I’ve been looking forward to getting my hands on the UK iPhone since Steve Jobs’s keynote back in January. The announcement today couldn’t have come soon enough. Now the day is almost over, I have reflected a little on this ace new gadget.
Despite being a huge fan, I think Apple has made some fundamental mistakes with the iPhone and its entry in the UK. In fact, the whole thing has left a very nasty taste. The iPhone is almost perfect. Pity its positioning wasn’t so successful.
Here are the iPhone flaws and what Apple need to do for the next generation of the product.
The iPhone needs to pull way ahead of the iPod Touch to seem distinct. The phone thing just doesn’t cut it. Instead of reducing features in the Touch, the iPhone needs to find the technological edge which will let consumers really feel justified locking themselves up with AT&T or O2. Dialling a number by flicking through a virtual phone book of your contacts’ face photos would be cool. And GPS to turn the iPhone into a true navigational aid built on Google Maps. There must be a whole bunch of stuff to pull the iPhone out of the Touch’s more streamlined and unencumbered shadow.
Talking of the networks, Apple would do well to unlock the phone for the people. It just seems wrong for Apple to lock its consumers into another brand like O2. Apple had to compromise with the networks to push through innovations like visual voicemail. However, I’d rather lose visual voicemail and be free to take my phone anywhere I chose. My music. My video. My phone. My network. I don’t want to be stuck with O2 just so Apple can cream a revenue-share from the network. The next-gen must be network neutral. Apple would ship tonnes more. I’d even pay more for the phone if it was neutral.
Let me understand this. Jobs said at the launch at the flagship Apple Store in London that 3G would drain the device too quickly to justify selling it as an entertainment device. Battery life is a problem, but we’re already used to topping-up our devices with some juice. Listen to your iPod on the underground. Top it up at the office. Do most Apple lifestylers spend days in the wilderness, away from a socket? Give us the choice, Steve! Give us 3G. Ya telling me that the iPhone’s WiFi doesn’t drink juice? Throw us a line here, Steve. We want 3G. O2 having to downgrade to EDGE is embarrassing for the European mobile industry as well as Apple.
The iPhone’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is unsettling when compared to other deals. At least £35 a month for 18 months and a lump sum for the phone of £269. Some are already complaining that for the £35 basic monthly rate for the iPhone you could get a top-notch Nokia 5MB-resolution camera phone from O2 for free. The recent launch of the Touch has fudged the UK launch of the iPhone: some may prefer keeping their current phone and buying into the multi-touch universe by way of the latest iPod. Another reason to make the iPhone better and the TCO cheaper.
Stop begrudging third-party apps, Steve. Announcing that the iPhone was open to third-parties via the browser was laughable. I remember it. Clive James has a word: underwhelming. Yes, there have been a number of elegant web apps like the FaceBook one, but this isn’t the same as a true application on the OS. Phone security is important of course but a way could surely be found to isolate the pure phone functionality from the rest of the iPhone’s operating system? Let’s face it, the next-gen should evolve into a handheld Mac, a little computer in your pocket. The next version must open itself up just like OS X on a desktop Mac.
The iPhone’s home page is actually kind of dull with its regimented icons, pretty though they are. The handset has a full-blown OS X on it for gawd’s sake. Let’s put some animation in there. Let the app icons revolve on a carousel that you move around with your finger. Let them spring up and down in categories like the neat accordion menus on the new Apple web site.
Keyboard. Bored of keys, Jobs decided to get rid of the real keyboard found on the iPhone’s rivals and stick with a virtual touchscreen version. In the main, a great idea, but there are plenty of people who disagree. Again, the iPhone should have options. A model with an add-on hardware keyboard would be ideal. A slot on the side of the next-gen iPhone could plug into a keyboard accessory so you could have a widescreen sub-notebook.
In conclusion, this is an irritatingly perfect product, comparative to what else is on the market. It’s so good in so many ways. Merging calls. Resizing images between your fingers. Showing off your photos and videos wherever you are. Checking your mail and using those essential web apps like Facebook. These are all good things in themselves.
People seem to have taken ownership of the iPhone even when they don’t own one: me included. People want it to be truly brilliant. It has some way to go. The compromise and revenue-sharing with the networks seems very un-Apple-like. Let’s call for improvements for the next generation of the iPhone. Oh, and let me know what you love and hate about the gadget. I’m sending all suggestions to Apple. The next-generation is never far away.