Will Apple's iPhone be an iPhlop?

[mdlbear]

The Apple phone flop | Perspectives | CNET News.com

Apple, in other words, won't be competing against rather doltish, unstylish companies like the old Compaq. The handset companies move pretty quick and put out new models every few weeks.

Second, Apple has to face the issue of trust. Music players are fairly easy. Songs come out of memory and must be amplified. With cell phones, consumers care mostly about quality of service. Who, really, doesn't expect a new company to conquer all the static and connection issues with their phones? Granted, Apple will use contract manufacturers to assemble their phones, but designing these phones takes experience and talent. And the cell carriers are far deeper into it here.

So when consumers get to that counter at CompUSA, they will debate buying the Apple phone, and even hold it up for a look. But when they whip out the credit card, they'll probably opt for a Motorola.

(From techdirt.com.)

There were two things that contributed to the iPod's success -- Apple being the first company to realize that music players were fashion accessories, and being the first company to exploit vendor lock-in with iTunes and, later, the iTunes Music Store. Neither applies in the cell-phone world. We'll see.

Comments

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

The other thing that made the iPod marketable is usability, which is still something that no other vendor does as well. The dissatisfaction rate of cell customers is 40%, and the cell companies's music services stink. It's a computer of some sort as well, it has a keyboard and a fairly sizable display. So why assume it's stillborn?

[mdlbear]

I'm not assuming, just guessing. But they're coming late to a market that's already pretty mature. If it has a keyboard -- I don't think anyone outside Apple really knows at this point -- and if it can replace a smartphone like a Treo at a price more like an MP3 player (I've heard $250), it might succeed.