The Coming iPhone
Here--it's for you...
...just a second, be right with you... Yeah... no, I didn't know about the fish and the CD-ROM... Ok, see you later... Bye. Sorry about that--my phone has been ringing off the hook lately. So, Apple is reportedly edging closer to an "iPhone" something-or-rather, with rumors of being its own cell carrier as well. Apple has a chance to absolutely slaughter the market with this product, as they did with the iconic iPod a few years back. However, to make this a reality, the rumored "25-song cap" would have to be nonexistent, with at least the Shuffle's 512 MB capacity, along with superior battery life, something Apple has been struggling with recently, going even so far as having a class-action brought against them. To make this venture a success, Apple would need at least 6-hour talk / music time and 12-14 hour standby, especially if they're going to do a PDA sort of thing like the Blackberry. However, this is where Apple could get in over their head. Trying to cram too much into a device like this could run the unit into Pocket PC-size range, which would be far too clunky to fit into consumers' pockets (or pocketbooks) and Jobs' aesthetics. An iPod-sized unit would be about the maximum dimensions acceptable, as even the original uber-unit Blackberry was criticized for being too chunky.
Personally, I retired my cell phone a year ago after a year of service, and although there are moments when it would come in handy, I see it less as a vital accoutrement and more as a leash/crutch for making people think their lives are more interesting and important than they really are. But this is not a rant on cell phones (I'll save that for another article); rather, I will be waiting with bated breath to see what new industry-defining gadget Apple will unleash next, because I'm just that kind of geek, whether I'll have a use for the device or not... [Britt Godwin]