The Reality Distortion Field is strong with this one. I'm just finishing watching the keynote and in the 12 hours since it took place a lot of the shine has disappeared from Mobile Me and the iPhone 3G.
Because I know you're all very interested in this, I will elaborate.
Watching Phil Schiller present Mobile Me (logo look familiar?) was kind of embarrassing. He kept explaining its "new" functionality as if it were some revolutionary concept.
"And when you get an e-mail on your desktop, it automatically shows up on your iPhone too! It uses the cloud!"
Oooo..."the cloud". Try to work that buzzword into your presentation a few more times.
"Now watch carefully...you can drag and drop e-mail from your inbox to folders! You wouldn't expect to see that in a web application."
Actually, Yahoo and Hotmail have been doing that for quite some time. And they're free.
"Let's say my softball practice got moved back to Monday night. Using this web version of iCal, I can simply drag and drop that appointment from Tuesday to Monday. You wouldn't expect to see that in a web application."
Google Calendar does that. And it, too, is free.
I don't know, maybe Phil Schiller and the folks at Apple use a special, handicapped version of the Internet (see photo right).
Then there's the 3G iPhone. Or, as it is being called, the "iPhone 3G" (which is cumbersome to say). It's pretty much everything the rumors said it would be. Speaking of rumors, what's happened to Apple's penchant for secrecy? For the last year or every major announcement has been pegged beforehand. But I digress.
It's an iPhone. It's 3G. It's coming next month. The biggest news is that it's only $199. That's a big deal. There are much crappier phones out there being sold for a lot more. But there are a few things Uncle Steve forgot to mention during his keynote:
You HAVE to activate the iPhone at either an AT&T or Apple Store when you purchase it. There is no prepaid option. You can't activate it at home. You can't buy it online. Not only is this inconvenient and going to make its debut a nightmare for employees and customers alike, but from a logistical standpoint it makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to unlock. (Which, of course, is the whole point of doing it this way. But I just wish they'd come out and say it.)
Unlocking aside, AT&T customers (you have my sympathies), there are some additional costs you should be aware of.
1. You have to pay $10 more per month for that 3G speed.
2. Those text messages that were originally bundled with your iPhone plan are gone.
3. Your two-year contract will start over.
So, you're going to pay an extra $15 a month ($10 for 3G and $5 to replace your lost text messages) for 24 months which comes out to $360 plus the taxes and "fees" associated with those charges. So the REAL cost of your $199 iPhone works out to be more than $560 when all is said and done. (Note that that figure is just the extra costs associated with this particular phone and doesn't include the cost of the monthly plan.)
Oh, and while you're forking over that $560 over the course of your contract, there will be probably three or so upgrades to the iPhone. In fact, I'm willing to bet they have a capacity update (16 and 32 gig?) before Christmas.
Overall, Android is looking like a great alternative.
In other news, Snow Leopard, OS 10.6, is due out in about a year. Apple is pulling a Microsoft here and the new OS will just be stability, security and performance tweaks - no new features, just things that should have been included originally.
Basically, it's Service Pack 1.
While I want to believe Apple will make this a free/very inexpensive upgrade, I know better.
Images courtesy of here and here.
I had a long comment written, but I just realized your overly critical with apple because your may not get iPhone 2.0 unless you switch to AT&T (a company you detest). I would have saved about five minutes if you had of just said that.
ReplyDeleteNo, that's not why I'm critical of Apple (or AT&T for that matter). Sorry to waste your time though.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone is going to wast my time, I hope it's you!
ReplyDeleteP.S. There's a 3% chance we might move to mecca this year. If that happened, you could have lots of opportunities to tell me about why you dislike Senator Clinton.
Oh, and my captcha is: futptn
Glad I can oblige. :)
ReplyDeleteOh really? What about the new job? Don't move to SLC just to hear me tell you why I don't like Clinton...I'll continue to keep you posted here. ;)
Hey Dave,
ReplyDeleteThis is Leah. I sent the link to your post to David Almond, my friend who was interning here the summer you were. He wrote the following response. You can reach him at http://scrumpestuous.blogspot.com/.
