Blogosphere Forcing iPhone Back to Earth

There’s a slew of posts from around the tech blog web about the iPhone and how the irrational exuberance is just that: irrational. In my previous article I listed my own set of concerns, because I think that people lost their everloving minds without taking the time to consider what the iPhone isn’t.

There’s lots that it isn’t. It doesn’t have:

1. 3G
2. A camera with a flash
3. Replaceable battery
4. Jesus inside
5. An open development platform for 3rd party applications
6. A real keyboard
7. GPS
8. Availability with anyone but Cingular

Of these, #3, #5, and #8 are the tough ones for me, personally. #3 will prove to be an insane annoyance to users, but will be tolerated by most. #5 will literally castrate the chances of this device living up to its potential.

(Hear that, Steve? If you keep this sucker closed, it’s done. Finis. No other smartphone maker shuts down its OS, and you shouldn’t either if you’re serious about competing with the big boys. If you want this to be a niche boutiqe device, well, good luck to you. We’re not talking mere music players anymore.)

Now that the RDF is wearing off, people are looking at this from a more realistic perspective, which they should be given its $600 price tag.

One of the key assumptions Jobs made was that “traditional” smartphones have rigid form-factor plastic keyboards that don’t allow the addition of buttons or controls if you (and here “you” apparently means “Apple” — see #5 again) so desire, and therefore a soft keyboard/touch interface was best.

Well yes, for flexibility it may be, if that’s your driving requirement. But what about efficiency of the interface for, say, email? David Pogue of the NY Times says email is a bit of a burden on the iPhone because of the soft keyboard.

* Typing is difficult. The letter keys are just pictures on the glass screen, so of course there’s no tactile feedback.

Software helps a lot. You can afford to make a lot of typos as you muddle through a word, because the software analyzes which keys you *might* have meant and figures out the word you wanted. Its best guess appears just under what you’ve typed; if it’s correct, you tap the Space bar to accept it and continue. I typed a couple of e-mail messages with lots of typos but eventually 100 percent accuracy, thanks to this auto-correct feature. (My testing didn’t involve proper names, however.)

Bottom line: Heavy BlackBerry addicts may not want to jump ship just yet.

So, what we have here is a debut device that (a) will be marginally improved in terms of fine-tuning by the time June rolls around, and (b) will be constantly improved upon as the models expand, diversify and address different price points.

Let’s look at (b) real quickly, because that’s what people are overlooking.

Think back to the original iPod, the 1G monster. Now think about what Apple has done to the product line: introduced new models, driven cost per MB/GB down, added new functionality and form factors. The road to iPod dominance has not been a sprint, but rather a sustained strategic marathon. And look where it is today, even though there were some naysayers back when the iPod was first introduced.

The exact same thing will happen with the iPhone: before long you’ll see different models (and price points) in the device lineup, as well as different carriers, more refinements, and additional functionality.

I said it before, and I’ll say it again: this is an introductory device. It’s Apple’s bold move into a new market. It will not be perfect, and people should stop expecting it to be. My BlackBerry 8703e isn’t perfect, and my Treo before that wasn’t. It’s a testament to Apple’s design aplomb that people have such high expectations of the company, regardless of how new or groundbreaking a device may be. It’s as if Apple isn’t subject to the same laws of product development and market prudence as are other companies.

So the question isn’t “Is the iPhone a perfect convergence device?” but rather one that applies to every other device that competes in this space: “Is the iPhone better than the competing products?” That’s the key, and depending on what sort of user you are, the answer very likely will be “yes.”

If you’re not in the “yes” crowd now, you may never be, or perhaps you eventually might be. It all depends on where Apple takes the iPhone, what it does and does not permit, and what it decides to refine as the form vs. functionality questions shape future versions.

It’s not a perfect device. Nothing is. But for a product fresh out of the oven, it’s damn impressive, flaws and all. Apple can’t in its right mind think that a single device will win the race, but surely they’re looking for an explosive start.

And they got it.

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