Even if you are - rightfully so - arguing that the iPhone is too damn expensive, think in bigger terms and look back at the iPod, which launched in 2001 and became huge a couple years after that (2004?).
The iPod completely renovated the stale music industry that, until 2005, really only benefited executives at record companies. Now look at it. It's consumer-driven. Albums are $9.99 instead of $17.99. You don't have to leave your house to listen to the new Justin Timberlake single. You can customize your playlists and download SONGS for a buck instead of getting an entire album. There are podcasts, TV show downloads, movie downloads, you can carry around 80gb of information with you anywhere you go (that's like 60 movies and eight billion songs).
Now look at the cell phone industry. The cell phones all fucking suck. They are hard to figure out, break easily, limited in their capabilities, expensive to add or download content, etc etc etc etc.
Let's say Apple gets 5% market share. Let's not kid ourselves. The other 95% are going to want an iPhone. They might not because it's too expensive or they don't want to switch providers, but my grandma could use this baby. It's going to make a stale industry that benefiits only the executives at Verizon and Motorolla and Nokia into an industry that almost entirely caters to the customer (FINALLY!).
I guarantee this change will take place. Quickly. And if you don't get an iPhone, you'll still be happy they exist.
4 comments:
It also makes me wonder if FINALLY people will begin to see how far superior of a platform Apple produces. I could drone on for days about it but frankly I will never, ever understand why anyone would willingly burden themselves with Microsoft products (just typing the M-word makes me nauseated).
I completely agree with you. And the only reason that comes close to explaining this ignorance is that MS products (and Dells, Gateways, etc) sell themselves so cheaply, so that's what companies buy, and what people are used to using at work. Then people "fear the Apple" without giving it much of a chance. Just a theory...
I think the biggest reason why apple has had a small market share in the PC industry is b/c they are way more expensive. I think that may change now that they have decided to let their software run on other hardware. Also like you said most companies use PCs. I believe besides Microsoft partnering with major companies it is also because apple hasn't generally offered Server class products (think win2000, win2003, SQL server, etc). I'm always happy for competition as it brings the cost down.
As for the iphone, I agree it is a thing of beauty and I will lust for one. Two concerns besides cost of the phone though:
1. I'm a big texter and like texting by "feel". I'm not sure how I'll like moving to "soft" buttons.
2. Will Cingular lower the data access prices? If you want to use all of the functions like e-mail and web browsing you'll probably end up spending over $100 on a monthly access plan.
I look forward to hearing your experiences if you get one this summer as my Verizon agreement is up in Nov. :-)
Ha, not this summer. Maybe when my Verizon agreement is up in a year and a half and the iPhone is cheaper and improved.
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