iPhone

There has been a lot of positive and negative press about the Apple iPhone. From the evidence in the US, there is a market with 500,000 sold in the first weekend. So people want it, but why?

Functionally, it doesn't break any moulds. There are phones which make calls, take photos, can play music and sync your diary too. There are also touch screen phones, although these have not exactly set the world alight as they are typically difficult to use or are on basic phones so they phone has a reasonable purchase price.

Design wise, it's stunning, as you would expect from Apple. Other maunfacturers have made decent looking phones (the Motorolla Pebl springs to mind) but no mainstream company has made anything like this before. You get the high end stuff that sells in low numbers but with high sale prices (over £1000), but Apple are marketing the phone as a high end design phone with ipod looks and functionality, for about £300. Nothing comes close to that - not many people really buy phones anymore as it's all in the contracts, and most people have an ipod (or a few!).

So why and who? Well, the why is that Apple can use the mobile network to have a mobile edition of iTunes, which is a massive revenue generator for Apple. The people who buy the iPhone will likely be heavy iTunes users, so it's a new market for them. The mobile companies are happy as they get the carrier revenue while the tracks download, and again a new market that Sony have tried to tap into but hasn't really succeded. Who? Well existing heavy iPod users will lap it up.

Then there is how it works. Simply, it's an amazingly good piece of software. It does everything a Windows Smartphone does, but simpler, better, and faster. Apple got it right, they didn't try and break any moulds, they just had to do it with the right design and the right level of functionality that users were going to go for.

Do I want one? Yes. Will I buy one? Not at 300 quid plus a heavy contract price. Do I need one? No - I have a phone and an iPod. So I'll stick with that thank you very much :-)