Why the iPhone may not sell well

Posted by multippt

Despite all that hype on the Apple “iPhone”, there are still some reasons why the Apple “iPhone” may suffer in terms of sales. Yes, the Apple “iPhone” might be one of those urber modern gadgets one can find, but is it appealling to everyone?

“iPhone” is 3G-less
There are several reasons why the iPhone lacks 3G compatibility. 3G may not be easily available in certain countries, and that using 3G on a mobile device would drain the power supply (i.e. the battery). But would missing out 3G do any harm to the iPhone? Without 3G, it will be a hassle to stream media to your phone. Besides, Japan, a major user of 3G, might not even bother using the “iPhone” as a replacement for the modern handphone.

Though, there is an alternative way to 3G, and that is Wifi. The Apple “iPhone” has wifi infrastructure support. However, what if you are usually on the move? Wifi hot-spots are usually short-ranged (10m to 50m in radius), while 3G offers a much larger coverage area. So if you are using wifi, you would need to connect and disconnect multiple times to available wifi networks in range when you are moving (like in a car of train).

Cost
Although as pretty and useful as it seems, any potential buyer is turned down by the pricetag of the said gadget. The Apple “iPhone” is one costly gadget, with a pricetag of US$599 for the 8GB model, and US$499 for the 4GB model. This is one cost most people would have to save up for (unless you are extremely). Don’t get me started on the monthly costs like wifi and voice plans.

Performance
The Apple “iPhone” probably performs as fast (probabaly faster) as a modern handphone. But would speed matter for the Apple “iPhone”? Obviously, it is difficult to pack a fast processor into that small stylish casing the iPhone has, so processor speeds are generally limited to that of the most fastest handphones (unless Apple wants to explode the already hefty cost of the “iPhone”). So in other words, the Apple “iPhone” will find it hard to out-perform the latest mobile phones.

“iPhone” does not have iTunes
This feature has been stamped out from the Apple “iPhone”. So would not having this feature matter to the “iPhone”? iTunes is used as a means of managing media. If the “iPhone” were to have iTunes integrated within itself, imagine the ease of managing one’s own music and videos without the need of a computer.

“iPhone” cannot have a change of memory
This means that you will be stuck with the amount of flash memory you have in your iPhone from the day you purchased the iPhone (so choose carefully). You cannot expand the memory via any means (like memory cards), so this limits how many music files you can put in your “iPhone”

Is “touchscreen” good?
The Apple “iPhone” uses a touchscreen. This may be a unique feature, but PDAs already have this. So this isn’t really new. In addition, the “iPhone” functions are usually accessed via touchscreen. While this idea sounds okay, what happens if you wanted to skip the song you are listening while leaving the iPhone in your pocket? You can easily do this using a PSP or a iPod, but a “iPhone”? Remember, most (if not all) functions in the “iPhone” are accessed via touchscreen.

“iPhone” does multi-tasking?
If by multi-tasking you mean downloading a file and listening a song at the same time, then yes, the “iPhone” does support multi-tasking. However, it is difficult to multi-task certain things that you can do on a computer. An example is listening a song and browsing the internet. The computer can do both simultaneously, while the “iPhone” can only either the playing music part, or the browsing the internet part, but not simultaneously.

“iPhone” runs Mac OSX, but…
Yes… indeed, the Apple “iPhone” may run use Mac OS X as the operating system. Howver, the operating system it runs is the scaled-down version of Mac OS X. It can’t run your normal desktop softwre you have in your Apple computer. Though, the “iPhone” would be able to run “desktop-class” applications. The operating system have several restrictions, like no 3rd party applications can be installed in the “iPhone” (meaning, software for the iPhone is severely limited).

—

Now with all these “features” the Apple “iPhone” has, do you think it is worth spending your money on the “iPhone”?

(Note that “iPhone” instead of iPhone is used, since the name for the Apple “iPhone” may change due to an ongoing event.)