As I post this, the iPhone goes on sale in slightly less than ninety minutes (Pacific time zone). I write this without benefit of any hands-on time with the iPhone whatsoever... but I'll certainly try it out as soon as I get the chance - at an Apple store.
Regular readers might be amused at my speculations of an earlier handheld Wi-Fi device - the Palm Tungsten C (PDF, starts on page 4 or Google's HTML translation)
Every other writer in the tech, PC, Mac, and wireless (especially wireless telephony) industries has weighed in on the iPhone... so here are my thoughts from, of course, a Broadband Wireless Internet Access perspective... as well as some personal observations.
I personally won't be buying in, though I'll probably take a drive tonight to see if my local Cingu... er, AT&T stores are swamped by the iPhone-atics, especially in nearby Redmond, the late, now largely deserted headquarters of AT&T Wireless. At least as of last night, the closest AT&T store didn't have a rabid line forming, possibly because they just barely made the branding transition with what looks like a hastily-erected banner draped over their Cingular lighted sign (that'll probably look a bit muddled in the dark - the Cingular logo trying to shine through the AT&T banner).
What I think is right with the iPhone:
- It's beautiful, pretty, sexy, and looks remarkably easy to use (overall).
- It's a real Internet device with real access to the real Internet - no walled gardens, no not-quite-real-Internet browsers like on almost every other wireless telephony handset. It just gets you onto the Internet, with some neat gadgets to speed things along, like Google Maps.
- It has Wi-Fi built-in, and it "prefers" it (defaults to it when available); it seems like a nearly-ideal handheld "webpad".
- It "does the right thing" in regards to music and other media that you have- if you can get it into iTunes on your desktop/laptop computer, you can get it into the iPhone, with no compromises, no hassles, unlike every other wireless telephony handset that made it damn difficult to load your media and often force you to purchase media through their obscenely expensive walled-garden, use-up-your-minutes virtual stores.
- There don't appear to be any AT&T "walled gardens" content issues on the iPhone; AT&T only provides data and voice transport and associated services like voice mail, Caller ID info, etc. For most of the functions of the iPhone, your primary relationship is, like all Apple products, is with Apple (including great in-person support at the Apple Store, if you're in a reasonably-large city.) It sounds Apple doesn't allow AT&T to get in the way of, or take a cut of content downloads (which is a point in favor of using iTunes on a desktop/laptop computer, not wireless networks for content downloads).
- On a Mac (Yay! Heh!), the iPhone "just syncs" with your Address Book, Calendar, Music, (Safari - bah) bookmarks, documents (?), etc. so you have usable (as opposed to "marginally usable" on an iPod) access to all of that on your mobile device.
- The associated AT&T service plans all include unlimited (wireless telephony) Internet access, as opposed to inane metering by transfer or minutes... nor do there seem to be any restrictions on what you can do with your Internet access.
- Power / recharging "interface" is USB 2.0... very, very nice, but I'm sure that charging the iPhone will require a "dedicated" USB 2.0 port on a (powered) hub or computer... but it IS nice to not need yet another highly specialized charging brick that you'll have to lug around.
The main things I think are wrong with the iPhone (a slightly longer list):
- What gripes me most... I think it's completely odious (I'm sorely tempted to use much stronger invectives)... is that Apple cripples the non-phone functions such as the iPod functionality of the iPhone so that it's useless until you activate it by signing up for an AT&T iPhone service plan. If... and only if... the iPhone were being sold at a discount with activation, I may see the point of this decision. But the iPhone is being sold at (what apparently is) full list price - $499 and $599. Not only that... if you discontinue your AT&T iPhone service plan, you again lose all functions of the iPhone. This is Apple's arrogance at its worst.
- Apple's decision to use AT&T as the launch carrier. How can I say this... bad mistake! I've personally switched away from AT&T, back when it was AT&T Wireless (yes, way back before they were Cingular) when they made the decision to start screwing over customers whose recently-bought handsets used AT&T Wireless' TDMA network. What they did was, in essence, "starved out" the TDMA users by "robbing" TDMA channels from base stations for their new GSM network, all without even trying to persuade (at least with me) TDMA customers to convert to GSM. AT&T Wireless, Cingular's, and now AT&T-formerly-Cingular's service, at least in my experience, can be described at best as "service with a snarl", and my pleasant experiences with the retail customer service personnel of my current carrier was an absolutely night versus day contrast with the personnel at the nearby AT&T Wireless / Cingular store.
