Is the iPhone Launch doomed? I think it might be so...

[kstar]

Originally Posted by tonypeoni

Ok noob question here. Who really cares if 3g is marginally faster ( real world conditions)? The iphone is Wi-Fi which is so much faster than 3g. Just find a hot spot end of debate...

I would argue that most people with iPhones, me included, totally agree with your point. I would also argue that most folks who say that Edge is dreadfully slow have not used an iPhone and 3G phone side by side at the same location. My experience is very close to what the video above shows.

Also, having a "real" web browser is a big deal . . . but lack of Flash does sucketh.

Best,

Kurt

[lendaddy]

My Samsung smart phone has 3g and it's much faster on Wifi.

[Chuck Moreland]

Originally Posted by nostatic

why is 8gig limiting? Do you really need that much music/photos/video? I can't store my whole music or photo library, but an upgrade wouldn't do it either (I'm over 100Gig combined). It just depends on what you really want to use the device for.

The new update has a faux gps...it triangulates cell towers to give you an approximate location. It works fairly well. In the middle of a driving trip traffic necessitated an alternative route. I hit the target button and it redid the directions. And the google maps app has always been cool. It is not *real* GPS though, and EDGE is not 3G. I don't do heavy web browsing on my phone so I really haven't felt hampered by the slower network. I was on 3G with my 8525 and will take the better UI/apps/etc over the network speed any day of the week. ymmv.

No word on when the next iteration will come out. My guess would be at about the 12 month mark so maybe June?

I've got about 14G on my ipod now, and I don't have any pics or video.

My plan is to use the iphone as my regular mp3 player at the gym etc. and retire the ipod, or maybe dedicate the ipod to feed my truck stereo full time.

Plus being a new daddy, I want to bore people with pictures and video of my son. So the iphone will get loaded up with this stuff too.

While I agree 8G is not bad, if 16G is close to release I'd be inclined to wait.

I did mess with one belonging to a buddy and I have to admit the internet speed was pretty good. The ability to pull up google maps is what really sold me.

And the screen was surprisingly usable for web surfing. The scaling features work really well.

[slakjaw]

Originally Posted by red-beard

If a phone has good 3G, wifi isn't needed. Wifi is usually cheaper when you can find it.

EDGE is not that much slower than the 3G networks, in the real world. A lot of the issue is rendering the phone/screen. And Wifi doesn't really help with that.

EDGE is 128k ~64k real world

I get around 800 to 1300k on my non-edge, non-at&t device.

So yeah as long as dial up speed is not that bad y'all have got it made!

[kstar]

Originally Posted by slakjaw

EDGE is 128k ~64k real world

I get around 800 to 1300k on my non-edge, non att device.

So yeah as long as dial up speed is not that bad y'all have got it made!

From actual use of the Edge network, I get 150 to 200kbps on my iPhone depending on where I am, FWIW. T switched on "Edge Enhanced" not too long after the iPhone release.

I just ran DSL Reports mobile speed test at home and pulled 180kbps - the DSL reports all time average is 130kbps for iPhone.

Having said that, I am excited about a 3G iPhone! Excellent UI and a real web browser are great and faster network speeds will be cake.

Best,

Kurt

[slakjaw]

Huh.... Minneapolis and Omaha don't have enhanced EDGE. But we do have REV.A 3G which is really nice.

[Halm]

Originally Posted by slakjaw

Huh.... Minneapolis and Omaha don't have enhanced EDGE. But we do have REV.A 3G which is really nice.

You mean Rev A EVDO?

[kstar]

Point your device to this link - it's DSL Reports speed test and should work:

http://www.dslreports.com/mspeed?jisok=1

If your device's web app is more sophisticated, you can try this test at DSLR:

http://i.dslr.net/tinyspeedtest.html

[red-beard]

Using that link on my EDGE phone on T-Mobile, I'm getting a pretty consistent 130kbit/sec

[Wickd89]

Originally Posted by tonypeoni

Ok noob question here. Who really cares if 3g is marginally faster ( real world conditions)? The iphone is Wi-Fi which is so much faster than 3g. Just find a hot spot end of debate...

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3036

Understand your concern that the iphone is OK at home on wifi, but that is ONLY for the web enabled features and is limited by local headend traffic (not a big deal for most of todays stuff but in a few months you will want more); thats the way it works..not my rules.

3g/4g is looking at 3 to 4 times the speed of a t-1 line, and I am sure you are not paying for that pipe to yhour house; unless you are a home programmer..

Mobile phone, by definition, mobile. If you find a hot spot you cannot move around and you might as well use your laptop...

I think you will see a lot of great changes in the next 1-2 years that will take us to the dick tracy days!! Let the fun begin...

[Chuck Moreland]

Originally Posted by Chuck Moreland

Has there been any announcement (or industry speculation) about a new version with more memory or other features?

Wow! That didn't take long. Here we are 5 days later and the new version is out.

