Admitting a Mistake
In my former life as an analyst, I'd often be asked to discuss technology convergence, in essence, mashing together several seemingly separate and unrelated features in one device, a conversation that almost always centered around the cell phone. Convergence rarely works, I would explain, and really, only a handful of consumer electronics products have succeeded with any degree of success: the clock radio, the camera phone, the PC (for all that it's worth).
But, it could work, right? I'd patiently continue my explanation. BOM costs would be fairly high. The device would be the size of a brick. Explaining/marketing the value prop would be fraught with difficulty. And perhaps the biggest problem, the one most difficult to overcome, was the complexity of bringing a product of value to the market, one which in the process of combining disparate features, didn't result in a device in which none of the features worked particularly well because too many concessions had to be made to fit everything together, reduce BOM costs, take advantage of existing manufacturing processes, etc. The history of consumer electronics products bears this out: the N-Gage (crappy phone, crappy game player); PSP movies (proprietary format+small screen+bad audio); combined TV-VCR (I can't even believe a market still exists for that product; one component always breaks); the all-in-one set-top box (a DVD player+DVR+set-top+router+coffee maker sounds great, but...); the ROKR (seriously, how bad was the experience of getting music to that phone?)...and the list continues. And, while the DVD functionality of the PS2/Xbox was good, Sony and Microsoft were smart enough to design the DVD experience as secondary to the gaming experience - they never billed the consoles as DVD players.
Usually, by the end of this rant, I'd like to think I'd convinced the client/colleague/friend/reporter that the reality was, maybe someone, someday could pull off a great converged device, but for the time being, we (consumers) were willing to carry around multiple devices. If I wanted to play great games, I didn't look to my iPod, rather it was all about music. If I wanted to communicate with others, it certainly wasn't with my N-Gage or my Nintendo DS, in the case of the latter, it was only about great game play.
So after all of that...I'm now ready to admit that I was wrong. Completely. Wrong.
The iPhone has changed my mind. It is the perfect example of convergence working, and not only sort of working, but working in a completely seamless and well integrated way. The overall software design is amazing, and the little details are well thought out (the phone automatically locks! the activation experience is easy and simple!) The phone is great - fabulous sound, easy to make calls, a huge leap forward in managing voice mail. Texting takes a little getting used to - but I love the threaded messaging and am getting used to tapping, rather than typing. The iPod works - the design and usability differs from the iPod, but not in a bad way (I like being able to "flip" through my albums). Most importantly, the music experience is well integrated with the voice experience. If I'm listening to music on my headset using the iPhone earbuds, the music automatically stops, and I can talk via the speaker built into the earbuds. Wow. And the web experience. Resizing pages and pictures by "pinching" the screen. All amazing.
That's not to say that it's perfect. I really want to use my own music as a ring tone. I had huge problems initially, mainly because my PC wouldn't recognize the iPhone (I have a feeling that this was more of a PC issue than an iPhone issue). I'm still not able to import my contacts from Outlook into the phone. And, I'm not sure that I'll be able to plug the iPod part of the phone into my car's iPod connector and still be able to use it as a phone (currently, the phone switches into airplane mode, but still plays music in my car). Maybe soon that scenario will work, although I'm certain it will cost me money. No games, but then, it's likely that some casual games (and only casual games) migrate to the device in the future; Bedazzled on a touch screen would be fun. Finally, it is expensive - I could have picked up a Dell Inspiron for the same price; but to be fair, the iPhone price will go down.
The more I've used and played with the iPhone, discovering new features, figuring out how it works, the more impressed and excited I've become. In my history of consumer purchases/acquisitions, I've only felt this way about a few products: my Kitchen-Aid mixer, Lolita (my Mini Cooper), my Nintendo DS, and a certain device that uses electricity rather than batteries.
I'm really excited to see how the iPhone changes my behavior. I know that I'll still use the shuffle for running/the gym. And, I suspect that I'll continue to use my iPod for music in the office and at home. I have 20GB+ of music, and the iPhone only has 8GB of storage, so in it's current form, the iPhone isn't a perfect substitute to carry all of my music in my pocket. I am excited about using the iPhone for on-the-go directions, traffic and weather checks. And, maybe I'll take more phone pictures, since now I can easily send pictures from my phone to the PC.
I was wrong, and I'm not feeling bad admitting the truth. Convergence can work. Sometimes, it feels good to be proven wrong, especially when the end result is so delightfully right.
PS: Pete, thank you for buying me the phone, and to Richard & Melissa, Gavin & Elaine and whoever else waiting at the UVillage Apple Store, thank you for agreeing to help me move so that I could use my mover money for the iPhone. I'll be sending you date/time/place information shortly.
PPS: Just kidding about the moving thing ;) You all know I'm not that cheap. Or crazy.