AT&T Announces New iPhone Plan Pricing

Apple would
have you believe that they have created the greatest thing since slice bread, and now that they have finally gotten around to adding a 3G radio to it, that justifies you coughing up more money so Steve Jobs can buy another mansion or whatnot. Here's why it doesn't:

-NETWORK COMPATIBILITY: The iPhone is a GSM-only device and it will not work on a CDMA network. That's unfortunate, because CDMA is superior to GSM as an air interface. The spectral efficiency and enhanced security of CDMA compared to GSM is not something can disputed. Let's see, Walsh Encoding, D.S.S.S., soft handoffs, etc. vs. rehashed TDMA with only A5/1 and A5/2 encryption that was cracked years ago. I could go on, but to list all the advantages of CDMA over GSM would be beyond the scope of this post.

The GSM People will no doubt talk about how they are the so-called "world-standard" and how you don't get a SIM Card. Yes, there are countries where CDMA is not an option, and even if they do have a CDMA network, CDMA roaming has never been cheap (or easy). However, there are dual-mode GSM/CDMA handsets available, and even if you must have a GSM device, there are much better options than the iPhone, Blackberry being the best example.

The WiFi is nice, but again that's something you could get on a myriad of better phones, and if you're going to be doing the majority of your web surfing, email, etc., near a hotspot, a laptop or a UMPC would be a better option.

Finally, using a iPhone in the U.S. entails getting married to "Ma Bell" :-( Use the Death Star? No thanks, I'm cool. I enjoy not having dropped calls, phones that don't break when you so much as breath on them, and reps who have an actual clue as to how a cell phone actually works. That's nice that they've allegedly upgraded the network just in time for the launch, but that really doesn't help if you're not doing anything to properly manage the traffic on shared bandwith. A 5 Mhz channel really needs its own frequency (like the 1700 and 2100 Mhz solutions used everywhere else). If for some reason you simply cannot avoid a date with the blue team, do yourself a favor and get one of the Blackberries that will be on display right next to "Das iPhone" in the showroom. You could jailbreak it and use it on T-Mobile, but then you won't get the 3G, as T-Mobile's United States 3G uses 1700 Mhz.

-INPUT: Once again, WHERE'S THE KEYBOARD!!! It is so sad that the wireless industy (and Apple especially) is in love with touch technology. I personally hate it. I've used several touch-only phones and even fooled around with an iPod touch and have gotten into enough almost close calls on the road to know that at the BARE MININUM I want a fixed dialpad. And what happens if when the touch screen becomes unresponsive, develops dead pixels, etc? And don't give me the whole song and dance about haptics. I don't care. I WANT REAL BUTTONS ON THE PHONE.

-EXPANSION: Not enough memory to fit all your music, videos, and applications? No problem, just insert a memory card - oh, that's right, it doesn't have a slot (again). A huge misstep on a feature that is starting to become standard in even the entry-level phones. Gee, I wonder if it will have Micro-USB or one of Apple's proprietary connections. Gotta sell those accessories; Mansions are expensive, you know what I mean?

-OPERATING SYSTEM: MacOS X Mobile is stable and fast and works well. But then again, so is Blackberry OS. Windows Mobile is improving, and the age of Linux phones is upon us.

Which brings me to my most important point. I find it comical that Apple is repeating the EXACT same marketing mistakes they made in the 1980s. They are so concerned with zapping people for every last dollar on the high-end of the market that they have neglected to develop a solution for a key market segment: the low end. I call it the "Dark Matter of the Internet": the billions of people in the Third World that as of yet are not connected. Nokia, for example, has figured this out and have invested mucho dollars into producing low-cost, durable phones designed specifically for these markets. Think about it: a few hundred bucks may not sound like a lot to the average American, but in many of these countries this is a small fortune.

In conclusion, I predict that the upcoming flood of Linux, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry devices will eventually drown out Apple in the high-end segment, and it's probably already too late for them to make any inroads in the low-end. Please spare yourself the huge markup on products that Apple charges when better alternatives are readily available. Steve Jobs doesn't need any more mansions.