Becoming an iPhone Believer

I used to be an iPhone skeptic. Then I cleaned out my bedroom closet. Let me explain. In the two hours or so I spent sorting the detritus of the last six years of my life, I came across my first iPod, the first-generation, Mac-only version that Apple unveiled in late 2001 to a world that initially didn't seem to understand the significance of what was coming. It was then that I was reminded of the introduction of a good but imperfect product that would be tinkered with and improved on by the Apple machine, all the while ushering in nothing less than a revolution in consumer electronics. History may soon repeat itself.

IPod's Rocky Intro
Think back to what a history it has been. That first iPod was introduced weeks after September 11, and its early days coincided with the economic malaise that followed, especially concerning all things connected to technology. Much of the air had been let out of the Internet bubble, and gadgets came to seem frivolous items that the newly laid-off couldn't afford anyway.

When I went to Comdex, the once-huge computer industry trade show in Las Vegas that November; the slowdown in the tech economy was palpable and advanced. The formerly bacchanalian festival of the digital set was a downright sullen affair. But it was at a Comdex press conference that I saw a glimmer of hope for better things to come: I saw the iPod up close for the very first time in the hands of a friend.

I was intrigued. The simple genius of adapting a product that until then had held only marginal appeal was apparent. The first iPod loaded music faster than other players on the market. Anyone could understand its fabulously easy wheel-and-button interface in seconds.

Try, Try Again
I knew right then it would be a hit—but one of limited impact. There were, indeed, a lot of things wrong with the first iPod. It didn't work with computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, which severely limited its overall appeal. The $400 device held only 5GB of music, good enough for 1,000 songs; cheaper players could already store four times as much. The battery proved to have a short life span. Those complaints topped a long list.

But we now know that the first iPod was just that: the first. Apple learned from what worked and what didn't and made adjustments. Soon the wheel was gone, replaced by a solid-state wheel that responded to touch. Hard-drive capacity increased within two years to about 40GB. Eventually a cold day in hell did arrive, and the iPod supported Windows users, turning the iPod trickle into a torrent. And after a few lawsuits and bad publicity, the batteries got better.

Six days before the iPod was unveiled, Apple reported that it finished fiscal 2001 with a $25 million loss on sales of $5.4 billion. Five years later it ended 2006 with a $2 billion profit on revenue just shy of $20 billion. You know the rest.

IPhone Gripes
This in mind, I'm not all that concerned about the many criticisms that have been flung at the iPhone since it was introduced this month.

Take the complaint that the phone is available only from Cingular, the wireless unit of AT&T that will soon be rebranded as AT&T Wireless. Cingular has a spotty record for quality of service, but I can't think of a single U.S.-based wireless carrier whose quality isn't spotty.

And having the iPhone in its stable gives Cingular two things. First, the carrier gets a shot at attracting customers away from rivals Verizon Wireless, the joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone; Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile; and Sprint Nextel.

Second, it gives Cingular even greater incentive for ensuring excellent coverage, thus heading off complaints from new iPhone users. Nothing will make Cingular look bad like lackluster network performance for new iPhone owners.

Next, I'm not all that worried about the fact that the phone doesn't support HSDPA it's essentially broadband for the wireless phone. Yes it's fast, but it's not yet all that widely deployed in the U.S. Why release a phone that supports a technology that only a few people can use? Adding the components to support this high-speed access would only boost the cost to build it and leave a lot of frustrated customers wondering when Cingular will get around to deploying it in their area. Truly put off by the lack of HSDPA support? Wait for iPhone version 2.0.

The lack of wireless downloading directly to the iPhone itself is another source of disappointment. To that I respond, "What is it about 99¢ per download that you don't like?" Adding a wireless download means cutting Cingular in on the revenue pie, and that means boosting the price. The 99¢ price for iTunes downloads is something of a sacred cow at Apple, and anything that could result in raising that price isn't likely to happen in the foreseeable future.

Worth the Wait
And then there's the price of the phone itself: $499 for the 4GB version and $599 for the 8GB version. Yeah, those are high prices for a cell phone. But the iPhone is a little more than a phone. It's a video-ready iPod. How much do you pay for an 8GB iPod nano now? The answer: $249. Add that, plus the cost of a gorgeous, wide video screen to the price of, say, a Palm Treo 750, which I see listed for $399, and you're at a price that's well north of $600.

If your list of iPhone complaints is growing the more you think about it, think back to the original iPod and what's come since. If there's something you still don't like about it come June, save your money and wait a while. History shows that it's only going to get better with time. The iPhone isn't just one product, but I think the first of what will be many generations of iPhone. The iPod took more than five years to reach the point it has today, and the iPhone is a direct result of that evolutionary process. And evolution, as we all know, takes time.