely nice job.
Michael Mace says: I wonder how long the batteries will last with Mac OS X in there.

Chris Dunphy says: My thought too.
Chris Dunphy says: I sure wish it had 3G data speed.... But I am willing to trade all that I think.
Chris Dunphy says: Awesome looking hardware and UI.
Chris Dunphy says: Face proximity sensor is a bit of obvious genius.
Chris Dunphy says: Dangit - visual voicemail interface... We were trying to get that idea worked on 4 years ago!
Chris Dunphy says: 160dpi screen. Wow.

Michael Mace says: I like the sensor that rotates the screen image depending on how you're holding it.

Chris Dunphy says: Simple elegant stuff. I love Apple.
Chris Dunphy says: Multi-finger touch interface UI. Sweet.

Michael Mace says: Yeah, that multi-touch stuff has always impressed me.

Chris Dunphy says: Gads - how can this thing actually have MacOS in it?!!? Egads.

Michael Mace says: Battery life, battery life, battery life.

Chris Dunphy says: Safari with a 160dpi 3.5" screen will blow all other mobile www out of the water.
Chris Dunphy says: Apple Fusion.

Michael Mace says: Plus you should be able to run the base of Mac OS apps. This should re-energize Mac OS apps development.

Chris Dunphy says: I am guessing it is actually just a set of API's - not the full OS. But still - the developer potential is enormous.
Chris Dunphy says: I wonder how open it will be?
Chris Dunphy says: And if they thought through the ecosystem issues?

Michael Mace says: Good questions.
Michael Mace says: Putting Mac OS X in there is freaking brilliant. It lets them leverage so much infrastructure, and it's already paid for.
Michael Mace says: Okay, widgets. So they are thinking about third party apps at least some.
Michael Mace says: Ya know, Jobs and his team just think further ahead than a lot of other people in the industry.

Chris Dunphy says: Google maps is location aware. YES!

Michael Mace says: This screws up a lot of companies that were planning map services in the future.

Chris Dunphy says: I bet the same widget architecture as on the desktop.

Michael Mace says: I'm sure the architecture is the same; no reason to make it incompatible.

Chris Dunphy says: Interpreted so CPU / platform independent.

Michael Mace says: Yup.

Chris Dunphy says: And simple enough even for amateurs to program.

Michael Mace says: They're getting so many things right...
Michael Mace says: Ahhhh, services tied to location. Another thing people have been talking about but not yet shipping.

Chris Dunphy says: I am not sure I have ever been so lustful for a gadget before. Egads....
Chris Dunphy says: Not since the preview of the twist/flip Clie...

Michael Mace says: This is far better than the Clie -- Apple has thought through the software. It's a solution, not just a gadget.
Michael Mace says: And yeah, I want one. I'm waiting to hear the price.

Chris Dunphy says: Yep. Amen!
Chris Dunphy says: They could name almost any price for me right now... If only it had 3G....
Chris Dunphy says: I've been dying for a decent phone.

Michael Mace says: You know a 3G version has to be in the works.

Chris Dunphy says: Absolutely. This was the smart call for now.

Michael Mace says: And then put this thing on WiMax in 18 months...

Chris Dunphy says: Cingular here I come.

Michael Mace says: Oh, now Eric Schmidt is on stage with him talking about WiMax. Sheesh!

Chris Dunphy says: EGADS!

Michael Mace says: Steve builds in Yahoo mail and Google gets on stage with him. What a great deal-maker.
Michael Mace says: He has totally shown up everything on display at CES.

Chris Dunphy says: I've made $850 in AAPL in the past few days. I wish I had bought LOTS more.

Michael Mace says: I wish I had my old options.

Chris Dunphy says: Yahoo is the search - egads!
Chris Dunphy says: What a way to play all sides.
Chris Dunphy says: Amazing dealmaking.

Michael Mace says: Since it has a full browser, the bundled search does not matter as much. But it's the optics.

Chris Dunphy says: Look at the size compared to a Treo: http://www.gizmodo.com/
Chris Dunphy says: AppleTV looked awesome too.
Chris Dunphy says: What a day for Apple.

Michael Mace says: Uhhh, five hours of battery life? Does that mean five hours of talk time?

Chris Dunphy says: I hope so!
Chris Dunphy says: That beats the Treo if it is.
Chris Dunphy says: Music playback time seems to indicate that.
Chris Dunphy says: EDGE radios can be VERY power efficient. Was smart to go 2.5G.

Michael Mace says: And here comes the price...

Chris Dunphy says: Tease

Michael Mace says: Yup, this is the crescendo, to be followed by the ship date.

Chris Dunphy says: A master at work.
Chris Dunphy says: Aigh - JUNE!

Michael Mace says: I wonder if that price is with a contract.
Michael Mace says: And now Steve, having done an exclusive with Cingular, will negotiate favorable contracts from every other GSM operator, one per country.

Chris Dunphy says: Yep - 2yr contract.
Chris Dunphy says: Ick.
Chris Dunphy says: I wonder how long the exclusive is...

Michael Mace says: Might depend on how cooperative the operator is.

Chris Dunphy says: "Cingular Exec on Stage 10:45 - ZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzzz.–Brian Lam"

Michael Mace says: ;-)

Chris Dunphy says: You'd think they'd learn.

Michael Mace says: Might be exclusive for this device. But when WiMax is available, I can't believe they'd duck that.
Michael Mace says: Cingular's subsidy is helping Apple get this to an affordable price. They couldn't have launched this at an affordable price without it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

They really nailed it... 5 years in advance on everybody else...

I think all these numerous false rumours about Phone or PDA to be announced at Macworld since the last 5-6 years were worth waiting for.


God that album cover browsing is so cool... June seems so far away now...

alcatholic said...

I don't think it is necessarily location aware. It was easy to miss, but Steve was used a bookmark to get to the Moscone center.

Of course, directions and traffic was listed so maybe that is what Chris refered to as location aware?

Chris Dunphy said...

Now that I've watched the keynote and not just the "live" blog - I agree, it does NOT look like the iPhone and Google Maps are locations aware.

This is a major disappointment.

Often times the hardest thing when using Google Maps on the Treo is figuring out where you are. And it makes the driving directions a lot less valuable if you can't recover from a wrong turn.

I hope Apple addresses this.

- chris // www.radven.net