Talkback: Are iPhone, AppleTV revolutionary?

Revolutionary by all means. Truly awesome

Apple has good timing. Actually, I had hoped that Ericsson or Nokia would be the revolutionary ones since this is "their" business. The Apple iPhone is proof that innovation doesn't come from people that are already in the business.

Apple will probably sell a lot of their iPhones. The price is steep but mac/apple users are loyal. They have a real brand and users probably won't blink at the price. I think Apple now is the symbol of cool if it isn't already. 2007 is off to good start for Apple INC.

Evolutionary.

As much as I am a big fan of Apple, I feel we need to be lucid and stop exaggerating. Revolutionary, as far as I am concerned is a product that does not exist, no one has thought of and was expecting.

In this sense, both iPhone an iTV were expected (unfortunately). It does not exist, that we can say at least as well thought of as that.

They are products guided by convergence and that is where this time, Apple excelled. They are products Apple can be very proud of and will set the bar for standard in the coming years. But it is evolutionary.

We need to stop exagerating everything or pretty soon there won't be any superlative left to introduce products anymore. We need to be a little more honest.

Now the real question is why in the world did they chose Cingular??? That compagny is the pits, reknowned for horrible customer service which is drastically opposite to Apple. What a shame. They should have chosen something young like T-Mobile.

The last time I ever had any interest in an Apple product in was in 1984. The original black and white Macintosh. Put simply, I was wowed by the mouse and graphics.
(For the record: No, I have never had any interest in an iPod)

But this new phone has wowed me! I want it BAD!
(I am basically anti-Apple, so this is BIG)
Put simply, I am wowed by multi-touch and the graphics (the HID and GUI, again).

As for AppleTV...I have TiVo. Enough said.

But are they revolutionary? No.
The iPhone is evolutionary.
But, the AppleTV is just more of the same.

The phone doesn't "do" anything that a Q/Blackjack/Dash can't do. It just does it in a very cool and exciting way.

AppleTV (and any other DVR) is just a weak knock-off of TiVo. Not even evolutionary. Simply a copy.

What strikes me most about this MacWorld product announcement is that Apple has totally leap-frogged ahead of ALL their competition:

- MP3 player makers still struggling to come up w/ a viable iPod killer...

- smart phone makers unable to simplify their products' UI while unsuccessfully trying to enhance user experience and product functionality...

- mobile multi-media player manufacturers offering limited WiFi/network connectivity in their products (Zune, etc.) while attempting to define a new look and feel to mobile, portable entertainment...

In one fell swoop Apple had effectively distanced itself way, way ahead of any of the above competitors with at least a 3-5 year lead!

The iPhone is a revolutionary disruption to all the fore-metioned product sectors on a scale that we have never witnessed before! Why, you ask?

UI
iPhone's UI is a competely new, unique advance in user/device interaction. It's simple, fast and intuitive - designed from the ground up in a completely new, revolutionary way. No competitor has anything close to it in their development labs to be able to reply anytime soon to the iPhone.

Multi-Function Device
Apple has packed so much functionality into their first gen iPhone in such a small, light, thin footprint that they have pretty well blown the competition out of the ball park. In fact, Apple has not only created a new ball park they've created a totally new game. It'll take everyone else years to learn to play in this new arena and, unfortunately, a lot of current competition won't be able to keep up with this pace of innovation. They'll fall by the wayside as their current products are not able to transition to this new product space!

I predict the iPhone will revolutionize all the industries it touches: PC, mobile phone, MP3 player, digital entertainment, etc. to a higher degree than we have ever witnessed before! It's a cataclysmic market disruption on a scale we have never seen before!

Grab hold and hang on - your future mobile phone experience just went nova!

Ok, has anyone actually used an iphone? And you want Cingular? Sounds like a lot of fans are giving opinions; are all of you employed by Apple's marketing department?

Ive been hanging out for a phone that has a proper web browser for ages combined with a good mp3 player and a camera. It all sounds great. Can't wait to see it for real. I don't think it is revolutionary per se, but its user interface does look really good and I think Apple showed with the iPod a good UI makes a killer app.

If we want to call the iPhone evolutionary, then Darwin has just leapfrogged ahead many generations. Seeing the pretty graphics on a web page doesn't tell the story adequately. When you see a live demo, and see how the iPhone moves, and flows, and tangos from function to function, you realize that it has "evolved" far beyond the current crop of Treos, Qs, and Blackberrys. Apple didn't invent the GUI...but they made in usable for the masses. Apple hasn't invented the "smartphone", but I think this is the first one that smart people will want, or shall I say "desire" to use.

Apple has done what they are best at: a highly usable and exciting UI on so-so hardware. The iPhone is not revolutionary (the name is even stolen from Cisco), the UI is. Apple TV is a weak imitation of TiVo (who would release a product that only does 720p when everyone is screaming for 1080p?), but may prove to be more convenient. Perhaps both products will force Microsoft, Motorola, and everyone else to look at the desires of the consumers and not just the profit margin.

The iPhone isn't a revolution, but it's certainly a coup. When I heard about it I wondered "Apple tries to bring out only products whose interface is a radical improvement on the competition -- what will they do with a telephone?" Now we know. They will get major points if their typing interpreter makes a keyboard that size functional.

