e: An iPhone without a data plan? Does not compute
If you can “check your Internet when you get home“, then you're not really understanding what the iPhone is all about. The iPhone is an all-purpose information appliance, its essence is having the Internet with you all the time. I always have my iPhone with me in my pocket, and I can't count how many times a day I use it for checking things (Wikipedia, amazon, addresses, maps, craigslist, weather, movies, ordering pizza, traffic, location-finding, NY Times, CNN, etc etc etc), for email, and for making calls. We're not aware of it, but our day is filled with questions, questions that can be answered with information. We half consciously ignore these questions most of the time, because we don't have the means to answer them quickly. The iPhone radically changes all this, it allows us to answer those questions immediately, and having these answers definitely influences the course of our day and what we do.
The very essence of the iPhone is ubiquitous availability of the Internet, it simply isn't an iPhone if it isn't connected. Oh, and 3G reception in the greater Boston area is excellent, so I can rely on it just about everywhere I go (even underground in the subway).
I'm unemployed and can't afford the data plan right now either, but it's important enough for me that I skip out on other things to be able to maintain it. It's as important as having a car in terms of personal priorities.
”The internet with you all the time is still a LUXURY and not a NECESSITY.“
I agree with kevininma that, like broadband Internet a few years ago, we're still relatively early in the development of ubiquitous cellular Internet, and so at least for now it seems like a luxury for a lot of people. It's similar to when the Mac was introduced back in the mid 80s, when most computer users thought it was more a toy rather than a serious computer (”What is that silly mouse thing, and why the graphic interface? Only a wimp would use a computer like that!“).
“"That said, I'm not still convinced that the above constitute a representative sample of the market."
. . . Just how much of this is off by subjective conjecture?”
But it isn't purely subjective: we're approaching some 20 million iPhone users now, so clearly the relative handful of critical comments here need to be put in the proper perspective. The readers of Macworld Online are not your typical iPhone purchaser (and especially those who post comments to articles!), they're more typically technology or gadget lovers who crave the next-best-thing. As another poster here pointed out, in the end we're really talking about a cost-value relationship with the iPhone and its data plan. The problem for the gadget lovers is they crave the iPhone as a physical object, but the data plan and the partnership with ATT has raised the bar too high, cost-wise, for the gadget lovers to get their hands on it. For them the cost-value relationship is understandably way out of proportion: $70 a month to play around with the next-best-thing would be ridiculous. This is also why they pressure Apple to commoditize its products, to enter into the Dell-like fray to make their products as cheaply as possible. Apple has addressed this issue, elegantly and without commoditization, with the iPod Touch.
Gadget lovers, at least initially, don't really have a serious or 'mission critical' need for a given device, they would just like to play around with it. Serious iPhone users know that an iPhone without a data plan is just plain silly, it's like having a BMW without gasoline, but the gadget lovers would sure like to have that BMW in their driveway (even though they may not be able to drive it without gas).
I have a problem when they blame Apple for this situation. I don't see many people getting upset at BMW for the prices of their automobiles: if they can't justify the expense of a BMW in terms of their needs and lifestyle, then not a problem, they'll just get a Honda.
”And as for what's the point of having an iPhone without data...consolidation! Why carry around an iPod plus a phone (that doesn't have data anyway) when you can have just one device?“
The point here is that the folks who regard an iPhone without a data plan as viable are focusing too much on the iPhone as simply a gadget, and not enough on the iPhone as having a significant impact on one's lifestyle. In modern industrial nations our lives are conditioned by information, virtually everything we do has an information component. An iPhone should not be thought of as a ”combo-gadget“ incorporating a phone, music player and, optionally, the Web. There are now lots of devices that have these features with dysfunctional Internet connectivity. Rather, the iPhone is conceived of from the ground up as a universal information appliance that is with you at all times and is always connected to the Internet.
If the iPhone was simply a multifunction gadget the hype it has been getting is undeserved and over-blown. Thinking in these terms is like all the people who thought the original Macintosh was just a glorified, over-priced word processor. It takes some time to learn what it means to have the Internet in one's pocket all the time, but once that ”light bulb“ goes on over your head, once you've started integrating this concept into your lifestyle, then the revolutionary aspects of the device become clear.
This is why I think Apple is so resistant to making the iPhone's data plan optional.
I think you are just confirming the point I wish to make: Apple offers the Touch for those who are fortunate enough to have open wireless around them most of the time (like college students living on campus, for example). If you are in that situation, great, but I wouldn't then complain of the minor inconvenience of carrying around a small cell phone as well, since you are in the fortunate situation of not having to pay data fees to get Internet access. Personally, I feel that relying on open wireless for access to the Internet is still a dicey proposition at best. Even in Boston one frequently has to look long and hard to find an open network, and after a while ordering a cappuccino in cafe after cafe with wireless ends up as expensive as having a data plan.
