I know I have a reputation for early adoption of all new technology and if I could have I would have run right out and bought an iPhone last week at MacWorld. But since we can’t buy them until June, I’ve had time to ponder the iphone and its specs. Is it the Jesus Phone, as Gizmodo dubbed it a while back (when it was just a rumor) or is it – please God don’t strike me dead for saying this – just another pretty, overpriced face?
Item one to ponder: The iPhone as described by Steve Jobs will come in two flavors: a 4GB version and an 8GB version. Wow. It is also a video iPod that can do widescreen (as in full iPod screen) video. Cool! But I just checked on the iTunes Store and The Night Listener, a movie that is 1:20 long, is 856MB – so that means I can fit maybe four movies on my 4GB $499 iPhone – assuming I don’t put any symbols for facebook” title=”music symbols for facebook”>music on it (or much, anyway), not to speak of address books and calendars and email.
Item two to ponder: That’s a really cool, glossy screen the iPhone sports. So what happens when you hold it up to your face to talk on it? Ick! It’s going to get mighty greasy! It’s also going to get scratched pretty quick. And if you’ve ever tried to get the scratches off an iPod screen, you know what that means: scratches that don’t come off.
Item three to ponder: How much will the Cingular service for the iPhone cost? I have 450 national rollover minutes with 200 text messages and 1MB of Internet/web browsing and no email on my Razr. For all of this I pay $56/month (and I get a corporate discount). What happens when I want to upgrade to unlimited Internet w/email? Currently, unlimited Internet data plan costs $44.99/month – and that would be on top of the $56 I currently pay. Cingular also offers something called Laptop Wifi and that’s even more expensive: $99.99 for unlimited access. Hmm. Clearly Cingular will need to create all new plan structures. If they don’t, better plan a bigger cell phone budget if you’re getting an iPhone.
Which leads me to item four to ponder: What if I don’t want Cingular service? What if I want to just use the iPhone as a really cool widescreen video iPod and address book and calendar? Can I do that? If it’s running OS X, can’t I just connect to existing wireless networks (say, for instance, a T-Mobile hotspot) using whatever service I want, like a free wifi network (like where I am today, at LAPL)?
None of this means I’m not going to buy one. It’s just stuff I’m thinking about.