Posts Tagged ‘3g’

iPhone, Edge, and Fort Augustus

Monday, September 24th, 2007

I managed to enjoy a week off last week as I spent the time in a lovely log cabin in Fort Augustus, Scotland [see Flickr]. While there, I managed to miss most of the excitement around the Apple event in London on tuesday. And the big news was the iPhone is coming to O2.
Now I’ve seen a fair bit of coverage since then, mostly bad mouthing the iPhone (or O2) an I have to weigh in.
Firstly, there are many points people keep missing.
1. £269 for a phone! Well its not just a phone. Its also a 8Gb iPod with widescreen video mode, it is a full internet browser, a PDA, a camera and of course a phone. So big deal. It costs more than the usual FREE that most UK phone buyers pay. Buts its more than that. A 8Gb iPod would set you back at least £180, and thats just a tiny screen, no decent video capability. So deal with it.
2. Its too expensive for most consumers. Are most consumers going to want an iPhone? Its price point puts it at the high end of the market, appealing to Mac lovers, iPod fanatics, and those on the bleeding edge. Nooone expects every Thomas, Richard or Harold to go and get one on launch day (9th November). Most consumers will either a) have a phone or b) not be that desperate to be on the front end to pay that much. Its like in the US. It cost more than most phones over there yet over 150k were sold in the first week alone!
3. EDGE? Why not 3G? Well I believe Steve’s justification being battery life. I have a 3G phone. When I’m online, the battery dies like a limp dear caught in the headlights of a very wide, fast moving truck. He said coverage is the other issue. While that is true in the US, its not so in the UK and europe. So people moan about the speed. So what is the difference? Well this:

3G - 50kbps (3g)
2.5G - 8-10kbps (EDGE)
2G - 5-8 kbps (GPRS)

I tested my N70 on www.dslreports.com/mspeed and got back 50kbits/sec, on full bars. So maybe its true, EDGE isn’t as good as 3G. But not every phone supports 3G. And not everyone is a heavy enough “mobile internet” user to even see the difference. I certainly don’t. That of course leads on to the internet. Its the FULL internet, not some hosed down version, where the alignment is awful, the photos don’t line up. But what about flash? Well my N70 doesn’t do flash. Nor does the N95, so what are you really losing? Nothing. And with the “unlimited” [via daringfireball.net] WiFi with The Cloud (which includes BT OpenZones so include loads of phoneboxes around the country) those full pages from NY Times or The Guardian will be there in no time.

So stop your moaning. If you don’t wanna spend £269 to have the most revolutionary phone in many years straight away, then go back to your Nokia 3210 and enjoy mono screens, 16bit sound, and no chance of the internet, youtube, google maps or this blog on your phone! Tell it to Fake Steve!

And where does my iPhone tale go? Well I’ll be queueing at the Bullring store for mine on iPhUK Day, for my EDGE loving, multi touching, widescreen ipod/phone/web browser/email client/camera/thing that will make people go “ooohhh can I play?” to which I’ll say…no.

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