Apple iPhone Review - Part 1
Paul Thurrott’s review of Apple’s iPhone:
What can be written about the iPhone that hasn’t been discussed ad nauseam already? Plenty, as it turns out. Contrary to the happy-happy-joy-joy reviews that appeared in major Apple-promoting publications like Newsweek, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal during the week of the device’s initial public release, the iPhone doesn’t immediately eclipse all of the existing smart phones currently on the market. Indeed, the iPhone is a paradox: It is as innovative and gorgeous as any Apple device, yes, but it also under-delivers on some really basic smart phone and cell phones features. It is therefore fairly frustrating, especially for Windows users. And that’s a problem, because as with the iPod, the majority of iPhone customers will be running Windows as well.
The iPhone’s reliance on Windows is an important thing to keep in mind because, unlike almost every other smart phone on the market, you can’t use an iPhone without connecting it to a personal computer. That’s because Apple somehow convinced the iPhone’s sole service carrier, the lackluster AT&T, to let it handle all of the registration, activation, and synchronization functionality of the device through its iTunes 7 software (see my review). Now, iTunes is generally excellent–I use it to manage my digital music collection, for example, instead of various Microsoft solutions–but the iPhone synchronization stuff is painfully bad. Indeed, you can add the cost of Outlook ($110) to the $500 to $600 you’ll spend on the iPhone itself and the $60 to $100 a month you’ll spend over two years on the iPhone service contract ($1440 to 2400). That’s right: An iPhone could cost you up to $3200 over the two years you’ll use the device, and that doesn’t include the cost of leaving your current phone service contract so you can switch to AT&T. Best case scenario, you’re looking at $1700. We’ll discuss pricing more later in the review, but long story short, the biggest innovation in the iPhone might just be that Apple has convinced millions of people to skip the free phones they can get with any service recommitment and instead pay a $500 to $1000 premium to get their device instead. Nice trick, that.
For that money you’ll get an amazing, drool-worthy device with solid (albeit buggy in 1.0) technology, a decent set of built-in applications, excellent phone functionality, a decent mobile mail experience (with some major caveats), the best-ever mobile phone Web experience, and solid (though, again, very buggy) iPod-like features. The iPhone is all over the map. Compared to traditional smart phones, which very much target business users, the iPhone is, perhaps, the first true consumer-oriented smart phone. It’s all about fun stuff, like You Tube, TV shows, and movies, pretty Google Maps, and photo sharing. Want Exchange compatibility? Sorry. Looking for true integration with Outlook, complete with To-do tasks? Not going to happen. Do you need to edit Office documents? How about download new applications to the phone? Looking for GPS? None of that is available, sorry. The iPhone is as limiting as it is liberating.
And that, really, is why I’ve waited so long to write this review, and why I will publish it in several parts over a long period of time. As important as the iPhone is–and I truly do buy into the notion that the iPhone is ushering in a new generation of computerized user interface, I really do–this first rendition is ultimately all about frustration. (Again, especially if you’re a Windows user. Which, again, most iPhone users are.) I’ve read and re-read the first batch of iPhone reviews out there, and I just have to shake my head. Did these guys actually use the iPhone with Windows, and without an Apple technician at their beck and call? Clearly they did not. Because the iPhone crashes a lot. It is missing a lot of obvious functionality. And a lot of the gee-whiz stuff that Apple and those first reviewers like to harp on about constantly actually doesn’t work all the time, or work consistently across applications. Yeah, I know. I sound like a sour, sour man. I mean, what kind of jerk would even bother criticizing Apple? They only make good stuff, right?
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