
Why the iPhone isn't really revolutionary (because it's locked to AT&T and not programmable - a repeat of 1991? (YC comments)) - gibsonf1
http://www.slate.com/id/2169352/fr/flyout
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gibsonf1
When you think about it, the lock with AT&T; is a very big gamble for Apple.
The industrial design of their phone, a touch screen, can be easily cloned.
The UI, on the other hand, is their advantage. This reminds me _alot_ of 1991,
when Apple had the far superior UI (OS), but locked it to their hardware. With
the rise of PC clones in both quality and power in the early 90s and the
pitiful OS by Microsoft by comparison, it was obvious to me that if Apple were
to sell their OS for any computer, they would have become the dominant OS. A
friend of mine was a huge Apple fan at the time, and I asked "why not sell the
OS separately?" He said you couldn't because of the "magic" of the hardware
that somehow transcended their sw. Bad answer.

So here we are again, Apple with an amazing UI (OS), but with easily cloned
hardware. If AT&T; is not able to get their speed up in the next year or two,
and the iphone is cloned with a reasonable UI on a carrier such as Verizon,
Apple could actually loose their tremendous advantage and end up again with
their 7% or so of the market.

I think Iphone's future in many ways is now dependent on AT&T.; If AT&T; can
come through fast enough, AT&T; will then be made irrelevant, or AT&T; will
lumber along at their normal pace and the Iphone will be passed by clones with
better bandwidth - this will be an interesting show.

The good news for us, no matter what: Apple again has made something people
_really_ want, and with the rise of webapps, businesses _need_. The big
question: will others now jibe and take Apple's wind away because of the AT&T;
anchor?

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twism
The iphone, like all mobile phones sold in the US, is severly castrated. US
wireless carriers play their customers like idiots, and this is because most
US consumers dont know any better. Im going to wait until they start selling
non-US versions. Apple needs to captalize on the non-US market unless the
iphone goes the way of the 90s mac.