From Dave:
He's spot on about a few things (yes, I've been doing my homework) - the bump in data price, the debundlefication of text messages (I claim that word since I think I just invented it) and the two year contract starting over. The first two have given me serious enough pause to think I'm going to wait for things to shake down a bit - probably 6 months or so, to see if the consumer revolution can keep 3G users from getting nickel-and-dimed into the poorhouse.
I can somewhat justify the bump in the data plan rate (which incidentally, matches at&t's unlimited data plan for all of its other 3G handsets, so the price bump should be a whole other source of frustration), but the drop of the text messaging (once again, to come in line with at&t's standard billing practices) just plain sucks. I don't understand how unlimited data doesn't include text messages. I'm sure that pulling them out is "good business" for at&t, but it makes me long for a day when companies and consumers didn't have such an adversarial relationship with each other. Or am I being naive?
Now, on other things. Yes, the "cloud" is a big buzzword that provides seemingly old technology - but, what's missing is that up until now most of those services have been "pull" rather than "push." This means your device had to poll the other services to sync all of them up. Now, when one program is updated, it sends a message to the "cloud" which in turn updates all the rest of your devices. It's a subtle difference, but an important one, and yes, Microsoft has had this tech out for a while in the form of the Exchange server, but this is new to the Mac (because of a new move into the cell field). So yes, it's not as revolutionary as some might think, but it's a technology that is filling a need.
Now, about the signing up in-store, yeah, that's going to be a real problem the first few days (another reason why I'm going to wait), but with the price drop in the phone representing a hefty subsidy by at&t, I can understand why they're doing this - they don't want the phone getting unlocked and going to other networks, since they would essentially be paying out $200 on a phone that would not be bringing back any revenue (as David clearly pointed out - this phone will bring in several hundred on data alone, not to mention minutes). So, yes, the first few days will suck, and yes, it sucks if you're on another network and want the phone (he forgot to mention that at&t and apple are cooking up some sort of penalty to users who don't activate their phones within 30 days of purchase, making it even harder to unlock and migrate to another network or sell it over eBay).
And finally, Snow Leopard. I just don't understand his gripe about this one. I'm guessing he doesn't know Apple's track record with operating systems. Over the past two releases (the most recent being the bigger example) Apple has released hundreds of improvements and features. Every release of OS X has been more efficient than the last, meaning that even on my 4-year-old computer, each new OS runs better than the last. This is something that Microsoft has NEVER done. Their OSes go in the opposite direction, with Vista using so many system resources that many people have had to upgrade their hardware or replace their computers. Personally, I welcome a release that is dedicated to making things even more efficient, and tweaking current programs.
But obviously, I'm writing to the wrong person. I should be sending this to him, but I get the feeling that it wouldn't really do any
good. He's got his biases, and I've got mine.
David - thanks for your comment (via e-mail via a mutual friend).
ReplyDeleteIn response...
1. "The Cloud" - my gripe wasn't that they have the technology, or are promoting it. My gripe was that Schiller kept on explaining what it was over and over again like it was some new concept. This was especially annoying considering his audience, developers, who have a very clear understanding of what push, pull and "the cloud" are.
Also, his apparent naivety about what functionality already exists in web apps was baffling. Granted, Apple's apps are much more aesthetically pleasing. :)
2. Snow Leopard - I don't consider each Apple OS to be more efficient than its predecessor - the opposite, in fact. Here are minimum reqs for the last three OSes:
10.5 Leopard: 9 gig HD, 512 RAM
10.4 Tiger: 3 gig HD, 256 RAM
10.3 Panther: 1.5 gig HD, 256 RAM
Leopard has had its fair share of problems, with at least another half gig of patches and updates since its release. So the fact that they're working on such a significant update to the OS seems to me 1. they didn't get it right the first time and 2. it should be considered a Service Pack 1-type update, ala Microsoft.