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June 18, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Apple bows to pressure and upgrades iPhone
Perhaps a day without Apple iPhone news was too much to bear for Apple's marketing department.
Therefore, Apple chose Monday, a week after Apple's original iPhone announcements at the WWDC07 (World Wide Developer Conference), to announce the phone "will deliver significantly longer battery life when it ships on June 29 than was originally estimated when iPhone was unveiled in January."
For details on the Safari/iPhone browser look here.
What is not clear from the announcement is whether Apple techies just underestimated the battery life or Apple decided to replace the original battery with a better one before it ships.
Perhaps Apple didn’t intend to spend the money at first and so opted for a cheaper battery, but following a lot of not-so-great press last week, marketing decided they had better recapture the positive press the iPhone first received back in January.
According to the newest release, the iPhone will get up to 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback, or 24 hours of audio playback.
The word "or" is the telling hint. Does that mean we can put "or" in front of each one of those time estimates? Should we read it this way:
It can get up to 8 hours of talk time, OR 6 hours of Internet use, OR 7 hours of video playback.
The press release does not specify. Nor is there a direct relationship between each of these functions. So if you only talk 6 hours that doesn't mean you can tack 2 more hours on to Internet use.
Or, if I am watching a video on the Internet how does that break down?
Battery life is extremely difficult to quantify as anyone who has ever used a laptop, handheld, or cell phone knows.
In addition to the upgraded battery, the the touch screen surface is being upgrade from plastic to "optical-quality glass."
This will give users better scratch resistance and clarity. I would assume it will also be easier to clean off an oily surface from greasy index fingers.
Again, the reasons for the upgrade are not explained, and my guess is that Apple decided to take a little less in profit and offer the users a little bit more in quality.
Now who dare say the media doesn't serve a useful function? If publications decided to overlook Apple's deficiencies, my guess is they would never have offered an upgraded battery or top surface.
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on June 18, 2007 01:27 PM
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You do realize they started producing the phones over a month ago right? Bowed to pressure before there was pressure - sure ya what ever.
Posted by: Jeff at June 18, 2007 02:39 PMTo Jeff:
The press release quotes Steve Jobs saying, "We've upgraded iPhone's entire top surface..."
How do you explain that?
It can only be explained by assuming, either Jobs is lying and it is not an upgrade it was always that way, or they are recalling the iPhone's that have been shipped to stores, or they are shipping new batteries and glass surfaces to have the retailer install.
That's what I realize. What do you think, Jeff.
Ephraim Schwartz
Editor-at-Large
InfoWorld
Ugh...so now the press is taking credit for design too! Outstanding! What Ephraim has forgotten is that Apple was "pressured" to announce the iPhone early due to FCC stuff that would have spilled the beans. Meaning the it wasn't shown when Apple would have otherwise intended. They were still working on it and to make wild claims at that point would open them up to much worse issues later. So Apple continues to work on it, improves batter life, or maybe just had a chance to properly test a production level device, and that's suddenly something we should be thanking the press for? As for the glass, again Apple does testing, decides to go with glass, and that too is taken as pressure by the press? Please. If Apple ran its business and designed its products based upon the press they would have already gone out of business as the press predicted. Or at least the iPod would be a failure, as the press predicted...etc...etc...etc.. Do what you do best and report the news, don't make it up. We'll all be better off.
Posted by: AnotherComment at June 21, 2007 01:10 PM
