Is this the iPhone in the wild?
posted May 27th 2007 12:59PM
Cameraphones have never been known to snap the best photos (except for you, dear N95), and the purported 'in the wild' shot of Apple's impending iPhone that you see above is 'clearly' no different. Supposedly captured by an editor of the Geeknuz blog at a Silicon Valley restaurant, the pic is said to show an Apple employee dinging around with his unreleased handset, "taking pictures of the person he was with and...talking about the functions of the phone." Apparently the Man from Cupertino made no effort to hide the fact that he was sporting one of the most anticipated consumer electronics products in history, even responding -- albeit quite tersely, it seems -- to a Geeknuz inquiry about the lack of third-party application support. But while this whole story certainly sounds plausible, the unidentifiable device in the gentleman's hand could be anything from an old HP iPaq to a five-dollar tip calculator, so please do your duty as responsible readers and begin dropping your wild theories and baseless debunks into the comments below...
I didn't know that so many people had already used the iPhone... so many people already bashing it, or praising it.
Sure... we can go on Apple's track record... and you can call it either way. Fan's of Apple's elegant hardware design and OSX will swear by it... and people who dislike the pricing, and want more "open" qualities (like the ability to build your own box) will demonize it.
There is, however, some more solid evidence... we can look at Apple's history in terms of repair figures, and the third party evaluation of their customer service (in which Apple consistently ranks in the top of the industry).
But finally, the iPhone, no matter how succesful will (much like the iPod) be subject to personal opinion. There will always be the small percentage of consumers who swear that the iPhone simply can't meet their needs as well as another phone jury-rigged with 3rd party software... They will complain about everyone who likes their iPhone... and all the iPhone people will scorn them for doing so...
but in the end... it will be the better product that enjoys a longer life-cycle... and the better product will live on in some museum's "great design" exhibition...
and if the "Long Tail" theory is correct... then those of us who cling to marketplace "hits" as being superior are going to face some hard days ahead... products like the iPhone, which may not be an ideal solution for most people... but is a perfect solution for enough people will be able to survive and even thrive in this new marketplace...
and those of us who validate themselves by pretending to be the only person who likes some "less popular" product will soon be struggling to define ourselves... as niche products and buying habits become the norm...
"the most anticipated consumer electronics products in history" -- ROFLMAO i almost fell out of my chair laughing when i read that... that was sarcastic right?
Its really not un-common to have employees take home pre-production versions of announced products. The company i used to work for encouraged it (even before the product was announced- SHHHH!)
This can't possibly be an Apple employee or user - he's sitting in a social situation, and has a date.
That's two strikes against this story. It's probably just an iPod.
Actually, I think that's Hugh Grant looking rather irritated...
it could just be a guy holding a black 30 gig iPod...
The iPhone will soon be unleashed and the mobile world will just not be the same.
ray - the PS3 was probably hotly anticipated, at least until it first got delayed to no end and then got expensive.
That said I would argue that the iPhone is more anticipated. Evidence: Normal non-geeky persons in the mall know what it is. And this being Asia, what that means is that there will be insane demand here. because when something is hip in Asia, ==everyone== must have it. Expensive? Pshhh, there's an instant credit shop next to every mobile phone shop.
Somebody up there claimed that the 1g iPod was crap and I think I need to correct that. I have had a 1g iPod since Nov. 2001 and it's still working. In fact, it's working so well that I so far could not justify getting a newer one. If anything, it was too good. Don't ask me why the battery still works, it really shouldn't after all these years...
About 2 months ago Jonathan Ive was sitting next to me at Zazzie's in SF eating brunch and messing around with an iPhone. I'm still regreting not talking to him. Doh.