I did not purchase an iPhone. Despite my husband's technolust, I do not like to bleed from the cutting edge of technology. Also, my phone is necessary for business purposes, and the iPhone is not available to the corporate market.
That did not seem to stop nearly 1 million people from purchasing an iPhone, however, and I can see why. Recently, I had time to mess around with one and interview its owner, Steve Olsen:.
Q: Steve, you work a fairly technical job (at a movie production house) and you consider yourself an expert on cell phones. Why is that?
A: In the last three years, I've owned 13 cell phones and paid upwards of $1,200 for a single phone. I recently switched from Verizon to Cingular, from the Q to the BlackBerry, within two months of having switched from Cingular to Verizon to get the Q.
Q: Wow. So, what's important to you in a phone?
SO: The phone functionality isn't important. Any brick from the 1980s is as good as any cell phone today. What's important are the added abilities. I want e-mail, a Web browser, video games when I'm bored. Music is important. The more like a computer my phone is, the better.
Q: So you bought an iPhone this week?
A: I bought two.
Q: Two?
A: On Friday, the iPhone store opened online and I purchased one, figuring it to be my best bet. But the following day I heard the crowds were avoiding the stores, fearing long lines and little stock. So I went to my local store and there were seven people in line. It took 10 minutes to purchase an iPhone. Hopefully, it won't be too much trouble to sell the other phone when it arrives in the mail.
Q: How long have you had the iPhone now?
A: Six days.
Q: What works?
A: Everything works. As far as cell phones go, I've owned a lot that boast a lot of features, but to access those features it's like solving the Rubik's Cube. Apple's interface is amazingly easy and intuitive. There's no learning curve. Choose an option and there is no confusion for the next step.
Q: What doesn't work?
A: My issues with the phone are software based. There's no Flash or Java support in the Safari browser. They promised full Web browsing and even in the online demo they show a Web page with a Flash item that will not actually play on the phone.
Q: Is Flash a big part of Web browsing?
A: Yes, especially because I want to stream music and all those applications work on Java and Flash. Another thing, while they solved the fat thumb typer problem on the keyboard, they don't have a selection mode or copy and paste. Nor is a "right click" menu available, so if you want to download a file from a Web site, you can't. There isn't a file structure on the phone, so you can't ... save to anything.
Still, the iPhone is by far the best phone I've encountered for online purposes. I am willing to abide by Apple's law of the phone and the things I can't do because the iPhone is so slick and well put together. ...
Q: Is it because of your dual iPurchases that 20 minutes ago in the supermarket I witnessed your credit card get declined for the fine brew you are now drinking?
A: Yes.
E-mail Heather Hamilton at primadata@morris.com.
Document AGCR000020070726e37m00096
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