[Ti] OT: iPhone - shock ?

[Dennis Fazio]

On Jan 16, 2007, at 3:38 AM, Tarik Bilgin wrote:

>> On 1/10/07 7:28 PM, "Tarik Bilgin" <tarik at opalblue.com> wrote:
>>
>>> This seems to be a recent trend with Apple. They focus too much on
>>> the casual iPod users and not enough on the people who use their
>>> products for more than just leisure.
>>
>> Casual users outnumber others by a *huge* margin.
>
> Agreed, but commitment to quality and innovation was one of the  
> things that drew people like me to Apple in the first place. I now  
> see a trend which worries me.

Quality and innovation are all over the iPhone; it's a truly  
revolutionary (or at least big evolutionary) step. The question of  
whether extended capability (for "power users" like some of us) is  
included is a bit of a different issue.

It does have Bluetooth and WiFi and an OS X supervisor inside. I  
suspect that within a few weeks or a couple of months of its  
availability, you will see 3rd party hacks and applications that will  
open things up more. It happened with OS X. Apple will likely also  
expand capabilities with firmware upgrades, software upgrades or even  
new models, adopting some of the 3rd party capabilities into the  
system, again, just as they did with Macs and OS X.

For an initial launch, when you have a complex product like this that  
does so much so differently, the best strategy is to keep it fairly  
simple so that lots of "ordinary folks" can get one, understand  
fairly quickly how to use it, and build a strong market. That's what  
made the iPod such a success in a market already filled with MP3  
players and the original Palm Pilot such a hit. Afterwards, you can  
tinker with and add functionality a little at a time so as not to  
confuse everyone.

--
Dennis Fazio
dfz at mac.com