January 10, 2007
Can't Get Enough iPhone
iPhone is so monumental I can't just leave it with one post.
First, I've made some nice paper gains on my Apple stock the last two days. Yes, this is gloating. See item 3.
Why did they have to exclusively partner with Cingular? Everybody I know who's ever had Cingular has hated them. Not disliked, not been unhappy, HATED them. Couldn't get off the plan fast enough.
How would you like to be Michael Dell? He gave the daily keynote speech at CES yesterday at the same time Steve Jobs was giving his MacWorld keynote. Seen any coverage of that? Yeah, me neither. Almost ten years ago, when asked about Apple, he famously said "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." Yikes! That has to rank as some of the worst investment advice ever. Still, Mr. Dell is reportedly a lot easier to work for than Mr. Jobs. Oddly enough, so was Atilla the Hun.
Apple Computer is dead. The pundits who predicted it's demise for so long are not rejoicing however, because Apple Inc. is alive and well. A rose by any other name would be just as sweet, but who am I to argue with Steve Jobs? Or Carl Howe of Blackfriars marketing who claims that Apple just changed consumer electronics nine ways. Maybe next year CES will change their dates so Mr. Jobs can speak there.
Brian Tiemann noticed that Apple dropped more than computer from the company name; Apple may have droped the Mac from Mac OS X now that it is the iPhone operating system as well and wonders if it should be pronounced "Oh Ess Ecks"? After Jobs made such a big deal about putting a phone, an iPod and an internet device into one seamless device, I predict they will rename Mac OS X as NXS and pronounce it "in excess", that way they can combine a great operating system with a great rock band, INXS. It's What You Need.
John Gruber says the iPhone screen is amazing: "166 DPI is an amazing resolution — tiny, tiny text is amazingly legible." I'm guessing John isn't over forty, because for people of a certain age tiny tiny text is not just illegible, its unnoticable. But after springing $600 dollars for the phone, I suppose I can spend $10 on a pair of reading glasses to go with it.
Apple has a fair chance at capturing the computer market in the next couple of years. If Vista is as bad as everyone says, and if the linux folks can't get their act together, Apple may find themselves the winner by default for 64 bit computer systems. We could see a huge upsurge in market share. Or not. You never know with this stuff.
The resolution on the iPhone sounds nice, but I really need to use the new iPhone before I can see how good that thing is. I speculated a lot on my blog about the good and potentially bad things about the iPhone, but I really just need to get my hands on one...
Posted by: Mark at January 10, 2007 1:25 PMWe just switched to XP at work (I don't think we change until the OS in use is no longer supported). I can't say I see improvement, just change for the sake of change. If anything, it's slower. I doubt Vista is any better. I'm so sick of the MS inability to do a decent interface.
I need to get my hands on one too. I think I'll just have to "shop" for it, because the family director of finance takes a dim view of $500 phones.
Posted by: Kevin Murphy at January 11, 2007 8:00 AM
