Daily Nonsense

Gizmodo links to a USA Today article that talks about a survey conducted by a Santa Monica firm, Interpret, LLC. The survey polled 200 owners of the iPhone and asked how satisfied they were with their phone; 90% indicated they were “extremely” or “very” satisfied with their phone. Although, this is a number that I am not surprised at considering the market and the demographic of the initial adopters. More below.

survey says

Vast Majority of iPhone Owners Deliriously Happy, Cured of All Ailments

Despite our verdict of “wait,” a survey by the market research firm Interpret says 90 percent of iPhone owners are “extremely” or “very” satisfied with it, which the firm’s chief strategy officer interprets as ” pretty much off the charts.” (See what I did there?) Some of the other numbers are kind of interesting, if unsurprising.

Miserly coveters-but-not-owners who were surveyed grumbled they’d only pay an average of $180 for an iPhone, for instance. One shocking number is that over a third (35 percent) paid an average $167 to break their contract with another carrier, adding at least another $100 to the iPhone cost-of-ownership calculus. Impatience much?

Also slightly unexpected is that of those surveyed, almost 30 percent were total Apple noobs, while 40 percent had never owned an iPod before. If you bought an iPhone on launch day and you’re one of the 10 percent of defective humans not totally enraptured with it, just a reminder that today’s your last day to make the worst mistake of your life and return it.

[Thanks, Gizmodo]

A quick search of “iPhone” on EBay returned “1696 items found for iPhone“. And iLaunch hasn’t even arrived yet. I can’t wait til’ Saturday when I’l lbe presented with the opportunity to buy an empty iPhone box or complete iPhone manual.

OK, this is what I’ve been afraid of. The aggregate costs have been computed and here’s the hit to the bottom line for all of those waiting in line for the iLaunch. OK, so a very quick comparison: Family plan with Verizon; 2 Razrs $49.99 + $35 activation + $79.00/m = $1,981. Again, I think I’m going to stick with what I have.

iPhone Total Cost of Ownership: Up to $5,914.76

This quick and dirty spreadsheet indicates the total cost of iPhone ownership over a 24 month contract, excluding likely extras such as accessories and hidden charges.

I think the apparent lack of hidden charges is one of the things Apple scores big with: unlike so much in the cellphone game, you know what you’re getting. It’ll be interesting to see the first bills out from AT&T, so we can do an accounting of nickel and diming like the Federal Hogwash Fee and the New Mexico State Chump Charge.

Naturally, most owners won’t be wanting that crazy $220 monthy plan, as detailed at Apple.com when you click the "more minutes" link — you’d have to be on the phone about four hours a day to use up all your daytime minutes! But I can easily see myself racking a good two-and-a-half grand in the next two years.

[Thanks, Wired]

A recent survey of on-line mobile phone shoppers (by the Electronic Manufacturing Services online presence, EMSNow!) has revealed some surprising results! Nearly 60% of the people polled were interested in the iPhone, but had no intention of jumping on the bleeding edge bandwagon.

The overall initial cash output which included the cost of the toy itself and the cost of switching from a decently priced cell and data plan was daunting to most customers. Lets be honest, it’s only some die-hard Apple fan-boys and the celebs (and celeb wannabes) who can really absorb the initial cost of this thing.

Look at the statistic in the text below, only 10% of the respondents were interested in paying full price. That should tell all of the rest of us something, shouldn’t it?

Mass adoption of the iPhone not a certainty, IDC survey find

Jun 22, 2007

The price of the device itself and the cost of switching carriers may dampen the demand for Apple’s iPhone, according to a survey conducted by IDC.

The survey of online mobile phone shoppers, conducted by IDC and Market Insight Corp., found that while a majority of the respondents – nearly 60% of a sample of 456 individuals – were interested in the iPhone, they were unlikely to buy one anytime soon owing to the cost of the device and the potential cost of switching carriers.

Apple is scheduled to launch the iPhone on June 29, 2007. The phone will be launched exclusively on AT&T’s mobile network in the United States. The iPhone marks Apple’s entry into the mobile phone market.

“While the allure of owning the next ’cool’ device will undoubtedly have early adopters – and die-hard Apple fans – queuing up to get the iPhone regardless of the price, the associated costs of ownership will persuade many others into a ’wait and see’ position,” said Shiv K. Bakhshi, Ph.D., director of mobility research at IDC. “Despite all the hype, there is little clarity on Apple’s (and AT&T’s) service plans for the device. This lack of clarity could adversely impact consumers’ purchase decisions.”

