The clairvoyant fake Steve Jobs yesterday warned the Apple faithful that the iPhone media backlash has begun. The faux Apple icon had this observation about the media and the imminent about-face drubbing that the iPhone will receive in blogs, newspapers and magazines:
They boost you up and hype your stuff and turn you into the reincarnation of Buddha himself; then they tear you down…Sooner rather than later some a-hole who thinks he’s really smart is going to write the “contrarian” piece saying Apple is crap.
The device, which has generated anticipation unlike any other piece of consumer electronics, ever, is now starting to undergo intense skeptical scrutiny even though few people (maybe 10 outside of Apple and AT&T) have gotten their mitts on the thing yet. To wit, this article today by the LA Times’ David Colker that likens the iPhone to the highly anticipated but phenomenally unsuccessful PCjr, which IBM debuted in 1983, only to discontinue the model a year later.
Colker raises a lot of good points though. After praising the iPhone for its ability to render the Internet in a more user-friendly fashion, for its sleek design, for its Wi-Fi connectivity features, he raises a raft of potentially lethal drawbacks.
Among these nagging issues (aside from the much fretted-about touchscreen keypad):
As Colkin notes, bloggers and geeks will amplify mercilessly these problems. But will that be enough to stop the iPhone from changing everything in just about every business, from mobile voice to entertainment to Internet content? Probably not.
On Friday, S&P technology equity analyst Scott Kessler reiterated his firm’s 4-star buy rating on Apple. Even after noting “concerns” about the iPhone, Kessler believes that Apple will still meet its target of selling one million of the gizmos by year-end 2008.
Fasten your seat belts and stay tuned for a dust storm of endless critiques of the iPhone. That doesn’t mean, however, that Apple’s iPhone will go the way of PCjr.
Cynthia Brumfield at 10:19 AM|Comments(0)
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