You read it right friends. The "half the price" tag is only for people living in U.S. You'll know it if you go and see these websites: Apple's US website and Apple's Indian Website and iPhone US site and iPhone Indian site.Well, coming to the reality, face it. The Apple iPhone is just another phone or may be worse... Its like the sayings in the Sprite advert... "Dhikhawe pe na jaa, apni akal laga".
The apple iPhone is a result of a very good marketing hype made by Steve Jobs and clearly the iPhone doesn't deliver... Lets see the "FEATURES" that most people(I'm shocked to see even NDTV's Cell/Gadget guru included in it) praise on the iPhone3G.
Hyped Hardware:
The iPhone may be sleek, stylish...bhah, blah and blah...
I agree its a fantasy, its one of the best looking devices made.
1) Multitouch Screen:
Its multi touch screen is a revolution and an engineering marvel. Probably the only good and excellent part of the iPhone. But can it replace the real QWERTY keyboard?? Nope, not at all.. You cannot type on the phone without looking at it since you cant feel the keyboard.
2) Camera:
These days we have phones with great cameras.... not the iPhone. It comes with a crappy 2MP camera without a flash.
3)GPS:
Well come on, GPS is there since ages.... The initial iPhone lacked it. Most phones these days have GPS built in. Most phones that don't have GPS can also be connected to an external bluetooth GPS receiver and use the latest GPS software's/applications, which the old iPhone couldn't, initially.
4) The accelerometer:
The accelerometer which makes a phone decide the orientation of the display is being hyped as if it was introduced by Apple. The accelerometer was introduced in many phones before the iPhone, Nokia 5500 sport and N95 are some examples. The iPhone just makes full use of the accelerometer.
5) Bluetooth - Yes, but whats the use??
The IPhone 3g features bluetooth 2.0, but whats the use when it can just be used to connect to a mono BT headset, thats all. You cannot send files, no A2DP(Stereo audio over Blutooth).
6) Memory:
Well, you may think the iPhone beats other phones in this case, nope you are fooled again. Have you ever heard of mircoSDHC cards??? Hit a Google search and find out. These cards have a capacity of upto 32GB while 16GB ones will be available soon, 8 and 12Gb are already available. These cards will be compatible even on phones like the Nokia E51 which cost waaaay lesser than the iPhone. Check this. The Nokia N96 has an in built 16GB memory and can be expanded via a microSD card slot.. beat that...
Hardware Problems:
But do you know the problems the iPhone has??
1) Cracks on the body
Check this, this and this. There are many iPhone that are developing cracks.
2) Fixed Battery?
Just remember how many times you had to change a battery on your old phone?? After a year, or two?? For the iPhone, you will have to take it back to the apple guys and pay them just to replace a battery.
3) Overheating issues.
Again this is a fact, check this and this. These are issues you would have never expected out of a phone. Apparently this user's phone got so heated that the phone melted....
Software Features that are being Highlighted:
1) PUSH email:
PUSH email is the ability to "PUSH" all you mails instantly to your phone from your work or personal email. There have been many types of PUSH email like blackberry PUSH, Microsoft exchange, the new apple's mobile me and Nokia's email service. However there have also been third party providers like emoze.
This is a feature that is suddenly coming to limelight as a person who is brought back to life... This feature is a standard in all Blackberrys, Windows based phones and most Symbian based phones like Nokia, Samsung.
2) Maps without navigation
Now whats the hype being made about GPS with maps the fineprint here is that there is no navigation. Navigation is the most important feature of having GPS in a new place. It gives voice guidance to reach your new place.
3) Steve Jobs: "MobileMe not up to Apple's standards"
What more to say when Steve himself accepts the failure of MobileMe, which is hyped soooo much even today with the iPhone. Check it out right here.
4) Calendar and other games/apps:
People using blackberrys or Nokia's will simply laugh at this. These features were available in their phones for ages. Nokia had the calendar app even in some of its monochrome display phones.
Simple Software features that are lacking and hence not Hyped...
1) Cut, Copy & Paste:
When iPhone's enrterprise ability is being highlighed, where are the cut copy & paste features that even normal people, forget entrepreneurs use them in day today life.
2) Camera- Yes, but no video recording:
Clumsy and pathetic, a camera phone that cannot record video: thats the apple iPhone.
3) Safari Browser with no flash support:
This is a common feature in most Symbian based phones these days. The OSS browser on the Symbian phones these days have support for Flash Lite 3. Nokia N82, E71 are some examples.
4) Security: Encryption
I remember that in the all new Cell Guru, Rajiv was asking the audience about encryption in the phones and none of them were able to cite a phone that can encrypt their data. Well the apt example would be the blackberry's who also had a recent problem in India to share their security algorithms with the Indian Govt. Ppl pls do some home work on this. Other than this, recent phones like the Nokia E71 offer encryption built in as a standard in their phones... Well now whats your answer to this, Rajiv??
Conclusions:
The above points only suggest that the iPhone3G is not a tried and tested device. By this I dont mean that I hate the iPhone. Well, show me an iPhone that does the above and I may purchase one for myself... I do know that there are lots of Nokia's as well as blackberrys that have failed and for Apple to bring out a phone is a great success. The point I'm trying to make here is that its not worth the money.
Well, my dear friends. A phone that doesn't have most of the common features and yet is priced at a whopping Rs 31,000 for 8GB and 36,000 for 16GB only in the Indian market plus locking you to a single network is totally unfair. You have not paid a subsidised price, instead you have paid its full price but still the phone limits you.
The phone that costs roughly around 9000 bucks in the US, costs more than double here. Well again ppl on the TV say that its exclusive of the connection charges..etc. But is the Rs 31,000+ price tag in India inclusive of a contract..etc??? Phones that cost under Rs. 20,000 or may be even around Rs. 10,000 can do more than what the iPhone does.
Apple has created a history, yes it did. It has created History in making people buy a locked phone for the full price. If Apple does the same in the US, will anyone buy the iPhone??
JAAGO INDIA JAAGO!!!!
3G auction to be finalized this September.. So gear up for 3G, India.
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