Sorry, I just don't get it. My Orange phone does all that now. Any browser I want (and any e-mail), Phone (ok, no Internet Phone), WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Camera, recorder, MP3, videos. For cryin out loud it even changes the channels on my TV. As for the Stylus, I haven't touched it in months, for most apps I don't need it. On top of all that I can create documents, spreadsheets, presentations - either on the slide out kbd or using a virtual kbd.

Revolutionary? I don't think so. Once you get passed the hype and the UI what have you got? Sure, it's a new UI, granted, but that alone does not make me want to give up the things it is lacking. By the way, what are you supposed to do once the battery won't take a charge? Buy another iPhone? (oops, sorry Cisco, maybe we shouldn't call it that until Apple and Cisco settle, a publicity stunt perhaps?)

Revolutionary? Come on, really!?

Give me a break! Why is it that whenever Steve Jobs presents a new product, all the lemmings come out of the closet and announce "This will change the world!"? It just goes to show how well the Apple marketing machine works.

Besides, who wants a "phone" with such a large form factor, not to mention a large price tag.

iThinkNot

I agree with you Ted, the iPhone is way ahead of the game. Apple simply got everything together perfectly, way ahead of the competition still struggling with world domination with single use products.

I feel the iPhone is just the beginning. However, I can't see as it as revolutionary. In concept, it's what we wanted for years and were told "smartphones" would be, which they weren't.

What is revolutionary is the faultless bundling of the products. Again, Apple products are well thought of and well designed. The competition doesn't come that close.

As a step not, the iPhone does much more (technically) than any other phone. I have a Pearl and would love to get my hands on an iPhone but NOT at the expense of going to that horrible Cingular company.

Absolutely... If the iPod is any yardstick, what Jobs demoed this week is just the tip of a very large iceburg that Apple has planned. With an embedded version of OS X and that amazing user interface and form factor, the sky's the limit for how much this thing can accomplish. My only disappointment is that they're calling it an "iPhone", when to me the phone part is the least interesting aspect. It's figuring out how to bundle so much functionality in that tiny package and make it easy to use that's revolutionary about the iPhone. Plus, it's a new development platform (or will probably be in a year or two after things settle down), and a device on top of which a whole new industry can be built... think the iPod TIMES THREE.

And if anyone thinks the price seems high, it's worth recalling that the original 5GB iPod cost $399 when introduced in 2001, only $100 less than the 4GB iPhone, which has 10 times as much functionality. Besides, Cingular will probably knock $100 or $200 off the price for a subscription...

I can honestly say that I have never been as excited about any product from any company as I am about the iPhone. And I'm a guy who's never bought a Palm pilot, Treo, Blackberry, cell phone, or smart phone of any kind. They always seemed too hard to use with screens too small for any serious work. I'm hoping I can get an iPhone without the cell subscription if I want, because I really don't need that piece of it if I've got wireless internet and bluetooth... Here's hoping Apple adds Skype or similar at some point. :-)

Leland

Evolutionary Technology [iPod; Cell Phone]
Revoutionary design.

Why Cingular - because they did what no other company would do - they proceeded to development without a prototype or even a firm spec. Serveral people at Cingular bet not only their jobs but their careers on that move. In addition, Cingular collaborated on the voicemail list technology - that feature alone is compelling.

Has anyone used one? - of course - you saw them in use at the demo and a number of journalists have now had the opporunity to use them as well. Apple is not Microsoft and this is not vaporware. It takes 3 to 5 months to get FCC approval of a working model. I would bet that Apple is well down that track and Jobs made the right choice announcing the phone now rather than having details leak out during the approval process.

For all the hype that this product received ahead of time it is not revolutionary at all it is just an incremntal improvement over the Windows Mobile OS handsets that rae out the now.
I will give them this, it supposed runs the MAC OS which I fell is a better OS than Windows as far as security.

It's a new gadget that all bleeding edge types will have to have if they have a MAC.

But then again I am not a Steve Jobs fan since he seems to think his stuff doesn't stink.

It's just another smartphone and that is it.

It's not even evolutionary. Thankfully, it's further evidence of their monopoly for the recent lawsuits.

I'd consider the phone, but I'll never reconsider that massive pile of crap called iTunes.

It's not even evolutionary. Thankfully, it's further evidence of their monopoly for the recent lawsuits.

I'd consider the phone, but I'll never reconsider that massive pile of crap called iTunes.

What are all of you talking about! How can you say that the iPhone isn't revolutionary! It is the most incredible invention I've ever seen! It has absolutely everything you would want in a cell phone, just how you would want it...I din't know what to say, except that Apple is the most incredibly inovative company ever, and that the iPhone will be a huge item, and will be bought by many people...and if it's not, I don't care, I'll have one!

If, indeed, ignorance is bliss, iPhone cheerleaders above must be sporting some pretty big smiles. The iToy CANNOT create and edit documents or databases, something an enterprise mobile device IS capable of as well as every darn feature the iToy supports. The iPhone is a fashion accessory - even Paris has one - and will succeed by exploiting the ignorance of consumers.
One of the iFools above even says he has NEVER used a smartphone but definately wants/needs the iPhone. Most folks that buy the phone will have to have little or no experience with spartphones to be well and truly fooled by the hype.