iPhone+ Wide Screen iPod

I read that the prices were $499 and $599, depending on memory. I didn't realize that was with a 2yr service agreement. Has anyone seen what the phone will retail for without a service agreement?

 

Yes!

Now if it is unlocked...............

 

I'm never going to buy a locked phone again. I'm rockin' my unlocked Samsung D900 right now

 

I guess Cisco was waiting ...

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/tech/apple_computer

 

I purchase Linksys products and was not happy that they TM'ed a product with that name. It just seemed that this was their intention all along.

 

Surely apple has a plan for this...

 

Apple has been suing any one who put POD in their products name for 6 years.
F' em

Apple will be IPhoned on this one.

 

This phone looks awesome. I've been reading about it all day today. Too bad I'm on Verizon and happy with my VX9800.

Hahahaha... did come across this blog though - this made me laugh:
http://iphonesucks.blogspot.com

 

iWant an iPhone. Life is better in OS X.

 

This phone will be an utter failure. They doomed themselves the second they chose crappy Cingular as a provider.

RMX

 

You couldn't be more wrong about this......

 

Agreed.

This will be the "MUST HAVE" phone for awhile. Kids are gonna be killing each other for these things. First ones out will be flipped on Ebay for $1000 profit. Parents will learn all about in-family identity theft as desperate kids steal the CC out of mom's purse at 3am to place an order.

I'm betting you'll be able to buy the phone and sign up for service through Apple's website, enabling the impoverished instant gratification subject to ridiculously high percentage financing options. Just like they've done with the iPod.

"Your iPhone...TODAY!..for only $22.60 a month(48 months). "

 

LOL. Cingular? I can't even get a crappy signal from them in my house. They have some of the worst customer service, too.

There are already several devices that do what this thing does. Not everyone like iTunes, either. $600 with a 2 year plan? The Mac people will buy it, but doubtful anyone else will care. Keep in mind - as a 1st Gen iPod owner - I seem to remember those not being too popular until they were unleashed for the PC. Mine still only works with a Mac.

Isn't Cingular going through a name change pretty soon?

RMX

 

It's really too early to tell.

It could be great.. just have to wait and see what the comp. brings out. I haven't seen anything this good out today with this big of a screen.

 

That is the one part I am bummed about - I'll have to cancle Verizon & switch to Cingular. I dig the phone though, so I'll make the change.

It's just so much better than anything else out there. I look at my phone & laugh now.

Watch the Keynote presentation that Steve Jobs did.... He had me at hello.

 

outside of the Ferrari and Lambo owners, I just don't see the general population buying $6B of these things ($600 each at 10m phones in one year). The touch screen will be impossible to use while driving, email integration for anyone using Exchange is non-existent, and who else buys $600 phones besides rappers and girls who only want blue saab convertibles?

an interesting counter-point to the hype http://ce.seekingalpha.com/article/24003 :


Eric Savitz (Barron's) submits: Could the Apple (AAPL) iPhone flop? You wouldn't think so, judging from the reaction to the device on the Street and elsewhere. But I tend to think that there are great risks for Apple and the approach it has taken that may not come into focus until the phone gets closer to launch later this year.

At CES this week, reaction to the device was decidedly mixed. There were several consistent concerns. One, price. Two, the appeal of typing on a touch screen may be limited. And three, the decision not to choose a 3G network, which means data speeds will be fairly slow. And four...did I mention the price?

In a report issued yesterday, Toni Sacconanghi, hardware analyst at Bernstein Research, lays out the issues.

For starters, let me note that Sacconaghi is quite impressed with the phone itself. He says it "offers superior functionality to our expectations, mitigating some of our cannibalization concerns." But a trade off for the functionality is the high price point: $499 and $599, depending on how much memory it has.

"Apples goal of 10 million units in FY 08 appears predicated on securing widespread global distribution, but more importantly, on convincing consumers to spend dramatically more on an enhanced handheld computing experience," he wrote. "We do no think this is a slam dunk."

