Surface Portal - PUTTING a PREFIX “i-“ DOES ALWAYS WORK?

Apple’s long waited iPhone Smartphone finally struck to the market. From the point of news everything is just as expected. Let’s look at the headlines “Thousands line up to buy Apple iPhones” (Yahoo), “iPhone supply may not meet demand” (Jobs), “iPhone fever surges at launch” (AFP) and “AT&T says almost sold out of Apple iPhones” (Reuters). If you look into these news, you will find smiling faces holding the iPhone boxes, and happy, prideful as if they conquer the world. But from the point of reality, does it really worth? Is Apple always perfect when it comes to design and to create? Should consumers blindly buy products with a prefix “i-”?

They are buying now, will be buying tomorrow, but won’t in the next time. Then, why? For us and for many technology enthusiasts it is impossible to think of a 2007s phone without a 3G support. Without 3G, it is not a true wireless. Current iPhones are depended on AT&T’s EDGE network, which is slower than 3G networks that other operators are mostly using. This brings out the problem that it is not the near-DSL speeds of 3G phones. Downloading data, maps and browsing the Internet will be quite painful with iPhones.

Here, the problem was Apple couldn’t manage to implement a 3G support into sophisticated enough iPhone’s OS. They might manage but this will cause a delay, and a big profit loss. Remember what happens after Sony PS3’s product delays. Microsoft and Nintendo saturated the market and that delay turned out enough trouble for Sony. This time Microsoft put a pressure with Zune phones, and Apple had to skip 3G. Anyway, skipping is somewhat also juicy for them, which will help them to sell a next-generation iPhones. If everyone is satisfied with their phones, to whom they can sell the upcoming products?

The second disappointment that iPhone brings is its price and its limited availability. $499 for a 4-gigabyte model and $599 for an 8-gigabyte version, and plus a minimum $59.99-a-month two-year service plan with AT&T is somewhat pricey. Here, Apple considered the profit first which is considered as not being user friendly as their Mac OS. Apple’s executives made a wrong move, and they thought if the demand is much higher than our possible supply, then we can put a price tag as high as we want. In the short term, this brings out profit but in the long run this will cause an antipathy to the brand, as it seems to do.

And the third problem is Apple’s restriction that they won’t allow other software developers’ to write their own programs for iPhone. Apple is defending their behavior with security concerns. However, this is not a security concern but a monopoly concern. Apple wants to satisfy itself with every aspect of iPhones: its high price, its network, its software. This remembered me the Microsoft. Ironically, after all these years Apple’s face starts to resemble a Microsoft founder.

Apple took the concept of mp3 players, and made it what consumers dreamed of till that time. They named it iPod and it was almost perfect. Apple then tried to imitate itself and took the concept of cellular phones. They first put a prefix “-i”, but which wasn’t a successful move as it was branded by Cisco. Then Apple did everything that brings the reality that inventions can’t be done by only imitating. Most consumers hate Microsoft because it imitated Mac OS from the beginning and finally with Vista. Most people don’t like Hollywood’s follow up movies, because most of them imitate their predecessors. Now, putting a prefix “-i” seems not working, because Apple imitates itself and discards its lovers…