I was part of the walking dead after CES, but I had to go to
MacWorld and check out the iPhone first hand. I was skeptical at first but after after watching Apple’s demo, I believe that everyone will want one. The power of the
Apple brand, mixed with social currency, iPod envy and "device newness"
will prevail and people will get over their "perceived flaws" and even
accept that a new iPhone is probably around the corner, and rush to the Apple Stores on Day 1 in order to be the first on their block to get an iPhone.

Sure I think it has its differences. I personally think it needs a physical keyboard, but
that’s because I’m accustomed to BlackBerrys, Treos, and old
school Motorola Skywriter 2000s, but the iPhone isn’t only for you and
me, its for everyone – and not everyone has or has had a smartphone experience. A
majority of smartphone users use them for documents, web access, phone
calls and email, but what makes the iPhone so unique, is that its
really "iLife in your pocket." If you love iLife, this phone is for you..and it browses the web and gets email too.

I also think it appears to be a very delicate phone – but iPods
have a delicate design to them as well. In fact, its this delicate
design language that triggers consumer paranoia and fuels the iPod accessory
market for cases (currently 211 available at Apple.com). Unless you are showing photos or sharing
a video clip, your iPod tends to be in your pocket. Its not a "social display" device that you would put on
the table when you are socializing with friends – unlike your cell
phone. Today’s "switched on" social culture often finds us with our
phones and devices in front of us, and often in dangerous and compromising places,
because we don’t want to miss a call or a message. If you think
the various home damage done by the Wii controller is bad, just wait until the first
Stella Artois dumps on that 3.5" screen. But perhaps
its just because there has never been a truly precious mainstream
mobile phone (other than the Nokia 8800 series) that makes me skeptical.

Its a week later and everyone at Organic can basically agree only on one thing:  its still not available, and oh yeah..it doesn’t smell.

We have 5 more months to speculate on this "game changing" with continued user and community love, hate and debate for the iPhone. But before we present our take on all of the news, we have agreed on a few fundamental things:

1. Unless you are an Apple, Inc. employee, a F.O.S. (friend of Steve), a lucky Cingular AT&T executive, or an elite reporter or industry/financial analyst, you have probably not held, touched, tapped, rotated, pinched, pointed, random voice-mailed or spoken on the iPhone.

2. This is the iPhone, not a new iPod. The iPhone encompasses iPod features (music services are under the "iPod" menu), but it is branded as the iPhone. I think it is safe to assume future upgrades to the iPod line as the iPhone isn’t for everyone. Some people are happy with their existing equipment.

3. It is not a 3G phone. Its capacity is limited to 4GB or 8GB and its priced at $499 or $599. No one is happy about this, but its a start. Maybe the launch configurations will change, most likely they will not. In fact, Jason Devitt reminds us:

"Forget about the price. $499 with a contract is steep, but this is Version 1.0. Version 1.0 of the iPod was $399 in 2001 and did nothing but play music. This year Apple will sell its 100 millionth iPod, and the most popular model is half that price. For the same reason, forget about the lack of 3G, the 2MP camera, and most of the other shortcomings on the feature list. Remember the leap from Version 1.0 of the iPod to the Nano." (Thanks Greg)

4. Its on Cingular, or what will be AT&T. In some places Cingular is great, in other places its not. That’s the nature of the wireless business and I’m sure the service won’t change as quickly as the brand name.

5. Its impossible for everyone to be pleased. Its practically impossible to launch a product that can please everyone and be affordable for everyone.

We thought that ThreeMinds would be an appropriate place to share some of our opinions as well as some of the opinions of our friends and the community.

Design

"Beautiful form – but not enough little operating sounds and where’s the fun? There should be a little something – at least like dock genie effect or something! But I want one!!" – Tucker Viemeister, Studio Red @ Rockwell Group

"Touch screens can be troubling…overly sensitive…get dirty…not as tactile… (its not small, so can you easily dial with it in one hand using your thumb or will it be too sensitive as you drag your thumb around so you mis-dial?) user experience" – Mark Kingdon, Organic

"Touch screen buttons, I can see them being hard to get used to. I’m used to the click feedback you get from traditional buttons" – Chris Erwin, Organic

"But it looks like I’d break it in 5 seconds flat. Concerned about fragile" – Erika Sherman, Organic

Monique Lalonde of Organic points us to a paper model simulation of the iPhone in order to simulate its size. While Engadget ran a size analysis (via Sizeasy) to compare the iPhone against the Treo 750, the Motorola Q and other devices.

User Experience (based on what we have seen via the various demos)

"iTunes is so dominant a content distribution model, that it is impossible for ANYONE to compete on features alone. Content delivery over phones is a joke. No standards, UE sucks, device man, networks are not on the same page and consequently NOTHING is interoperable. iTunes will solve this." – Quentin George, Organic

"You know it’s gonna be great eventually. Reminds me of how I felt about the Newton back in the day….but this should go faster." – Rie Nørregaard, Organic

"What impressed me about the phone itself is how many "obvious" nice-to-haves were included with the phone.  Whether or not these features live up to their promise, I think the iPhone is an amazing example of user-centered design… And the visual voicemail..Why should I have to punch the 9 key five times to get to the message I want to hear?" – Misha Cornes, Organic

Innovation

"The iPhone is nothing if not different, which in itself is a boon to the mobile industry.  Other handset manufacturers have been trying with varied success to bring innovation
to the mobile space but at the end of the day they serve at the
pleasure of their carrier clients (in the US, anyway).  With their
premium brand, built-in distribution network, and massive installed
base, Apple is able to demand more control of the mobile experience
than handset makers have traditionally been able to do.  As competitors
of all stripes look to defend against the coming iPhone storm I think
we can expect to see more innovation in handsets, services, and mobile
business models across the board." – Greg Clayman, SVP Mobile Media,
MTV Networks

"Apple revolutionizes market segments, not by features, but by integrated user experience + operating system + hardware + apps  interface, retail strategy + controlled sales, QuickTime + iTunes + ipod. There are a number of iPod killers out there that outperform the iPod on features alone. iPod is nothing without iTunes and $0.99 songs. The Cingular deal is more about controlling the experience than anything else. I bet anything that the iPhone will be available on every major network in 2 years." – Quentin George

"I can foresee some really cool games and apps that make use of the technology built in; marble games that react to tilt and twist, motion sensors that make use of the proximity sensor, etc." – Chris Irwin, Organic

"Yes, I think it’s not perfect, but let’s be clear, the innovation and design outweigh any issues by an order of magnitude, perhaps several. I look forward to leaving my carrier of more than a decade in June to pick one of these up." – Michael Gartenberg on his Jupiter blog.

Other thoughts

"Regardless, I would NOT want to be the product managers over at Treo, Samsung, Nokia et al." – Quentin George

"I think it’s amazing how we all have all developed an opinion about something we have never seen or touched.  Amazing PR job from Steve Jobs, as usual." – Misha Cornes

"Right now, I think it’s impossible to know if iPhone will be a "game-changer" on the order of the iPod.  But I do know that a lot of these features are going to be copied by competitors immediately." – Misha Cornes

"I don’t like the idea of being stuck having to sign up for a 2-year Cingular contract…I want a widescreen 100GB video iPod. I don’t want to have to sign up for a two year contract with Cingular to get it." – Rod MacQuarrie

So, what’s your take. Is it the mobile phone industry game changer or simply what we would have expected from Apple? 

Of course, we could always ask the iPhone itself?

Chad Stoller