Murphy Mac

Does Palm's Pre Have Anything on the iPhone or Storm?

I don't think Paris Hilton was the driving force behind runaway iPhone success. It'll take a lot more than shots in People Magazine to compete with iPhones and Blackberries.

iPhone is just getting started. Do you know how many times analysts declared the iPod space was saturated - nobody left to sell them to? Wrong quarter after quarter. Repeat coming with iPhones.

Blackberry users rival Apple fans in terms of loyalty. Not quite as loyal - but it would take a lot for them to consider switching to Sprint for a device that may or may not be part of a company (Palm) on the verge of bankruptcy.

Wireless vs. Landlines: Past the Point of No Return

Things would be a lot different if the POTS providers had bothered to innovate AT ALL. What have they done since adding voicemail and some very basic features like call forwarding all those years ago?

Same with the cellular industry. Why did it take Apple to force something as obvious as visual voicemail?

The landline industry has ignored the VOIP phenomenon going on around them - too slow to even offer new features as PAID services. And now Google is going to offer more than the Bells ever would have dreamed of charging us for - for free.

We never learn about monopolies. Time Warner wants to charge us for Internet consumption by use, fine. But they don't even have the means in place to tell us what we consume. Like other monopolies they're fat and lazy - they just want their check.

Google is taking these businesses apart - like the Fed should have.

Microsoft's Mobile Misfortune

MS is easily distracted. They've been late for three parties:

Browsers.
Search n' Cloud.
Mobile

I think their late arrival in mobile will underscore their inability to innovate and mark the beginning of a steady decline.

NT was an incomplete copy of UNIX, (read Show Stopper) Zune is an uninspired copy of the iPod.

Nobody has ever used a significant percentage of the features MS forced us to buy in overpriced Office. Office isn't a must-have anymore - alternatives are aplenty. Windows is far less important than it was ten years ago.

If someone developed serious competition for Exchange MS would really be up against the ropes.

Smartphones: It's the Software, Stupid!

@ Peter Lynch -

As someone else said, there is no Pre. A story like this isn't out of line to ignore it - although mentioning it in passing might make sense given the hype we've seen.

But seriously, other phones have gotten the hype as iPhone killers only to fall far short on launch.

The Ongoing Smartphone Revolution

Robx couldn't be more right. You provide virtually zero basis for your claims. It would help if you conceded that maybe, just maybe, the iPhone has more than marketing to account for its success.

This article is little more than a user comment on a gadget blog.

Why don't you go write it again and try a little harder. I'm interested in why I should want a Google phone instead of an iPhone. I'm also interested in why a non-technical user would be better off with the Google phone.

And have an editor read it before you post it.

Buy, Sell or Hold: Apple's Cohesive Strategy to Survive and Thrive

RLLH -

I think the netbook market would be better served by a tablet twice the size of an iPhone. More portable.

Netbooks could catch on, but I think it's more of a fad or an in-between product to tie us over to tablets that truly deliver. For what you describe, even a netbook is overkill. And it still runs Windows. Yes - some run linux. That's a whole other set of issues for non-technical users. Unless it's TOTALLY built and presented like an appliance.

That said, for Apple to ignore the netbook would be a mistake.

Buy, Sell or Hold: Apple's Cohesive Strategy to Survive and Thrive

JonT is right. Twice.

Further, Mac bashers love to say they won't pay for a pretty case. They condemn a new advance like the unibody. If Apple didn't make these advances, nobody would. These people remind me of the patent office guy who said everything had been invented already.

I'll pay for a unibody. It adds value. So does a magport power connector. So does a built in camera and a magnetic latch that's not as vulnerable to failure.

Stupid you say? You might change your mind when you're without your computer for 3 days while the latch is repaired.

Many Mac bashers haven't used a Mac. And again, the Mac is far from perfect. But its user experience - for the way most people use a computer at home - is far superior to Windows. Steve Ballmer will tell you that too.

Buy, Sell or Hold: Apple's Cohesive Strategy to Survive and Thrive

Horacio -

I really enjoyed your description of the windows user experience, especially with regard to something like checking movie times. Leaders like Gates are always looking ahead to a day when it really is convenient to check movie times on a computer - they even think it's here. Sadly, it's not here because the computer takes over and does things like update AV software and prompt with questions you don't want to be asked - interfering with your task.

Computers seem to know when we want to check one thing, or worse yet, print one thing, before we run out the door. Which plays into the hand of the iPhone.

The iPhone lets you check as you walk to the car. And for tasks like weather, movie times, a glance at email - it beats opening a laptop. With the iPhone in your pocket there's no need to print.

I think about the user experience you describe all the time, how computers still fall just short all these years later. Apple is better than MS in this regard, but not perfect. Many times I've tried to sync an iPod before running out the door. Many times I've been punished.

You hit the nail on the head with your description of real-life user experience. Apple and MS still have plenty to aim for.

Does a Mobile Internet Devices Market Exist?

Kris23 - even though I think the iPod touch and iPhone are the BEST handheld Internet by far - I still find both strenuous for anything in depth. But a 6 in screen - that's tons more real estate and I think it would make a huge difference in readability. I'd rather take an oversize iPhone on a trip than a laptop...

Does a Mobile Internet Devices Market Exist?

DeanB said: "Honestly, I'm getting fed up with iPhone fanboys trying to read criticism into anything I wrote about the thing, particularly when I'm praising it. I've repeatedly said its a good device - it's just a shame about the attitudes of some of its fans, who seem to go actively looking for negative comments, where none are made or implied. "

You're wasting your breath. And you're writing on a site that constantly baits Apple fans with slanted, pointless, uninformed stories.

And the answer to your headline is yes. Even if the market is small now only a fool would think it won't eventually soar at an exponential rate.

Is There a Mobile Phone Recession?

Apple's touch screen is light years ahead. It needs a different term so people buying a Verizon touch screen phone don't think they're getting the same thing.

I agree with Barbarian. Years of lead time and the carriers and handset makers threw it away. They operate under a model of delivering the minimum. They have something they can CALL a touch screen, that's good enough for them.

Is There a Mobile Phone Recession?

Apple's touch screen is light years ahead. It needs a different term so people buying a Verizon touch screen phone don't think they're getting the same thing.

I agree with Barbarian. Years of lead time and the carriers and handset makers threw it away. They operate under a model of delivering the minimum. They have something they can CALL a touch screen, that's good enough for them.