At the end of the day iPhone is no phone

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 03 July 2007 17:59

Business IT - Technology

Now that the iPhone is out in the hands of real reviewers rather than the selected Apple friendlies who got previews prior to release, the real story is emerging. The gist of it is that Apple's new baby is a ripper of a multi-function device but if you're looking for a good high-end mobile phone don't buy an iPhone.

My Nokia 6280 3G phone is getting a little long in the tooth and as an intending new phone buyer I am particularly interested in the phone capabilities of the iPhone. Unfortunately, what I'm hearing from new owners and reviewers on that score is not particularly encouraging.

Two in-depth and particularly competent reviews have appeared on the Foxnews and Mercury News sites. Both are totally unbiased; both provide valuable information for would be buyers; and neither by any means trash the iPhone - in fact quite the contrary.

Both reviews go to great pains to stress what a wonderful new innovative device the iPhone is. As an iPod it's brilliant - the best ever as Steve Jobs says. As a portable video player iPhone provides a far better viewing experience than any other small screen device on the planet. As a portable Internet device iPhone is superlative. I've played briefly with the Safari browser on iPhone and experienced the wonder of the two finger pinch zoom facility. Regardless of its Flash and Javascript limitations, and the slow Edge network, iPhone is the best pocket Internet device on the market.

On top of all this, from what I've seen and from what I'm reading the iPhone's interface and functional integration is truly a design revolution. Let's face it, this is what Apple is really good at - human to machine interaction. Like the early Macintosh was in its day, the iPhone is a masterpiece in cybernetics design.

However, I'm looking first and foremost for a good phone and communications device that I can use for both business and everyday activities. Now that the hype has died down a bit, what I'm gleaning from the reviews is that the iPhone falls short in the department from where it derives its name.