iPhone: Biggest story of 2007 (so far)

This may be the single most reported story in the very history of Voice over Internet Protocol itself: This week at the MacWorld Expo, the company called Apple (no longer Apple Computers; more on this later) has introduced its VoIP phone, a little number called … iPhone. (But isn’t that the name of Cisco’s VoIP phone? Well, yes; more on this later.)

The iPhone is actually quite a bit more than just a phone, combining telephony technology with a widescreen iPod. In terms of specs, Apple’s iPhone:

• measures 4.5” x 2.4” x 0.46” and weighs almost five ounces; reportedly this would make the iPhone the thinnest smart phone on the market;

• features a 3.5” screen with resolution of 320 x 480 at 160 pixels per inch;

• includes a 2-megapixel camera;

• can sync contact information and iPod files with a personal computer;

• will work with either IBM or Macintosh computers;

• supports quad-band GSM, EDGE, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR wireless technology; and

• promises five hours of battery life, and sixteen when used for music playback.

The iPhone interface has received its “oohs” and “aahs” in industry press for its “multi-touch” touch-screen technology; this includes a full QWERTY soft keyboard used in composing messages and touch-screen selection of music. Opines the online Digit Magazine: “The use of multitouch for all user interface elements, combined with Mac OS X’s robust graphics capabilities, gives the iPhone an amazingly intuitive and comfortable interface for all features.”

Other features touted by the big guy himself, Steve Jobs, on the multi-purpose multi-media iPhone include an HTML e-mail client, the Safari web browser, Google Maps installed, a built-in sensor that will automatically reorient the picture on screen when the phone is rotated; and an ambient light sensor. This thing is apparently going to be sold as the Swiss army knife of telephones…

Can’t wait to run out and buy yourself one? Well, you’ll have to. The rollout begins in June for the U.S., before year’s end for Europe, and not until 2008 in Asia. ‘Stateside, you’ll be able to find the iPhone at Apple and Cingular outlets. Jobs and Apple promised the release of “several” iPhone accessories at the same time of release.

The theoretically-named iPhone is getting tons of hype, perhaps in hopes that a bunch of bloggers will get iPhones absolutely free from the company a la the slightly weird Microsoft Vista promotion of late last year. (Incidentally, Apple folks, if this is the case and i’ve written anything negative about the phone here, i take it all back…)

Naturally, some know that for every silver lining, there’s a cloud. Over at the India Times News Network, Neeraj Saxena and Manisha Singh’s “Why the iPhone will work and won’t” presents a decent-sized list of sobering thoughts regarding the would-be success of the iPhone. The list (condensed for content – the piece is quite well argued and should be read in full by interested parties) of disadvantages runs something like this:

• The loooooooong six-month waiting period (and My VoIP News asks, “Did the digital music market players wait just a tad too long on this one?”).

• No previous experience in telephones.

• Low memory capacity. The max of 8 gigabytes may not be enough for all the software Apple plans to put on the thing.

• Low download speed may hamper video options.

• Lack of enterprise applications.

• Lack of tie-ups.

• Lack of CDMA variant.

Naturally, in the “two sides to every story” dogma that journalism sees fit to follow, Saxena and Singh find a dozen plusses, basically all you’d expect: the iPod legacy, interface, design, touch screen, etc.

The Digit article reported an important plus/minus in the iPhone equation: The sheer size of the market and Apple’s footprint upon it. Independent telecommunications industry analyst Jeff Kagan is quoted therein as stating, "There are about 230 million cell phones in the marketplace. Several million iPhones will be great news for Apple, but I don’t think at this point it will make a big difference to the industry competitors."

This writer is betting iPhone does succeed for three reasons:

• The legion of Mac supremacists is an automatic market and will surely do lots of word of mouth for the newly renamed firm. (More on that, sooner than before.)

• The success with iPod.

• And finally … look. There’s a reason Macintosh got popular back in those halcyon days of 1984: It’s Simple, Stupid. PC idiots like myself who were using Lotus 123 and DOS programming on glowing green screens at the office came home to work on the pleasant-looking and monkey-easy-to-use Mac. You want to know where the roots of blogs lay? In self-publishing? Why was self-publishing so popular in the early 1990s? Mac!

Guess we’ll have to wait and see, eh?

Of course, Cisco is thinking they’re not going to give anyone the chance to check out Apple’s iPhone because Cisco already has an iPhone, remember?

In December, the Linksys iPhone line of Voice over IP products for global sale was unveiled. That product line includes the CIT200 iPhone Cordless Internet Telephony Kit; the CIT300 iPhone Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit; the CIT310 iPhone Dual-Mode Cordless Phone for Yahoo! Messenger with Voice; the CIT400, a new iPhone Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit for Skype; the WIP300 iPhone Wireless-G IP Phone; the WIP330 iPhone Wireless-G IP Phone with Web Browser; and the WIP320 iPhone Wireless-G Phone for Skype.

The name of the line did cause confusion in some quarters pre-unveiling on the parts of those who figured that, since Apple has a million products carrying the “i” prefix from iPod to iMac, the “iPhone” must be a Macintosh. As reportage at IT Wire had it, though, “Apple doesn’t own the name. Cisco, Linksys’ parent company, has owned the trademark on iPhone name since 1996, in the category of “computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerised global information networks.’”

Perhaps minutes after Jobs made the announcement, spokepeople for Cisco announced they were bringing suit for trademark infringement in a Northern California U.S. District Court. Cisco senior vice president and general counsel Mark Chandler stated that "There is no doubt that Apple’s new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission.” Chandler claimed that his firm were negotiating with Apple over the name and that Apple had “repeatedly” asked permission for use of “iPhone.”

Blogs Chandler himself: “I was surprised and disappointed when Apple decided to go ahead and announce their new product with our trademarked name without reaching an agreement. It was essentially the equivalent of ‘we’re too busy.’ Despite being very close to an agreement, we had no substantive communication from Apple after 8pm Monday, including after their launch, when we made clear we expected closure. What were the issues at the table that kept us from an agreement? Was it money? No…”

It’ll be another high-profile court drama for Apple who has been in court with the Beatles and Eminem. Could be fun. They promise to follow the case over at Mac In Touch and presumably Chandler will keep up with his personal updates as well.

Finally, there’s the little matter of the company changing its name from “Apple Computer” to merely “Apple,” for seemingly obvious reasons.

Jobs closed his keynote address at the MacWorld Expo with the news of the forthcoming AppleTV and the name change. The name change is, said Jobs, “meant to reflect … that Apple has matured from a computer manufacturer into a consumer electronics company.”

"Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything," said Jobs in the keynote address. "... Apple’s been very fortunate in that it’s introduced a few of these."

Revolutionary, eh? You know My VoIP News hates that word. But it is Apple…

Neeraj Saxena and Manisha Singh’s “Why the iPhone will and won’t work” is available at the India Times website.

“Is it an iPhone? Yes, but not from Apple” by Angus Kidman can be read in full at IT Wire.

“Why Apple dropped ‘computer’” by Ryan Faas can be read in full at Digit Magazine online.