Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

Here’s a comment from LKM over at the Macalope:

>It’s really more the idea of the iPhone - an
>elegant cell phone that doesn’t suck - and
>the movement of the market toward music
>phones that make a compelling business case.

I don’t think so. Let’s look at the facts here:

1) Cell phones are extremely diverse. There’s no single model that could satisfy even 10% of all cell phone owners. Some people want simple, some want music, some want a PDA, some want a good camera, some want a keyboard to write SMS, some want something as small as possible… The fact that there is no single ruling cell phone is not due to cell phones being crap (although that may play a role, too), but due to people having very different needs.

2) Cell phones aren’t sold to consumers. They’re sold to telcoms. That means that most cell phones are sold with almost no profit. Telcoms then sell them at a loss and make it up with the subscriptions to their service. Basically, this means that there is not a lot of money in the cell phone business. The money is in the subscriptions.

So, tell me again:
1) What exactly can Apple offer to this market?
2) Why exactly should Apple enter that market?

An iPhone only seems like a “compelling business case” if you don’t like the current situation. It’s not that it would make a compelling business case *to Apple,* it’s just that *you* want Apple to improve *your* situation, so it’s a compelling business case *from your standpoint.* That’s probably not due to sucky hardware, but due to sucky American telcoms. Apple can’t fix that problem. Go to Japan or even Europe, and you get a different picture.

I agree with the sentiment that people wish for an iPhone not because they think it’s a compelling business case for Apple, but because they think it’s a compelling business case for themselves. It should go without saying, but Apple doesn’t sell products because it gets a warm fuzzy by pleasing you. It sells products to make money for stockholders, period. Plus, this commenter raises some good points that come sequentially before any of mine. Apple has to get telecom companies to buy the phones (LKM’s points) before the telecoms sell the phones and services to consumers (my points). There seems to be a whole lot of things that have to happen perfectly, in order, before Apple can sell the first phone to what would likely be a very small segment of a market where the needs of individual users are widely diverse. It’s a money losing proposition.

From MacRumors today…

After licensing SoundJam, which was developed into iTunes, Wired reports that Apple started looking into gadget opportunities, but found that digital cameras and camcorders were pretty well designed and sold well in the marketplace.

And I suppose cell phones are neither well designed nor do they sell well. Apple must create a cell ph0n3 n000w OMGWTF!!11!!!

Again, an Apple-created cell phone doesn’t fit Apple’s business model and doesn’t make much sense.

This entry on the Microsoft Mac Mojo blog corrects the false rumor that the upcoming universal version of Office for Mac is behind schedule. It is very much on schedule, according to Microsoft, and I think it’s great that this rumor was smacked down by the most authoritative source possible. The internet echo chamber that repeats and amplifies stupidity has to be stopped in some way, and the targets of such stupidity do themselves and everyone else a favor by immediately and clearly presenting the facts. Good job Microsoft.

I was listening to the radio on the way into work this morning, and the announcer for the station says, “Good luck getting up-to-date weather from an iPod or a blog…” Obviously whoever wrote this promo has no idea what a blog is, and probably doesn’t care. “iPod” and “blog” are just buzzwords to them, not specific terms that refer to specific things. A blog is not the same as a web page or web site. Weather.com is not a blog, although there may be a blog on the site. Purposefully or ignorantly misusing “blog” insults my intelligence and strips the word of its former specific meaning.

Add “blog” to the list of words that have been diluted to the point of no longer being useful.

Hubble Discovers Dark Spot on Uranus

I don’t read Slashdot anymore (I’m still wondering how someone there will blame this on George Bush, they always do) but this was too good to pass up.