By Andy Goldberg and Chris Cermak
SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON: From the days of 1930’s comic hero Dick Tracy, and probably long before that, people have been dreaming about having a mobile communications device that lets them connect intuitively with the world.
Now, thanks to Apple’s iPhone they may have finally realised their wish.
“It’s fantastic. It’s very small. It’s going to replace both my phone, my iPod and my camera,” said Mike Brudzinski from Maryland, who had been camped out in front of an Apple Store in Arlington, Virginia for over 12 hours. “It was worth it to me just to wait one day after waiting for months.”
“This phone has cool up the wazoo,” said Tom Bridge, 28, who was among the first to get the coveted device after waiting all night outside the same store. “It feels kind of weird to be waiting in line for a phone, but if it does everything they say it does, I’m going to take my other phone back.”
The device went on sale on Friday amid a six-month wave of hype that culminated in thousands of people camping outside stores to get their hands on what was, after all, just another cell-phone.
Or was it?
There’s no doubt that the device has given an innovative jolt to the cell-phone industry with its exquisite design, intuitive interface, and sophisticated components. It improves on the functions of Apple’s genre-dominating iPod music player, combines that with what it is arguably the best internet experience ever offered on a handheld device and integrates them both with a cell-phone activated through a multi-touch screen rather than tiny buttons.
Most early reviews have been glowing in their praise of the device – even allowing for the usual tech pandering to everything that emanates from the Apple labs.
But they also focused attention on the iPhone’s greatest drawback – its reliance on a relatively old wireless network that limits web-page loading to a virtual crawl.
That was hardly a disincentive to guys like Stephen Easley, a 49-year-old investment banker who was the first person to emerge from the store at 6.06pm. Easley kissed his new iPhone before nearly dropping it in front of a slew of journalists covering his moment of euphoria.
Like many others who have embraced the device as a transcendent product, Easley was clearly motivated by the legendary loyalty that Apple commands among its devotees.
“The Apple lifestyle speaks to the people. I could have logged in and had it (mailed) to me on Monday, but then I would have skipped out on meeting all these guys,” said Easley, who used to own a cell phone business. “I’m here because I enjoy the atmosphere.”
Future versions of the iPhone will no doubt hook up to the much faster 3G Network that Apple’s network partner AT&T already operates. But even that is unlikely to allow Apple to dominate the phone sector in the same way that its iPod cornered the market for handheld media devices.
Industry analysts expect the first iPhone to sell quickly, with predictions Apple and AT&T could shift about 3mn handsets within the first weeks. Apple itself is hoping to sell 10mn units by the end of 2008 giving it 1% of the total cell-phone market, and is said to be already working on an improved next- generation.
“There’s no question that the technology is great,” said technology analyst Stephen Marr. “But Macs are also great and they have less than 10% of the market. Everyone copies Apple’s ideas, and other cell-phone makers will too.” – DPA
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