Only 5 days away and nobody here had the inside line.


from today's wall street journal:

Is Likely a Precursor
To Diversified Lineup
By NICK WINGFIELD
February 6, 2008; Page B5

Apple Inc. added a new model of the iPhone to its product lineup, in a possible prelude to a new version of the cellphone later this year that will be capable of surfing the Internet at faster speeds.

The Cupertino, Calif., company also began selling a new version of its iPod touch device, which comes with more storage. The new version of the iPhone is the first step in what many analysts expect to be an effort to expand the gadget this year into a broader family of products, possibly with a less-expensive model and a version that's compatible with "3G," a fast, wide-area networking technology that lets users access the Internet at broadband speeds.

Apple's new $499 iPhone has 16 gigabytes of storage, double the capacity of the previous $399 model. It also now offers a $499 iPod touch with 32 gigabytes of storage, joining the existing $399 16 gigabyte model and $299 eight gigabyte model.

Apple found mass-market acceptance for the iPod by similarly diversifying its product line, and the same evolution is expected to hold true for the iPhone. A 3G version of the product will be especially important for Apple as it seeks to expand the iPhone to Japan, one of the biggest and most sophisticated mobile-handset markets, later this year.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs has previously said he expects the underlying technology necessary to make a 3G version of the iPhone with acceptable battery life to be available later this year. Some analysts predict a 3G iPhone will come out as early as the middle of the year.

Greg Joswiak, Apple vice president for world-wide iPod and iPhone product marketing, declined to say when a 3G iPhone will be available. "We couldn't be more happy with the results of the iPhone to date," Mr. Joswiak said.

Apple says it has sold more than four million iPhones so far. In data released yesterday, market-research firm Canalys said Apple nabbed 28% of the U.S. "converged device market," which includes smartphone and wireless handhelds, with the iPhone. That put Apple in second place in the U.S. behind Blackberry-maker Research in Motion Ltd., with 41%, and ahead of Palm Inc., with 9%.

[kstar]

The writing on the wall re a 16 gigabyte iPhone has been around ever since the 16 gigabyte Touch was released months ago - no big surprise; it was expected.

While more storage is really nice, the next significant announcement/release will be all about software, IMO.

Best,

Kurt

[gprsh924]

16gigs and the hope of 3G when my current contract runs out in early May is going to make the iPhone extremely hard to pass up.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

IMHO 32 GB is where capacity should start.

[techweenie]

Interesting article today in the New York Times:

(partial quote)

SHANGHAI — Factories here churn out iPhones that are exported to the United States and Europe. Then thousands of them are smuggled right back into China.

The strange journey of Apple’s popular iPhone, to nearly every corner of the world, shows what happens when the world’s hottest consumer product defies a company’s attempt to slowly introduce it in new markets.

The iPhone has been swept up in a frenzy of global smuggling and word-of-mouth marketing that leads friends to ask friends, “While you’re in the U.S., would you mind picking up an iPhone for me?”

These unofficial distribution networks help explain a mystery that analysts who follow Apple have been pondering: why is there a large gap between the number of iPhones that Apple says it sold last year, about 3.7 million, and the 2.3 million that are actually registered on the networks of its wireless partners in the United States and Europe?

The answer now seems clear. For months, tourists, small entrepreneurs and smugglers of electronic goods have been buying iPhones in the United States and then shipping them overseas.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by techweenie

Interesting article today in the New York Times:

(partial quote)

SHANGHAI — Factories here churn out iPhones that are exported to the United States and Europe. Then thousands of them are smuggled right back into China.

The strange journey of Apple’s popular iPhone, to nearly every corner of the world, shows what happens when the world’s hottest consumer product defies a company’s attempt to slowly introduce it in new markets.

The iPhone has been swept up in a frenzy of global smuggling and word-of-mouth marketing that leads friends to ask friends, “While you’re in the U.S., would you mind picking up an iPhone for me?”

These unofficial distribution networks help explain a mystery that analysts who follow Apple have been pondering: why is there a large gap between the number of iPhones that Apple says it sold last year, about 3.7 million, and the 2.3 million that are actually registered on the networks of its wireless partners in the United States and Europe?

The answer now seems clear. For months, tourists, small entrepreneurs and smugglers of electronic goods have been buying iPhones in the United States and then shipping them overseas.

Been saying that for months. Nice to be vindicated/validated.

[techweenie]

iPhone grabs 30% of U.S. smartphone market

Apple’s iPhone is the star in a series of charts published Tuesday by Needham & Co. analyst Charles Wolf.

The first is a quarter-by-quarter snapshot of the worldwide smartphone market that shows a sharp uptick in Apple’s (AAPL) share set against the downward drift of its major competitors — Nokia’s (NOK) Symbian, RIM’s (RIMM) BlackBerry and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Mobile.

http://tinyurl.com/6ea7jf

This is prior to some new product competition, but reviews indicate none is yet the fabled 'iPhone killer.' 7 years in, some people are still hoping for an 'iPod killer...'

BTW, the iTunes store is approaching 10,000 applications for the iPhone...