Finally, An Apple Phone

It’s been rumored for years. But I am just about sick of hearing about it without seeing the real thing. But I guess all the patents Apple’s been making in the past year on touch-screen technologies have finally come to fruition. Today the Apple iPhone arrived. And as a direct result of it, my Apple stock jumped 7+ points, passing $92 per share… Sweet!

After having seen most of the fake iPhones and rumored features, I didn’t think Apple could surprise me. But what was announced today greatly surpassed my expectations on the GUI and usability. But someone’s got to play the devil’s advocate about the “misses” on this particular phone:

1. Not 3G.
2. I am guessing the battery is NOT removable. Is Apple banking on consumers replacing their phones every 2 years? Though people generally do it anyway, it’s annoying.
3. Storage is not upgradable (not by the user anyway).
4. The phone feature must work in order for the whole dvice to work; the caveat is, you MUST sign up with a network or else the entire device is just another paper weight. So I can’t just buy it for the PDA-ish features! Bastards.
5. What, no iChatAV?
6. No clearly stated standby time.
7. I am assuming no 3rd party developers can install their apps on the phone’s OS without Apple’s blessing.
8. Can’t transfer music/files wirelessly. Not that I care for Zune’s features, but it’d be nice to be able to sync with iTunes wirelessly. Isn’t it about time?
9. The phone surface is going to be all scratched up in the pocket. But then I guess Apple will probably ship it with some kind of sleeve when it’s available in June.

All in all, this is a pretty kick-ass first stab at making something they’ve never made before. Hopefully this will make the other phone makers piss in their pants so badly that it will improve the overall usability of cell phones in time. But Steve Jobs is right when he said today’s phones SUCK!