SpawnPoint

On Tuesday (January 9th , 2007) there was little debate about the aesthetic appeal of Apple's iPhone – However, as goes the popular cliché - beauty is just skin deep.

The introduction on Tuesday was long on glitz which is very common in today’s rapidly moving and evolving technology market. And as is often want, short on details. There are a series of questions we can ask regarding Apple’s entry into a heavily invested field of competitors ranging from the small and boutique to the large powerhouses like Sony. The introduction of MP3 player support wasn’t new to the market, but the look and feel is staggeringly different.

In Apple’s typical fashion they have not responded to requests from SpawnPoint or other agencies for further details or briefings from the executives on the finer points and details of this new product. I guess we all get to wait in the trenches with the masses. And it’s a long wait.. June. Apple is pretty good at their dates and while we may see a push back as late as July, we are going to get a product in our hands in the next 6 months. When we do, we’ll be the first to share with you!

There are a number of critical issues that will be involved with the launch of the iPhone in June. We’ve compiled the “short” list.

Does the iPhone take the cake? We’ll have to wait and see on this note. We hope our users will chime in and let us know what they think as soon as they get their sweaty paws on it!

OS What???: During his keynote speech, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that the iPhone runs "OS X." While we all love the MAC… Surely this is a cut down and thinned out version of our favorite OS? The general development environment and atmosphere for APPLE products are good. What is not yet clear is the level of flexibility, scalibility, and availability (exposure and API access) to the new thinned out OS X. Other questions linger – can we play games? Can I run EXCEL? How will my email work? iTUNES of course…
Application development: What types of applications are going to be available for the iPhone? Even if Mac applications can be ported to the iPhone, will they have to be redesigned for the screen size and storage requirements of the phone? It's not entirely clear if Apple will support popular third-party mobile applications beyond the ones from Google and Yahoo. There are going to be tons of rabid young developers chomping at the bit and wanting to get their product applications exposed on the iPHONE. Will Steve Jobs let them?

Corporate Support: It’s been a long time since APPLE has created a product catering to the corporate environment. Will the iPhone support RIM PUSH? Exchange Active Synching? Yahoo Mobile?

Juice life: Steve Jobs said the iPhone will have a battery life of "up to five hours" when used for phone calls, video playback and Web browsing, and "up to 16 hours" for audio playback. What hasn’t been answered is the key question: What about standby time? Is the battery sealed like an iPOD or can I replace it like most mobile phones?

What will be the impact of application processing on the juice of the iPhone? I play a lot of WPG and WSOP Poker online….

Networking: Steve Jobs has said that the iPhone will use Cingular's EDGE network technology. Cingular said it offers "typical speeds of 75Kbps (kilobits per second) to 135Kbps." That puts it in the same range as a dial-up connection (a little faster, but far from broadband speeds). The odd thing is that Cingular offers a speedier 3G, or third-generation, wireless service--speeds of 400Kbps to 700Kbps with bursts over 1 megabit per second--in dozens of metropolitan areas called BroadbandConnect. ThinkPad laptops announced a year ago use it; so does a Palm Treo 750 announced this week. Why doesn't Apple's iPhone?

Luckily, the built-in Wi-Fi connection will help consumers get faster access to data in their homes or businesses.

Touch screen: The touch screen scrolling used on the iPhone is an intuitive way of navigating--flick your index finger toward the top of the screen to scroll up, flick down to scroll down. The lack of buttons--except for the home button--also fits in nicely with Apple's minimalist design ethos and will allow the company to use the same basic hardware footprint for a wide variety of programmable devices.

Technical Specifications

Screen size:
3.5 inches

Screen resolution:
320 by 480 at 160 ppi

Input method:
Multi-touch

Operating system:
OS X

Storage:
4GB or 8GB

Radios:
GSM Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)

Wireless data:
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
EDGE
Bluetooth 2.0

Camera:
2.0 megapixels

Battery:
Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing
Up to 16 hours Audio playback

Dimensions:
4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm

Weight:
4.8 ounces / 135 grams