Last Week at Apple

Apple's annual trip to the MacWorld trade show (week of Jan. 9) was big news (as usual) for all Apple fans and Mac heads. The big news was the introduction of the new Apple iPhone, which goes on sale this coming June.

The Apple iPhone is a device that supposedly ramps up ante in the highly competitive cellular telephone market. There are already many cell phone companies making well known devices such as the Blackbrry, Palm Treo, Motorola Razor and a long line of Nokias. Cell phones are a common place accessory for many people around the world.

The new Apple iPhone runs on a special version of Mac OSX and features iPod music and video playback, a touchscreen interface, web browsing through wifi or a dedicated cellular connection and digital camera among its functions. The price for the iPhone will start at $499. Quite stiff even for die-hard cell phone fans.

Despite that, it seems the world has gone "ga-ga" over this latest device. Reports, reviews, blog entries and message board postings contain ecstatic comments such as this:

"Also, as you browse the other demos, you'll see that the UI has inertia. I don't know what else to call it, but it's fantastic. You tap the screen and flip your finger downward on the contact list, and it basically freewheels, or spins. Same deal when scrolling through album covers in your music collection. This is insane."

People are correctly noting that to use some of the extra will incur an additional charge. That still won't deter the fans from possibly buying the iPhone.

"My impression is that the iPhone is meant to compete with the Blackberrys and Treos of the world by offering the same features, maybe more, and raising the ease of use factor. For me, the "synergy" between this product and my Mac gets me excited. One would hope that with a larger demand for the iPhone, the premium to pay for data services will go down due to the volume of customers."

That all said, there will always be Apple skeptics who think the phone might fail in the crowded marketplace due to its high price. I would not bet on it. The Apple iPod was a high priced music player when introduced in 2001. A few years and several model derivatives later hitting several price points, the Apple iPod is the worldwide market leader for portable music players. I think the same fate awaits the iPhone as it could dominate the marketplace in a few years.

Despite all of the hoopla surrounding the iPhone, one thing for sure, is I won't be buying one anytime soon. I vow to remain one of the few cell phone less people on the planet. I just never liked the pricing structure of any cell phone plan with its allocation of minutes and penalties for going over and not being able to roll unused minutes into the next month. Not to mention all of the extra charges for enhanced features such as photo uploading and text messaging. Paying for more spam? Not me.

One possible kink in the iPhone introduction is the lawsuit on the iPhone name launched by technology company Cisco Systems against Apple. The iPhone could have a different brand name by the time of its introduction into the marketplace this summer.

I am quite certain people who buy the iPhone will be blissfully happy as they adopt this latest piece of Apple technology.

Lost in the fervor of the iPhone was news of Apple's other new device called "AppleTV." This is a $299 Tivo-like box that connects only to high end digital TV sets that can be used to playback video content purchased from the iTunes music store. Initially I was interested in the device, but after reading a few reports I am not as excited. Perhaps after Apple upgrades the device and I myself buying a flat screen digital TV set, will I consider getting a version of this device.

Lastly Apple changed its name from "Apple Computer" to "Apple Inc." This kind of worries me a little in the fact that Apple is obviously refocusing themselves to be more of a high-end entertainment and communications company vs. being a pure computer firm. Could this be the first step in marginalizing the Macintosh computer brand? Time will tell, but I hope not. Macintosh forever!

Photo: Apple iPhone with touchscreen interface. Courtesy of Apple