 |
Sick of the same old regurgitated iPhone news? Subscribe to Apple iPhone Review for fresh insights, accessory reviews, and iPhone how-to's. |
Check out this video where Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laughs at Apple’s iPhone, “the most expensive phone in the world,” because, he says, “it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine.”
He’s right, the lack of tactile response could be a killer for iPhone. What do you think?
10 Comments So Far...
yeah, this I-Phone will teach us a lot of new tricks but the lack of gaming-ability might reduce its fanclub.
Ballmer is mistaken/lying on matters of fact:
iPhone is far from being the “Most expensive phone ever”. Check the real cost of the $99 $99 Motorola Q from Verizon that Ballmer quotes, over two years the cost is comparable to iPhone’s $400/$500:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/.....C6E67.html
iPhone does have keyboard! Reviewers who’ve used say it has the best phone keyboard ever:
http://www.suntimes.com/techno.....18.article
Great read from the Sun Times, John. Thanks!
I loved the way the writer of the Sun Times article starts:
“I have used the Apple iPhone. I had a private briefing the day after Steve Jobs’ keynote and spent about 45 minutes noodling around with the device. You may touch the hem of my robe if you wish.”
Used the iPhone? Respect!
John
Laughed my a$$ off watching that video.
Ballmer is an idiot. The iPhone will be a HUGE MONSTER success. The only reason Windows mobile is successful is that there hasn’t been a good alernative.
PALM completely screwed up the Treo - their palm OS has gotten bloated and unstable - and customers KNOW this. Palm could have easily produced a non-keyboard version of their phone years ago - all the great innovative people cashed out big time and left Palm a few years back so they missed the boat and could have owned the market segment that the iPhone will soon dominate.
People happily spend $250 for a standalone MP3 player. People happily spend $250-400 for the latest cool mobile phone. And GPS? Now we’re talking $500 for a good one - really good ones are around $800 - and these fly off the shelves. People love to pay a premium for really good technology that has great style.
Smart Phones suck! Big time - and Jobs knows this. I’ve GOT a Motorola Q. Can it do lots of stuff. Sure. And you know what - it does all that stuff in a clutzy uninspired way. I was way better off w/ a normal phone and separate pcmcia card for my laptop.
Why? Because all phones other than the iPhone are coded to work a certain way to meet requirements of the providers. Jobs made it so that Cingular will work to the way the phone needs it to. So, it should be extremely easy and intuitive to perform all tasks.
And let’s face it - all smartphone keyboards suck. The Q, blackberry, palm - ALL of them. No one sends more than a quick alert or response using these. Anyone who really wants to do a lot of typing w/ their phone can buy a bluetooth folding keyboard for it.
I for one can’t wait for the iPhone to come out. By September I’ll have bought one. And it will be worth the $500 - no question!
Well, considering I paid $649 for my SprintPCS Treo 650 with it’s measly 24MB (or whatever) or RAM, the iPhone sure seems cheaper and more capable. (This was through Amazon.com, buying just the phone without a contract since I try to never do contracts.)
Dunno of the immediate effect on general public of the lacking a phisical keyboard: it depends on how many Ballmer-like morons there are around (a lot I fear, considering the market share of windoze…
Personally I believe that morphing-surface okudagrams-like keyboards are the future of direct phisical input system.
As a trivia side note, it has to be remembered that the lacking of a phisical keyboard was one of the main reasons given by Jobs in 1998 to despise the Newton, just before killing it. So it seems that even His Steveness changes his mind from time to time…
Cheers
Ervino
What I’m Currently Up To…
[...] I highly recommend that you check out this blog, I found it quite fascinating [...]…
I could care less about tactile feedback. BIG DEAL!!! For years I’ve waited for a device, like the iPhone, where I could just tap on the screen and presto, it does what you want it to do!