The survey, designed to gauge consumer interest in the iPhone, found that only 10% of respondents were interested in paying full price and signing a two-year contract with AT&T, the only carrier currently slated to offer the device. AT&T has stated that it will not offer a subsidy for the iPhone, which will retail for $499 and $599, depending whether the subscriber wants 4GB or 8 GB of flash memory. Nearly 18% of the respondents indicated a willingness to buy the iPhone if it were priced under $299.

[Thanks, EMSNow]

AT&T has created 2000 temporary jobs nationwide to handle the surge in business expected with the launch of Apples iPhone. With units available exclusively at AT&T and Apple stores, there is expected to be a mad, frenzied rush for the devices.

As many of you are aware, I’m underwhelmed with the whole idea. I saw on recent comment to the effect that this guy would buy the phone without the music player for $200 less. I’ll take that one further. I’ll buy the media player in that exact form factor for $300 less. Leave in the WiFi capability for downloading media from my network, but strip out all the phone and internet browsing capability and I’m in. But since that’ll never happen, lets get back to business with an article gleaned from the Chicago Tribune:

Launch of iPhone calls for extra staff

Associated Press
Published June 22, 2007

SAN ANTONIO — AT&T Inc., which will be the exclusive carrier of Apple Inc.’s much-hyped new iPhone, has hired 2,000 extra workers to staff its company-owned stores for the launch, a spokesman said Thursday.

The iPhone, a combination cell phone, media player and wireless Web device, will be available only at stores owned by Apple and AT&T, and on Apple’s Web site, when it is launched June 29.

To handle the expected crush of customers, AT&T has hired 2,000 additional employees, mostly college students, for the summer, said AT&T spokesman Michael Coe.

On the day of the launch, AT&T’s 1,800 company-owned stores will close at 4:30 p.m. to prepare for the 6 p.m. launch in each market.

Neither AT&T nor Apple has disclosed how many devices will be available at launch, but Coe said if AT&T stores run out, customers will be able to purchase an iPhone at the store and have it shipped to them when it’s available.

[Thanks, Chicago Tribune]

I’m glad that there are at least a few similar minded folk out there with regards to the iPhone. Here is a thought provoking article which logically debunks the ’break a network’ scenario that Jobs suggested in Newsweek.

Instead it appears that P2P file sharing might be one of the causes. Hmmmmm – I wonder if the RIAA and MPAA are going to get involved in further tightening the security of the platform? A few bucks slipped into the right pockets over at Apple might go a long way towards keeping the lid on the source code and Software Development Kits.

The real reason that the iPhone does not have 3rd-party applications…

Apple’s explanation for the absence of an iPhone SDK seems unsatisfying to me. Here’s Steve Jobs in Newsweek:

“You don’t want your phone to be an open platform. You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesn’t want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up.” (link)

Nobody really believes that a malfunctioning app on a phone can bust a network, do they?

I think that what worries Apple and AT&T most is the possibility of 3rd-party apps working too well! The iPhone will not allow 3rd-party applications to be installed upon it because those 3rd-party applications would inevitably include peer-to-peer file sharing clients using usenet, bittorrent, and gnutella networks, and apps for streaming or retrieving media from home computers. This would mean a tremendous increase in the amount of data being sucked through that EDGE network. Can AT&T deliver that kind of throughput for all of the new users they expect? I welcome comment on this from knowledgeable people, but my guess is NO FREAKING WAY. (Note well, also, that iPhone users cannot “squirt” content to each other using bluetooth or wifi, even though that would be simple to implement in software.)

[Thanks, BadMotivator]

With Apple maintaining a stranglehold on the code for their newest toy, many experts believe that will only fuel the hackers frenzy to crack the code.  Only Apple seems to know how to write apps for it’s soon to be launched mashup of technology.  And so far the only thing it’ll do that is new is YouTube. (Yawnnnnnnn).

It’s this kind of closed environment that gets the juices flowing in any respectable hacker.  Look at the various game consoles and hand-held  games that have been modified seemingly beyond recognition.  The iPod itself has been tricked out to run a version of Linux.

The connectivity options of the iPhone make it accessible via more than one route and I can’t imagine that’s a good thing.

Security researchers at IBM admire the iPhone’s apparent security but note it will suffer from its fair share of attacks.

 

By Sharon Gaudin

InformationWeek
Jun 21, 2007 04:53 PM

With so many people anxiously holding their breath while simultaneously counting their pennies till Apple’s iPhone ships next week, some researchers — and probably many IT managers — are wondering how secure this latest smart phone is going to be. Well, according to IBM’s security division, Internet Security Systems, the iPhone will have one thing going for it, at the same time it has one thing going against it, making for what should be an interesting product to track. The plus side is that it should take a pretty sophisticated hacker to break into the phone’s system, but the negative is that all the frenzy that has been building up around the iPhone’s release means many hackers will be inspired to try.

