The rise and fall of iPhone

Still five months or more before it will actually be available, iPhone has already peaked and crashed. For the first few days, everybody wanted one. Now it’s a pile of junk.

Here’s a run down of the main complaints:

1. No 3G capability
   It will use GPRS/Edge but no hi-speed network

2. No VoIP over Wifi
   I.e. no Truphone service for iPhone. It’s voice over Cingular’s GSM network or nothing. No VoIP calling supported.

3. No direct iTunes downloads
   You’re going to have to hook it to a PC or Mac like other iPods to download/sync music.

4. Locked to Cingular (soon to be AT&T)
   A standard subsidized model with long-term contact committments. Requires one to switch to Cingular service.

Given that the thing is not even out yet, all the above is speculation. There are other complaints too, but the above seem to be the major ones.

Items 2 and 4 in particular mean iPhone is NOT, in fact, going to revolutionize mobile telephony at all, as Jobs declared. It’s just the same old same old. Very disappointing. It’s in fact less revolutionary than the newer Nokia E-series and N80 internet edition phones that support VoIP over Wi-fi and can be purchased independent of any carrier.