Every country has developed its own cell phone ”culture“ based on national technologies, laws, regulations, and consumer behavior, and Apple has had to negotiate with each of them to introduce the iPhone in a way that preserves the device's integrity in the marketplace. Having had cell phones for over ten years with all of the American (and some European) carriers, I've been very satisfied with ATT's network and service over the past two years of owning an iPhone. I've never had such good cell phone reception, and the 3G network has been fast and reliable for me (for greater Boston it is much better than Verizon EVDO from my experience). Customer service--for me--is light years better than Sprint, and still better than Verizon (though I found TMobile best for customer service). I have no direct experience with Rogers in Canada: is there ubiquitous coverage around the country? Can you get fast, reliable 3G in Sudbury, Kitchener, Winnipeg, Windsor, Halifax, etc etc, for $30 a month?
Your phone, your life: New apps change how you use mobile devices to navigate your world
Posted: 03/13/2009 12:00:00 PM PDT
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They tell us where to eat, how to find friends, when to make a left turn.
Oh, and they can also make a phone call.
An explosive proliferation of software applications — and easy ways to get them, most notably through Apple's App Store — is changing our relationship with mobile phones. The always-connected era is dawning. The cell phone is becoming more a companion than merely a means of one-on-one conversation.
"I can't live without it," said James London, a 19-year-old De Anza College freshman, cradling his iPhone. "It's like water or food."
Though Apple was the first company to create an easy and orderly way for developers to sell smart-phone software, the rest of the industry is trying to catch up.
Owners of all the major mobile phone operating systems — Research In Motion, Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian and Google's Android — are gearing up online application stores. Independent app sites are also popping up, offering unauthorized software for the iPhone.
Soon, nearly every imaginable function of the office and home entertainment center will be delivered to the computers that fit our palms.
"I'm a big believer that the mobile phone will become the remote control of our lives," said Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless industry analyst. "Anything that we touch and see and feel, and whomever we communicate with — we will control that with our mobile phones."
Though the
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recession is slowing sales of so-called smart-phones, futurists view app-packed mobile devices as the next tech tsunami to hit society and fundamentally change how people navigate life.
"It's a new category of activity," said veteran valley forecaster Paul Saffo. "Voice (functions) are an afterthought."
Already people are using their smart-phones to locate friends at nearby bars and restaurants or find a service station with cheap gas. They stream TV to their phones, update Facebook pages on-the-go and play sophisticated games.
The Shazam program allows people to instantly identify a song and artist by holding the iPhone up to, say, a radio. The Trapster program for iPhone and BlackBerry uses crowd-sourcing to avoid speeding tickets — the phone signals a warning when entering ticket zones. The Android Cab4me app helps hail a cab.
"It's my lifeline," said Grace Redmond, a 20-year-old San Jose State University student. "My iPhone was broken today. It ruined my day."
Redmond, who grew up in Virginia, relies on GPS-enabled programs to help her get around, and avoid getting lost in the Bay Area. She found the Urbanspoon app indispensable during a recent vacation to Seattle. "My phone told me where to eat," she said.
Giovanni Valasco, a 24-year-old Campbell resident, treats his iPhone like a pocket Yellow Pages by using a business listings program. "I use it all the time."
Freshman London worries about an affliction common to BlackBerry users: sore neck. "I'm constantly looking down at my iPhone — every 10 minutes."
Because their smart-phone is with them everywhere they go, people develop far closer attachments to the devices than to their home PCs or laptops, said B.J. Fogg, a Stanford University researcher author of "Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do."
Sharma said people using smart-phones spend 70 percent of their time doing things other than talking.
"They have become devices people use for productivity and leisure," he said. "They save time and they kill time."
Last year, some 34 million smart-phones were sold in the United States, about 20 percent of the nation's overall mobile phone market of some 173 million units, according to research firm IDC. But by 2013, it predicts nearly half the mobile phones purchased in the United States will be smart-phones.
"The sea-change is starting to happen," said IDC analyst Sean Ryan.
But there are barriers to smart-phone ubiquity. Perhaps the biggest challenge is the cost of data plans. Apple's U.S. iPhone partner, AT&T, for instance, offers a basic data and voice plan for about $80 a month with taxes. That's almost $1,000 a year, which can be a hard sell to the general population, particularly in tough economic times.
"The prices of service plans are big impediments for many people," said Shaw Wu, analyst with Kaufman Brothers. "It's not cheap."
But service providers have a lot at stake — analyst Sharma said they pulled in $34 billion last year in data charges — and are likely to compete fiercely, which could push down costs and expand consumer options.
Hints of the future can be found at Apple's App Store, which now offers some 27,000 iPhone applications, according to 148Apps.com, a San Francisco Web site that reviews iPhone apps. Some of those are given away for free, while many are sold for less than $3. As of mid-January, Apple said there had been 500 million downloads from the App Store, which opened in July.
"It's like a concierge. When you have a problem, it can help solve it for you," said Stanford's Fogg. "Nothing is as close to us all the time — not even your spouse or partner."
