What iPhone needs to meet Apple's 2008 target, ask Wozniak

Stan Beer
Thursday, 31 January 2008 05:44

Business IT - Technology

Wozniak, the self-confessed tech junkie, loves his iPhone, although he said that it took him about a month for it to gain his affection. However, one thing that he admitted is that he doesn't use the iPhone as a phone.

According to Wozniak, the voice quality of the iPhone doesn't measure up to what he requires of a phone. He also requires his phone to have Bluetooth, so that he can use it wireless hands free in his car. He also wants things like voice dial and one-button turbo-dialling. These are things that have been available on cellphones for years.

I could also add a few more things. The hands free speaker phone on the iPhone is disappointingly weak and it takes too long to make a phone call.

Of course there is the old bugbear of not being able to have a spare battery for swapping and there is no GPS for navigation yet, things that you can get on other phones, but they don't really count as voice functions.

Many fans will say so what? Wozniak loves the iPhone as a portable Internet device and this is an area where it leaves other handheld pocket devices for dead. In addition, the iPhone is also a great iPod, and despite it not being 3G, it has built-in Wi-Fi and you can now use it to buy and download iTunes music and videos. So who cares if the phone is not quite good enough?

Well, I would venture to say Steve Jobs cares. After all, at Macworld 2007, the first "product" he announced - the one that drew all the applause - was a revolutionary new mobile phone. Yet Jobs' buddy Wozniak, despite loving the iPhone, doesn't believe it's good enough yet for him to use as a phone.

The iPhone, as its name suggests, is meant to be above all a good mobile phone - a voice phone. The email, messaging, Internet, iPod parts are all great but the phone is not.

These days, people make and receive voice calls from just about anywhere. There may be arguments calls from cars should be forbidden but Bluetooth enabled speaker/microphone attachments that clip to sunvisors are common. People like to use voice dialling or one touch turbo-dialling and talk hands free while they're driving or wear a Blue Tooth ear clip so they can walk down the street having a conversation where they can hear the other party loud and clear. If they're like me they need a strong hands free speaker phone so they can tape interviews or enable a two-on-one conference.

The iPhone is great, as Wozniak says, but who wants to carry around an iPhone and another cellphone?

The promise of 3G in the next generation iPhone is important. However, just as important to the future of the iPhone, and I would suggest to Apple meeting its sales targets for its "revolutionary new phone", is to make sure that it delivers a product that enables Steve Wozniak and the rest of us to shelve our existing cellphones.