Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Looks like iPhone has made it big atlast with iPhone2

This is a follow up to my previous post on N95 and iPhone. Sure N95 was way ahead of its time and till today the N95(8gb) and N96 stands up to its legendary reputation of being the most geeky and loaded phone. but Nokia has not caught up with its competition in certain technologies like touch screen, though they brought out higher storage. Multi touch UI is an essential technology today and this is going to make nokia loose if not kill them.

Yes I criticized and cribbed about many basic features lacking in iPhone 1.0. looks like apple as usual listens to its users and as always makes what ever they provide work best and practical(unlike nokia which is more of techno demo and practically not so well usable). Now check out the new iPhone 2.0 seems very promising.
http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/

Now we have GPS(voice guided navigation?), 3G HSDPA and open application support(though not opensource yet which probably apple will never make). The major short comings of iPhone 1.0 has already been solved. With 3rd party apps(ala nokia S60) any new feature can be added. Also apple is updating the OS for its older iphone 1.0 hardware which is a good sign of continued support(which nokia lacks as they kill a model after a years support and their very expensive phone becomes outdated and useless in less than a couple years).

Moreover day by day iphone seems to be beating S60 handsdown in quantity/quality of applications and user community support and is becoming a defacto platform for any application developer, which along with the brand reputation of apple and style statement even with the non-geeks and fashionistas would be a more accepted and supported phone universally(as is the ipod inspite of being proprietary). This along with its main USPs like the multi touch UI, large(perfect) screen size for a handheld, a very usable desktop class browser(plugins someone?), better build quality, finish and choice of materials, iPod, large storage etc Nokia will have to do a lot of quality improvement and standardization to get anywhere near the iphone now that iphone has caught up with Nseries already. Sure iPhone is becoming the iMac of the handheld world.

I am yet to see the complete feature list and if they have fixed basic issues like MMS, setting ringtones and front cam support for video conf, replaceable battery, replaceable sim, higher res auto focus camera with flash, TV out, DVD quality video recording, PTT, VOIP(avl thru 3rd party already), j2me, radio etc. , some of these features are s/w only and can be added by 3rd party apps or an upgrade. the hardware sure is promising and much more faster than any Nokia phone today. I will give a complete review when the phone is out in India(damn, they still lock you on to a operator which is a new concept in India which was always used to unlocked mobiles thanks to Nokia's business model).

Anyway as of now all I can say is the iPhone 2.0 looks very promising and I will most probably get one when its launched here as long as there is no real iphone killer from Nokia.

update....

Well, Airtel has at last launched iPhone in India. but at Rs.36100 for the 16GB version I don't think its worth the price, given that it will also be locked to Airtel network.
more details here,
http://www.airtel.in/iphone3g/getready.html

iphone 3g at best can be purchased if offered at the $200 price that apple has quoted for the older iPhone. in India it is worth purchasing at a price of 15k to max 20k. Given that it is a proprietary product and most apps for it is very expensive and its not easy to crack stuff or get freeware, this is just a fancy toy for the rich who want to flaunt a fashion accessory and not for the geek who wants a power gadget.

The nokia N96 is a good bet instead. Damned nokia as always does leave more to be desired. at the minimum a touch screen should have been provided, which is a basic feature of contemporary high end handhelds/phones. but yea for those who already own a N95 it doesnt offer much more than 16Gb storage and dvb-h live tv receiver +build in accelerometer apps.

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