Does iPhone have a glass jaw?

Stan Beer
Saturday, 23 June 2007 08:46

Business IT - Technology

The most anticipated and hyped mobile phone in history goes on sale this time next week and the question on the minds of many outside the throng of loyal Apple faithful is will the iPhone live up to the hype or will it, under real world conditions, be found to have a glass jaw.

One could argue that with 100 million iPods in the market, Apple already has a ready made market for the iPhone. However, Jobs' vision is clearly to break new ground and create a new business, not simply to replace iPods with iPhones. Therefore if the iPhone is going to succeed it must be able to stand on its merits in the tough mobile phones space, where cost conscious consumers upgrade to new models every year or two for nothing up front.

Some may also argue that it's not the mobile phones space that Apple is trying to break into but the smartphones market, where the Rim Blackberry and Palm Treo play. However, with the appearance of high end mobile phones like the Nokia N95, with features that can take advantage of 3G and 3.5G networks, the lines between smartphones and mobile phones are blurring.

Recently, much fuss has been made about the iPhone's battery life or lack thereof. Apple has recently upwardly revised the iPhone's talk time estimate to 8 hours. However, even the the previous five hours is much better than the two and a half hours claimed by the N95.

Still on the battery, if the battery malfunctions, unlike other phones, users will have to take their iPhones to their AT&T or Apple dealer. How long will they be without a phone? With other phones, they can simply go down to the local carrier shop and get a new battery. Mind you, I've had a phone for two years and the battery hasn't given me a day of trouble, although the talk time between charges is definitely less than what it was.

The other issue is of course price. My phone contract is up so I now own my phone outright. If I want to I can simply keep using my phone or, at my leisure, walk into a shop of one of the four major carriers and choose a smartphone or high end mobile on a very reasonable monthly call plan without spending a cent up front - like I did with my current phone.

Would I be prepared to pay the local equivalent of US$499 or US$599 up front on a two year plan for iPhone? If it's as good as Apple makes out, maybe. Will I do it again two years from now, when my current model is long in the tooth? Maybe. Then again maybe I would give something else a try. At the end of the day, it's just a phone.

Of course, as far as Apple is concerned, iPhone is not just a phone. It is also an iPod and a mobile Internet device. At present, the iPhone is only 2.5G. It's hard to see the iPhone succeeding in Europe or elsewhere unless 3G models are released. Meanwhile, users will need to be confined to Wi-Fi hotspots if they want acceptable Internet performance. Compare that to the 3.5G N95 which can even act as a fast wireless modem for laptops. The iPhone is after all a mobile communications device. Rather than touting its Wi-Fi capability, the question is why should it need Wi-Fi?

Having had five minutes to play with an iPhone at Macworld, there's no doubt that there's a lot to like about Apple's new baby. However, unlike the new device going on sale June 29, the iPhone I held in my hands had a plastic screen. If the old adage "if it ain't broken don't fix it" holds true for Apple like everyone else, one must ask what was broken about the tough plastic screen that forced Apple to use optical glass instead?

Last week I dropped my nothing up front Nokia 6280 3G phone for about the sixth time since I've had it. As I was getting out of my car, it slipped out of my hand and hit the concrete sidewalk. As happened on quite a few previous occasions, the back came off and the battery fell out. Like always, I simply put the phone back together, turned it back on and the phone worked as if nothing had happened. The US$499 or US$599 question is can the iPhone with its non-shock absorbing metal case and optical glass screen stand the drop test or does it have a glass jaw?