I was talking to a friend last night, and the subject of the iPhone came up.
I currently have a Sony Ericsson V600i. I got it for about 30 euros. Almost a year ago. And in some aspects, it's better than the iPhone.
The iPhone is a huge craze in the States, but many of its features have been available on european phones for a long time - and it's shortcomings are even more obvious in Europe.
Calling it the "Jesus phone" is not only blasphemous, it's just not true.
Here is a top 9 list of reasons why it will not be a success (in France and/or Europe) :
* No MMS - people like sharing pictures mobile to mobile. If we wanted to e-mail them, we would.
* No bluetooth or almost. Well, you can have a bluetooth headset but that is ALL. My phone which I paid 29 euros for allows me to sync via bluetooth with my iBook (contacts, calendars, files) no fuss, no cables. It also allows me to quickly share files with my sister.
* No 3G. This means that unless you're on WiFi, you'll have a very slow network connexion. This also means no visio.
* No video-camera. OK it's kind of a gimmick, I next-to-never use it. But it's fun.
* Crappy camera with no flash. As I said, my Sony Ericsson that I didn't ruin myself on has better functionality here!
* No using mp3 songs as ringtones. This is especially ludicrous when one considers the thing is a full-blown iPod. Actually you CAN get a 30-second ringtone by paying an extra 99 cents on the Apple store to edit a song you've already bought from them. Who knows if you'll be able to use your own ringtones yet (haven't found any info online yet).
* No radio. Granted, I don't use my radio on my phone that often, but it can come in really handy sometimes.
* No applications you can add. Please don't say anything about security. Seriously a little java game as supported by most phones will NOT hurt anything. And don't tell me you can play games on internet (AJAX). That's just silly. What if you can't connect? I only play games when I'm bored out of my mind (a.k.a. no way to connect to the internet).
* No competition. In Europe that's very important. That's how I managed to get my little jewel of a phone for less than 100 euros. All the operators practically give away the phones if you'll register a phone plan with them, and you can have the choice between more than 3 phone plans per operator. It gives you more choice, more flexibility. WIthout competition, you're stuck. I believe it's extremely bad taste on Apple's part not to open up the iPhone to several operators.
You might object that despite all of these shortcomings, it has been a success in America. Well the in America part is the key here. In Europe people are used to having all of those functionalities for MUCH less than 600 euros.
And that's another thing. Apple still thinks that 1$ = 1 euro.
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1 comment:
Interesting points there, thou I don't buy them all but yes some are really worthy.
Just to add no ms-office support. Business without spreadsheets? Maybe, people will resort to google docs but boy that's a dirty alternative.
Being just the first version I think iPhone will have more to offer in a years, and this launch is best for an apple fanatics. There are in plenty, really!
cheers,
Shalin Jain
www.shalinjain.com
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