Underestimating the iPhone

As much as I hate contributing to all the buzz surrounding the iPhone, it's just too interesting to talk about it. Here's a product that can go so many different ways. If I was blogging when the iPod was first announced, I'd probably be eating up articles about it, too, and whether or not it would succeed. I found an article that's a very reasonable look at why the electronics industry failed to take down the iPod, and why they're going to lose market share to the iPhone: they like to underestimate. These are people who think they know what consumers want, but have no idea. It's funny how much the iPod can't do that a lot of other mp3 players can do built-in (like play the radio), and how many of its features are actually pretty plain. And yet, the interface was so appealing that it brought in enough people, locked them into iTunes, and continued to take over the industry. Now, everyone is claiming a similar story with the iPhone: it's nothing special, just a yuppie interface and a high price. This will be their downfall. I believe that it will definitely succeed, despite its high price, because people would love to try something new in their cell phone. I think everyone is tired of investing all this money into their phone only to have it be just a little better than their last phone, and they're willing to pay a premium to get out of this trap. Of course it's not perfect, and of course it's not for every single consumer, but they'll capture an alarming percentage of the market, and then competitors will start paying attention, when it's already too late. Or maybe history won't repeat itself, let's see if they smarten up this time.

If you have an iPod and like it but hate iTunes, you might like this program that gives you more freedom, including the ability to save songs from your iPod, but with a different, liter, UI. Personally, I'm sticking with iTunes (though it has been acting up lately) because of its nice podcast section. Oh, and while I'm on Apple, it turns out that Cisco may have violated the GPL since they loaded Linux on their iPhones but did not make certain code public. If Apple exploits this, it could help them out quite a bit. If you're like my friend Nirav and want to like marry Windows Vista, you might want to pick up Windows Vista Ultimate Limited Numbered Signature Edition (yes, that's the actual name of the product). It'll only set you back as much as a 30 GB iPod would, and you can pretend like you're friends with Bill Gates. Now for some actual bad news: roughly half the music you can get on Zune Marketplace can't even be shared between Zunes! I'm really more annoyed at the studios for this than Microsoft because I can't imagine what more DRM they could possibly want to secure their content. Unless the song stays on the Zune and can be hacked to be downloaded to your computer? Not that anyone would care enough to do that anyway. Google Checkout has been having some issues: people are not satisfied with it citing (anecdotally, mind you) that it's slow or that sales have been canceled mistakenly. They'd better get the kinks out quick, or they may be on a sinking ship since people don't seem to care about using it (though their $10 offer is tempting to most people, I'm sure). Lastly, Google is also working on a way to make soft copies of books more portable. That could be pretty cool, but would work better if they released their own eReader to boot.

Not much movie news to report. In the box office, I'm pleased to report that Pan's Labyrinth made the most money per theater to gain the #7 spot. Stomp the Yard kept its reign over the top spot at $13.3 million, with Night at the Museum close behind. Oh, and new release The Hitcher managed to make over $8 million for the #4 spot. The only other thing I wanted to share was a review of Grace is Gone from Sundance. I had heard about it before, and it sounded like a pretty good flick much like it does now.

Now for some Unconscious Mutterings:

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Audition :: Actor


2. Urgent :: Letter


3. Lunch :: Date


4. Adult :: Movies


5. Mug :: Cup


6. Awful :: Something


7. Comics :: Books


8. Damage :: Control


9. Kicks :: Boxing


10. Experience :: Recruiting