Skagen

iPhone Versus the Rest: More Evidence Smartphone Makers Are in Trouble

This is just full of sweeping generalisations. Nokia for example, has been making fantastic and very easily usable smartphones for quite a while. If you have issue with the Windows smartphones, hey - agreed. But that is why Nokia has 73% market share - so why on earth would you make such a generalisation?

These sort of elementary holes make this attempt at analysis not very credible

Steve Jobs: We're Ready To End DRM Now

"No DRM system was ever developed for the CD." ????

I cant believe Jobs actually said this. There is no DRM for the traditonal Redbook CD, but music stores these days are full of copy protected CD's which do not follow the Redbook spec. And there was a huge scandal last year which was all about Sony violating the law with its CD's installing secret"rooktits" on the PC's of people who bought their music. That was all about DRM on CD's.

So Jobs is just flat out wrong on that and that is before you get in to the lots of other holes in his argument.

Bottom line is that even Ipod users buy very little iTunes music on average. Partloy because of the DRM on the music but also partly because what Itunes sells is low quality 128 kbps recordings, well below CD quality and in fact not much different from an FM broadcast. I dont think Apple even sells music in its own pointless proprietary "Apple Lossless" format

So Jobs would rather have DRM-free music to boost sales but I think he will also need to sell decent quality musiic too if he wants to see higher sales numbers via Itunes.

Why Apple's iPhone Will Succeed

It has been announced that Apple is strictly forbidding operators to subsidise the phone - and Apple is estimated to be seeking a 50% margin on this model. Then they will lower the price on other folling models.

In other words, this first modle is the sucker phone - at a sucker price.

Why Apple's iPhone Will Succeed

You said: "I doubt this phone will ever be big in Europe, where Apple has very little traction with any product, specifically MP3 players. Also, Europe 3G adoption is far behind the US because of the pricing of data plans that doesn;t allow for unlimited browsing"

Are you joking? Do your research before writing. Ipods do very well here in Europe. Really.

As for the 3G, European adoption of 3G on GSM far outstrips the US. So it really doesnt matter what is going on in Kansas or Idaho. If Apple wants to sell meaningful quantities of this phone here in the year 2007, it better have 3G. end of story.

Why Apple's iPhone Will Succeed

Asking basic questions about a product before you buy it, e.g. "can I put my phone numbers in it", is basic common sense you'd expect of a 16 year old - not "Phonerati" anything.

Why Apple's iPhone Will Succeed

The fact that you actually bought the RAZR - and then found out about the phone book, is not exactly boosting confidence in your ability to judge phones. I went in to the store, asked about it it and turned back around the moment they told me what it was capable of doing, or better said, what it was NOT capable of doing.

The iPhone is overpriced and will underwhelm. I'm sure Apple will come out with subsequent better ones, but this one here is just going to be a dud with the people whom it is priced for.

Too little on offer there, for far too much money - and a two year slave contract to a company whos approach to customers is best described as "customer DIS-service".

Why Apple's iPhone Will Succeed

This article is full of holes.

- The pricing has already been announced and the annunced prices are subsidised prices, and for new account sonly. Mind you some of the people buying this phone will aready have Cingular accounts and will have to pay even more since they will need to pay fees to terminate existing accounts.
- The Wi-fi in this phone will add little value since it is crippled and cant make VOIP calls. If you buy the phone, you'd already be on a data phone and have paid for banwith to use the internet. The killer app for Wi-fi on a phone is the VOIP calls and this phone is unable to give you that.
- Third, you say Apple will soon release a "lower end phone" but arguably this one here is a lower end phone - albeit at a high end price. It doesnt have 3G and it cant make VOIP calls, which is what high end smartphones do these days.
- Finally you claim that the iPhone has a $200-$300 Mp3 player included. Well listen anyone with a smartphone can buy a memory card and stick it in there to create an MP3 payer for a lot less. That's been going on for 2-3-4 years before and recently companies like Sony started explicitly releasing wildly succeful Walkman phones like the W950i, W850 and W800 . Apple didnt create it and in fact are way behind on the curve.