Sacconaghi walks through some interesting numbers on the current phone market, which I have compiled into a Harper's Index-style list:

Number of phones from the four major U.S. wireless carriers which are now priced above $400: none.
Percentage of phones in 2006 which sold for more than $300 at wholesale: 5%.
Estimated number of phones Cingular sold last year that cost more than $300 at retail: about 500,000.
Estimated number of such phones that sold globally last year: "perhaps 10 million units."
Number of iPhones Apple thinks it can sell in fiscal 2008: 10 million.
Estimated number of Blackberry handhelds that Research in Motion sold over the last 12 months: about 5.5 million.
Likely reaction on the Street if Apple sold 5.5 million iPhones in fiscal 2008: huge disappointment.
Estimated monthly cost of operating an iPhone, given likely requirement of data plan in addition to a voice plan: $80.
Total estimated cost of operating an iPhone for the first two years: $2,500.
Percentage of global cellular users in the U.S.: about 10%.
Percentage of total handheld sales represented by the U.S.: about 15%.
Number of Cingular wireless customers:about 60 million.
Number of handsets Cingular sells a year: about 40 million.
Cost to buy the LG Chocolate music phone: about $100 through Verizon.
Cost for the Sony Ericsson w810i music phone: about $79 from Cingular.
Sacconaghi says there is also a risk that the decision to base the phone on EDGE technology, rather than faster 3G networks, could result in a disappointing user experience in terms of connectivity. He also thinks the touch screen could prove frustrating for heavy e-mail users.

Motorola's (MOT) RAZR was offered at $500 at launch; but as Sacconaghi notes, it only hit mass adoption when it dropped to $100, which took only 10 months. "It is unclear how aggressively Apple can afford to price the phone, and it appears unlikely that carriers will provide the Apple phone with unique subsidies," he writes. One issue that other phone makers do not have is that a price that drops too low will cause cannibalization issues. "If the iPhone drops below $250, we suspect Apple margins would suffer, and provide little to no incentive for consumers to purchase stand-alone iPods. Carriers appear unlikely to give Apple any special treatment or extra subsidization, given that most will likely resent the iPhone's wi-fi capability and Apple's tie to iTunes."

Sacconaghi also notes that it is highly unlikely that companies are going to buy iPhones for their executives rather than Blackberries - this will be a consumer purchase. "Would you pay $2,500 to use the iPhone for two years? Or would you rather stick with your company-issued Blackberry/PDA/phone and carry a seperate $250 iPod Video?"

Apple today is down 88 cents at $96.12.

 

Dave Chappelle agrees with you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCuwFIn2qLc

 

maybe:

I'm sure the iPhone/iPhod will sell well for the first 3-6 months, but it's not a given it'll add 30% to Apple's revenue forever. All the words after the url were from the website I referred to, not mine. Of course 1.2% is negligible.

another perspective is at:
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9677208-1.html?tag=nl.e404

Do you like being able to change your battery in your phone or iPod? How about dialing while driving? Or paying for wifi but not being allowed to skype.

Kudo's to Apple for shaking up the cell-phone market, but in six months there'll be a dozen iPhod equivalents at 1/2 the price.

I think I"ll go order a few real iPhone's (the Linksys kind)

 

The problem will be the touch-screen IMHO. I had a PDA phone with a touch screen and you couldn't even see how to dial in bright sunlight...I had to get rid of it and replace it with a Blackberry so I could see how to dial while outside.

 

$600 phone from Apple, or $600 PS3....

I'll take the PS3, and I thought that was expensive...

 

Looks like Apple is becoming the same kind of company they so loathed in the 80s - a company with legions of zombies walking off of a cliff as a show of blind loyalty.

I've gone throuh a LOT of Macs, from a Mac 512k and then a Mac Plus in college, to a Mac SE and then an SE/30. I moved over to PCs around that time and came back with a G4 and G5 back around 2000 or so. I really didn't find that they did a better job at creating music, there was way less software than what the PC had at the time. I always loved the form factor of the Macs, even drooled over the newer gen silver powerbooks when they came out. I bought a 5gb first gen ipod in 2001 and still use it to this day. I have a lot of experience with Apple products and wouldn't knock them just for the sake of knocking them.

I really think this phone is going to be like another Newton. It's a boutique object, it doesn't appear to this cel phone user to be functional enough to really be useful. I cannot fathom having only a touchscreen on a PDA/Smartphone, especially when I'm driving. I guess we'll know how well it behaves when the reviews come out. As far as playing video or music, I can get my Treo to do that, albeit with a smaller screen. 8gb is too small to be a real MP3 player. The price is really high - too high. Don't even get me started with Cingular.

RMX

 

Oh yeah, looks like it will be the ?phone here pretty soon if Cisco gets their way. Apple is quite the hypocritical company these days.

RMX

 

I think we've been set up.

http://www.tgdaily.com/2007/01/12/rob_enderle_on-the_iphone/
and
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1989781,00.html

Jobs has all the cell-phone companies are running around to compete with the vapour-ware, do-everything apple-phone. Then in 5 months they'll come out a 2nd iPod Phone based on a Nano or something (with a real dialpad) for $199 ($49 in 3 months with a 2 year plan) - and sell a gadzillion of them.

brilliant.