crunchgear.com — Just got done with an interview with some folks from Cingular on the iPhone and they tipped their hand just enough for us to compile a quick FAQ on the parasitic relationship that is the Apple-Cingular partnership.
Jan 10, 2007 View in Crawl 4
diggit128Jan 11, 2007
QUESTION...but will it blend?
Closed AccountJan 11, 2007
It's amazing. The phone has been announced for exactly one day and all the dumb ass speculation has started all over again.The release is 5 1/2 months away folks. This phone is not targeted towards kids with verizon family plans on their parents bill.They probably don't care that some people think it's too expensive, or that it requires a decent commitment to a carrier and a data service that today can cost from $29 to $49 on Cingular, depending on what device you have.They simply don't care that college kids won't be able to afford one, it's not their target market.They'd rather you stick to an iPod and a $50 family phone from Verizon.Their target market is someone like me, someone already well established, high disposable income, likes the better things in life and really would not think twice about a $200 ETF from a carrier to get the phone he wants. They target people that don't have to think too hard about dropping $1500 on a phone, which I did several times last year for example.
rzuradJan 11, 2007
Now, I am not a mac fanboy or flamer by anymeans. I lean more towards windows tech because that is just where my work tends to lead me. I'm sure this iPhone has its place in the world, but me? I had enough trouble contemplating over getting a free Razor and paying about 20-25 bucks for a few accessories. The phone I currently have was 10 bucks with my plan, can send/recieve calls, has a contact list, and can play Tetris. Thats pretty much all I need it for.A phone that costs $600? hmm... I'd rather spend that money on a DX10 video card. At least I can develop applications for that.Maybe if the phone was around $200 and I didnt have to switch providers for it, I'd think about it. I'm not saying its right or wrong to get an iPhone, I just don't understand the hype. It's a iPod that can send and recieve calls, I must be missing something.
rickcarsonJan 11, 2007
@GoodOldHarriswith respect to the RDF, I'm not really into cell phones at all. I spent $20 (total) on mine last year. I was following along the Keynote via one of the websites and when I saw that the price of the phone is likely to be a grand in Ozzie dollars, I thought "no way". Add to that a whole slew of other problems (only 4 gig??? And they're going to put movies on it? I laugh in their general direction!).But, when I actually watched the Keynote it is different. Steve is actually quite laid back, but watching all those features being demoed does something. The RDF kicks in, and I start thinking... "well... maybe I can use it as techno bling bling to impress the ladies".Hopefully memory prices will continue to drop, and by the time it is actually released in June it will be 8-16 gigs (or even 16-32 gigs). Specifically I think that they may be deliberately under reporting the grunt it will have (Intel will have advanced a bit, memory prices dropped etc), so that when it is released they can do a "'ta da!' it is twice as good as we told you it would be!", and build just that little bit more hype.Anyway, by the time it actually makes it out to other parts of the civilized world in 2009 (_late_ 2009) hopefully all the problems will have been worked out. On behalf of the rest of the world, we'd like to thank the Americans who will beta test this for us :-P
vermifaxJan 11, 2007
I've been with AT&T/Cingular for five years, thru ups & downs. I've had my complaints but, now that AT&T has got their groove back and are welcoming Cingular back........these guys are definitely going to step their game up.Let the haters hate but, I watched the Keynote and....we're talking Apple, Google, Yahoo, Cingular & AT&T. This lil' circle-jerk won't be in vain and the whole world WILL take notice. It's a new day.Take time to appreciate the irony of a Microsoft-driven Wall Street dealing with an 8+% stock price bump for AAPL.The iPhone will be the iPod of mobile communications.This is big. Suck it up.
frankie4fingersJan 11, 2007
@muikano"The iPhone is going to inspire love." What are you smoking? Love? Since when does a phone inspire anything. You are just an Apple fanboy and will like whatever piece of crap they throw out.What if the one button doesn't do the 4 things you want to do? It is like the 1 button mouse that Apple has used for many years. Alone the button doesn't do that much, you have to press other buttons to do anything. Simplicity doesn't get you anything more then a simple, featureless device.The phone is not special at all. The touch screen will get old. I have one with a touch screen and it would just be better to have a few buttons to do common things.Secondly, the iPhone will not do what the RIM does until M$ lets it... and I don't see that coming anytime soon.Third, the phone is currently only on Cingular (non 3G) service so you won't get high speed video or audio downloads or fast email.Fourth, it supports iChat, which is used by like 15k people instead of things like AIM, Yahoo and MSN which have tens of millions of subscribers.Fifth, it is way overpriced for what it is. It is not much more then a nano with a phone. Why does it cost so much more?Sixth, they totally screwed up the price point on this phone. It is too much for a normal college kid and lacking of too many business features for a business user. There will be the normal rich kids and gadget business people that buy it but for the normal family, no middle-class parent is going to buy their kid one of these and no professional businessman will want one because it doesn't cater to his business needs. So who does it cater to? The rich kid or non-professional adult with extra money that doesn't already have a cell phone and decent ipod.Seventh, doesn't everyone already have an iPod? Do you need two?This could work if... 1) Made business applications for it, 2) Lowered the price, 3) Offered a large trade-in discount for people who already have iPods, 4) Opened it up to other phone carriers, 5) Made the OS open source, 6) Made the battery changeable, 7) Added at least an SD card slot for expandability.That about sums it up in a nutshell.
frankie4fingersJan 11, 2007
The iPhone, (it won't even be called that because of patent infringement) is hardly going to do what the iPod did. First off, the iPod was the first to make large capacity players that were small and portable. It is the first to integrate a music store and player. The first to really get artists and recording labels to put music up for sale. The first to make a simple interface. They did a lot of firsts. The iPhone is doing the same old stuff as every other phone except for the two finger touch. The normal touch screen has been done many times. So hardly a phone revolution.Just like their stupid iTV which is not much more then what we have already seen from many others.
frankie4fingersJan 11, 2007
Yeah I am going to stick with my SCH-i730. I like it better then the Treo and Verizon has better high speed service then Cingular.