The thrill and the excitement upon the announcement of the new Apple iPhone at the San Francisco MacWorld Expo—where it made its debut—has begun to wear off and more critics are beginning to second-guess it. Of course, at any Steve Jobs keynote, anything is possible. He is undoubtedly a perfectionist and will go to any length to prove that his next innovation will change the way we use technology.
For starters, the new iPhone will sell for $499 (4 GB) and $599 (8 GB) and is supposed to be released sometime in the summer. However, there are many things that are still uncertain about it—even its name is still in doubt—thanks to a trademark suit by Cisco!! There are many innovative ( and somewhat ephemeral) features about the iPhone such as its touch screen (which controls basically any feature of the device) or the virtual keyboard (that may lose its functionality after over-use). Steve Jobs did demo it at Macworld, but of course anytime he demos, things are flawless!
Another glitch is the fact that the only mobile-carrier that will support the new Apple iPhone is Cingular. Will T-Mobile or Verizon Wireless users want to switch over to another carrier simply to use the iPhone? Factors such as these raise new doubts about the success of the iPhone.
Moreover, something important to note is the fact that the highly-acclaimed and very popular iPod is not grabbing the share that it used to. Apple, undoubtedly, makes things that work and captures people’s attention but the fact remains, will consumers want to spend $500 for a 4 GB phone/music player when they can buy a 60 GB music player at a cheaper cost?
If the iPhone proves to be very appealing to the present iPod generation, then many critics may be wrong and there may be no stopping the iPhone. Also, if people are in a frenzy to be the first one to buy such a “cool”—for the lack of a better word—device, the iPhone may succeed. For now, only time will tell the future of this new Apple creation.
Or as Businessweek puts it, "is Steve Jobs untouchable"?
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