iPhone blah blah..
I have been asked about the merits of buying an iPhone. Lets look at what’s bad with the iPhone:
1. Unlike blackberry, it has no physical keyboard. A friend thinks he might get RSI if he used the touchpad.
2. No bluetooth. Yes, you could use wireless(EDGE/3G/WiFi) to send stuff, or even plug the phone into a computer. But you don’t have the convenience of transferring photos from the phone to a computer in an Internet-less, cable-less environment, like a desert, right? (Actually I did see cellphone coverage while driving through Mojave desert last weekend. I was also taking pictures and uploading them to my facebook on the fly.) UPDATE: It has Bluetooth.
3. No office productivity tools such as word, excel, powerpoint yet. You can use google docs though.
4. No stylus(not that you need it..but), so someone who wants to write a grocery list can’t write it. Of course you could use Jott and just speak the list into the phone, which would then be transcribed into text(very accurately), or you could use any other of the tons of apps to record the list, but you won’t get the personal touch of seeing your handwriting on the grocery list.
Now whats good:
1. A software development platform that has allowed developers to quickly create applications and get paid for it. (Yes, I remember the frustrations of trying to build an application for an “advanced” Nokia phone, the N80. The API was almost laughable.) Applications are also really easy to install and use and pay(if its not one of the free apps). A lot of the apps are available for 99 cents. Thats not a typo!
The apps are amazing. If you doubt me, go try some. And then talk..
2. A UI and user experience that has none to match. Remember Motorola Razr? That super sleek phone that everyone bought because it was so pretty, for 400$! It was beautiful, with a UI that made people feel like shooting themselves or killing someone in frustration. My adviser reportedly threw it against his wall, or that was his wish..
The iPhone’s UI is amazing. With a good screen and pleasant design, reading on this screen is a pleasure. Tapping on an item is much more intuitive to me than taking a needle like stylus and poking the screen.
3. Location based services: the stuff of legend in the US research community is finally there in a product. I remember researchers beating their heads about why cellphones here didn’t have location based apps when it was so possible with existing technology. Well, Apple has pushed the carriers to allow that, and make money too. Marking a milestone for everyone, for consumers who can use a variety of new services, for the carriers who can make money from it, and from apple who has a growing market to innovate for and reap the profits.
4. I think its redundant to mention the sleekness of the iPhone, or its quick response UI, or its GPS capabilities, or the iPod that’s sitting inside. In my opinion, finally a cellphone is beginning to realise its capabilities in making life better, beyond email, SMS and phone calls.
So if you think about it, the iPhone is more of a ‘quality of life enricher’ phone, than a ‘raise the company’s bottomline’ phone. And I hope it stays and grows that way.
So to the critics of iPhone, let me say this. Consistency is a very fundamental human trait, as Robert Cialdini has famously discussed in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. What this means is, if you get convinced by a convict to help him, you are going to defend him in discussions afterwards. Why? Because human nature is by default to be consistent with their past. So if you bought a certain phone(Razr), you’d most likely praise it when someone says something that challenges the phone’s capability. Because otherwise, it’d seem like you made a wrong decision and probably reflect poorly on you.
Sometimes a person who has a different phone reacts negatively(remember Hillary’s attack on Obama!) on hearing appreciation of the iPhone. 
Cialdini’s ‘consistency’ in action! Perhaps they start feeling that the implication is that their phone is bad, and they made a poor decision in buying it. I think thats a mistake. If you have a blackberry and are happy with it, stay with it. But attributing the iPhone’s popularity just to “good looks” and “crazy marketing campaigns” and “16 year olds’ fad” shows a lack of understanding of the subject in my opinion.
Which reminds me of a movie I saw recently that had a hot blonde who is an ambitious journalist. So someone happens to say to her: ‘hey, you are so lucky to be so beautiful’. And she says: ‘I don’t really know. When people look at me, they’re like: blonde, she must be stupid. And when I do something well, they say: oh, its not her work but her looks which are carrying her forth. So I never ever get credit or recognition for the work I do just because I am pretty’. I have seen some people talk about the iPhone similarly. 
I have personally used the iPhone, the Nokia N80, Motorola Razr, the humble nokia 1100, and a huge motorola bricklike phone. I have borrowed friends’ blackberrys and palms and used them. For me personally, the iPhone is the best phone so far. And having entered the market, and brought out such a good product in a short time is a testimony to Apple and Steve Jobs. If I met Steve Jobs personally, I am unsure if I’d like him, because of his well known difficult personality, but he drives his company to great innovation, and thats what matters.
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