Technology Business
Any subject I like in the creation delivery and acual use of technology products and services in their applications markets.
Tuesday 15 July 2008, 12:56 PM
Isn't iPhone a limited market .... as it is?
OK if you are highly mobile and actually NEED Internet access and push email on the move its useful. But that's one needy person. Not "The rest of us" who can do other interesting stuff while travelling - like reading the printed word or even just thinking..
Agreed its even more attractive if you are a sociopath who prefers music to listening to your surroundings when in public - for as long as you survive road crossing while deaf to traffic (nearly got me an iPod user yesterday). I think being on the road while using an iPod should be an offence.
For most people a mobile needs to be a small as possible, cheap, easy to use anywhere and do Voice and Text really well. Period.
The iPhone is too big and heavy on that basis. As is any Smart Phone. OK for a girl - or guys who like handbags/shoulder bags and ABBA.
I'm sure Apple would be happy to have 5% of the mobile market though, as it does for Computers 'ish. I have always used a Mac as my desktop (PC Laptop) and am pleased Apple has made a big dent in the consumer market - because it gets UIs and system design in a way MS and Intel never will, being nearly as genetically incapable of user focus as a telco.
PREDICTION: ONE DAY Apple will put all this together and make a closed consumer Network Computer that does all the stuff you need in Web 2.0 Style and with enough local power to do what little creation most want - WiFi'd to the mechanical resources it needs - hard drive, Optical Drive, Printer, etc. and maintained by its service provider - zero user maintenance.
Then the PC will be SO dead - except for business power users who create content, where it belongs.
This could be a dockable iPhone using its WiFi feature, BTW.
Then I would buy one. But for now,
Bah, Humbug!
Comments on this post
I commenting on my own Blog...
Seems I was right.
Most users use their iPghone for voice and Text. Also Watch TV in real time and read Newsprint.
Quel suprise.
W/O a MODEM feature to exploit the 3G connection the iPhone is dead to me, and I bet most serious corporate CIOs.
Get a decent 3G dongle with its more competitive tariff and a small moby ditto..
Job done. Thank god for rich Americans and style over substance.
BTW no one I know with an N95 has the first idea what's really in it. Its just like MS Office, totally overpriced and quite beyond the needs of the average user.
See:
http://telephonyonline.com/wireless/news/high-end-applications-underused-1017/
Bah, Humbug!
Brian
Hello there! Did I get that right? In your first post you seemed to sugest that a central console that comunicates to the hard drive, memory etc using WI-FI would be a good idea. So what happens if that connection falters or breaks in the middle of something vital or in the middle of a defrag. Just one critical file becoming corupted to render such a machine unbootable. Then your really stuffed if the gear is being sold as maintanance free, because that suggests everything will be sealed and need to be sent back to the manafacturer.
As for the death of the PC....no way! Remember that linux is in a process of evolution and it's only a matter of time before one of the distros "gets it" and sparks of a new PC revolution, which in turn will make microsoft stop, think and strip down windows some, which in the ever enduring climate of ever faster harware (exept for the step backwards with net books, but they'll catch up) will mean times of greatness and plenty. And yes Apple I'm sure will be part of this picture.
Now, excuse me whilst I ponder the posibilities of cross platform virtualisation.
ME again. NO, what I meant was what I hoped I'd said . Try again. Think netbook, totally self contained with adequate silicon memory and closed, no maintenance by user, no upgrades or driver messing about.. with all electro mechanical support accessed via a Wi FI hub.
Take a look at a Mac Air but it could equally be an dockable iPhone which would deliver a decent keyboard and screen and is closer too the closed consumer architecture concept.
All your printing, archiving, backups Multimedia drives (the weight and power consumption in any computer), are externalised, as can a large screen be. And in a home or other facility the elctro mechaical resources on the hub are shared so more cost effective and less wires.
Could be like a HiFi stack
I don't agree about the PC. The concept is and has always been wrong for a consumer device. The PC is broken because it is a bag of bits built to multiple interface standards by multiple vendors to their own interpretation of the standards and requiring constant updates by user as a result of changes in any part. Nightmare. Techy job security is all it is as well as a licence to serially rip off users by Microsoft obsoleting its products every few years when the old ones worked just as badly as the new.
A Mac is much better integrated as only Apple can say how things go together. But, its still is much too needy.....and does too much.
All most users need or want is to do email, browse others' web content, fill in web forms and maybe create the odd text document. Mail is the only creative use for the majority, the rest is working with content and forms created by others.
A proper computer for mass market should not need ANY user maintenance or upgrades. That should be by service provider if at all. The PC is hugely too difficult and highly featured for the average user who has NO interest in Excel even, or what an operating system or application is, they just want it to work from new until it breaks. And not to have to keep going back to the geek shop, a whole industry built on the fact PCs don't work and need constant attention to just keep working - flaky technology at best.
Brian