“We’ve been following it since it was announced,” said Neel Mehta, the team lead of advance research group at ISS, in an exclusive interview with InformationWeek. “It’s going to be challenging for the bad guys to exploit them like they do other [smart phones] but there will be a lot of individuals willing to try because of the amount of buzz around it… We’ve seen some very determined attacks on other mobile phone platforms, like the Symbian platform. A lot of these attacks are going to be very hard to launch against the iPhone.”

A spokesperson with Apple declined to comment on the iPhone’s security features.

Since Apple has been holding any prototypes of the iPhone extremely close to the vest, IBM’s security researchers analyzed whatever information they could glean about the new phone that is a three-way combination of wide-screen iPod, cell phone, and Internet communications device. Mehta said they know the phone will run on Apple’s OS X operating system, will use its Safari browser, and won’t come with a software developer’s kit. Researchers also evaluated how Apple deals with security updates and patches for its other products, like the Mac and the popular iPod.

Until Mehta and his researchers can get their hands on an actual iPhone, they’re going on what they do know about the machine.

And one major thing they’ve been focusing on is that the iPhone won’t have a software developer’s kit. While that makes it harder for third-party vendors to make software for the phone, it’s also going to make it a lot harder for hackers and malware writers to take advantage of it.

“They’re not telling anyone how to write applications that run on the iPhone,” said Mehta. “It’s going to be much harder to write worms or viruses for that platform. Most malware written today for mobile platforms has been developed using software developer kits from the manufacturers. The lack of that on the iPhone will make it harder for people to develop malware for it.”

He said another positive is that Apple historically has made it pretty easy to update their products. “That’s relatively good news for the iPhone,” he added. “We suspect the ability to update the phone will be relatively painless and robust. That’s been a major problem with other smart phones. Many people will buy a smart phone and never update the firmware on it… Computers that run OS X have automated update mechanisms and looked at how easy it is to update firmware on iPods. It’s very painless. It’s just one click within the iTunes software.”

[Thanks, Information Week]

As we get nearer and nearer to the official release date if the One Phone to Rule Them All we see a very important group of people chiming in and there are sure to be many who don’t like what’s being said. Corporate IT departments are viewing the un-secure nature of the device and nixing preliminary inquiries of compatibility. The common thread here is that if it can’t access the e-mail through the companies Blackberry e-mail servers then they are not going to be allowed to connect.

Which lends itself to the question, “What was Apple thinking?”. They’re aiming at a demographic that can afford a $499 dollar cell phone anad they’re not building in or providing access to the tool that many of them might have use to justify the expense.

Maybe you can’t wait to get your hands on an iPhone, but corporate IT guys are ready to greet the device with all the warmth of a European castle besieged by invading Huns. Despite scads of requests from employees who want to access work e-mail on their new wonderbrick, most network guys say there’s no way they’re going to go through the hassle and security risk of rejiggering their servers to support iPhone access.

Main workaround seems to be funneling work e-mail through a third-party conduit such as Yahoo Mail. Or risk the ire of the Dilbert types by trying to hack your way into your e-mail server.

Related Articles:

Companies Hang Up on Apple’s iPhone [Wall Street Journal]

[Thanks, Wired]

iPhone, schmiPhone

Excuse me if I’m not overwhelmed by the media hype concerning the upcoming launch of the iPhone. For me it has nothing to do with hating Apple like it obviously does for some of the pundits out there. For me it’s a question of A + B does not equal C.

On the June 11, 2007 Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he and John Hodgman were involved in the Mixed Martial Arts skit when a reference to what do you get when you add a camera to a cell phone was raised. Jon Steward responded with something like a crappy camera in a crappy cell phone. And that’s how I view the iPhone. With reports of battery life measured in hours rather than days and a less than perfect touch screen,
I’m looking at the specs and not seeing anything to love.

3.5-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen display with multi-touch support and a proximity sensor to turn off the screen when it’s close to your face, 2 megapixel cam, 4GB or 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP, WiFi that automatically engages when in range, and quad-band GSM radio with EDGE.

I have a Razr by Motorola. It too has a camera, the ability to play music, and the ability to surf the web. Have I ever used any of that? Well, to be honest, I have tried the camera. But my experiments with it were just enough to convince me that it was better to not have a picture marking an occasion than to have one taken with a cell phone.

I think that Apple will sell a lot of these to the hipsters who need be be on what they believe is the ‘bleeding’ edge of technology and I’ll bet that in those lonely, dark hours just before dawn many of them will regret it.