- No Instant Messaging / iChat; what looks like iChat on the iPhone is actually the iPhone's client software for wireless telephony Short Message Service (SMS) messaging... not exactly useful for chatting with your friends on Instant Messaging networks (which can really help pass the time.) I certainly applaud the usability improvement of the iChat interface applied to SMS... but I should be able to use IM and SMS interchangably. (I'm guessing the [lame] reason there's no IM client is because it would cause too much EDGE traffic, and have to keep the iPhone connected full time so you don't miss an IM message. It's not widely understood that to communicate on a wireless telephony data network like EDGE, a "session" has to be "initiated" and then "torn down"; we're talking about a circuit-switched network, not always-on packet-switched; it merely transports packets - over a circuit-switched connection.)
- Integrated, not-user-swappable battery; non-elegant or not, I predict that the very next iPhone, due out within months, will feature a user-swappable battery. That's just a necessity for the heavy users. The early adopters will put up with a non-swappable battery, but the masses won't.
- The AT&T iPhone service plans don't include any Wi-Fi "roaming"... even on AT&T-owned Wi-Fi HotSpots (formerly SBC FreedomLink). Dumb, DUMB, DUMB!!!! I agree with Glenn Fleishman that AT&T, despite owning Wi-Fi HotSpots, just doesn't get the utility of Wi-Fi at all (and haven't, ever; the most spectacularly clueless-about-Wi-Fi "professional" in the wireless industry that I've ever had the displeasure to talk to in my entire decade of writing about Broadband Wireless Internet Access... was an AT&T Wireless middle manager in Redmond, WA (pre-Cingular, pre-SBC takeover).
- No VOIP, including on the non-existent iChat client. Demand for this may well also get initially buried in the feeding frenzy, but soon enough the early adopters are going to start howling for their favorite VOIP client, especially Skype. I'm sure that "Absolutely NO VOIP, dammit and-we're-deadly-serious-about-that" was a primary condition of Cingu... er, AT&T coming onboard with Apple for the iPhone, so it will be interesting to see how the battle for VOIP on the iPhone shapes up.
Things I'm neutral about:
- Basing the iPhone on using EDGE Broadband Wireless. I part company with the rest of the pack in saying that (sight unseen), EDGE at least gets you on the Internet wherever you are. It sure beats no connectivity, or resorting to something like having to hunt for a Wi-Fi HotSpot (sometimes tough in a small town or remote area) or (shudder!) having to fall back to using dialup. So... yes, EDGE isn't as good as 1xEV-DO Rev. A or HSDPA... but, for me, it would probably be good enough, especially since I wasn't really paying extra for it on the service plan.
- YouTube... couldn't care less!!!
- Price - there's a lot of cool, new, expensive technology embedded in the iPhone, and at least we're not playing the subsidy game with this device. Price isn't going to really matter initially - Apple will easily sell out the initial production run in record time.
The Nokia N800
I've talked about the iPhone with some colleagues, and not surprisingly, they're passing on the iPhone (even some that have stayed with Apple during its darkest days of incredible "crappiness"). Their handheld Internet communications device of choice at the moment is the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. It's reasonably priced, has lots of expansion capability (USB, memory card slots), completely unencumbered by wireless telephony service plans (it's Wi-Fi / Bluetooth only), runs on Linux, and experimentation and third-party applications are actively encouraged by Nokia. There's a very triving community building around the N800; enthusiasm that might well have been directed to enhancing the iPhone. I can't see myself buying this generation of iPhone, but I'm looking forward to buying an N800 in the near future.
Update 1:
As to the odious locking of the iPhone until activated, two workarounds have been discovered to get you a "non-cellular" iPhone:
- Deliberately fail the credit check during activation by typing in 999-99-9999 as your social security number and then sign up for prepaid service, then cancel. From what I've read, the non-cellular functions of the iPhone remain active.
- It's unclear if you have to first activate the iPhone, but a non-iPhone or "no account", old, etc. SIM card will allow the non-cellular functions of the iPhone to be used.
I hadn't realized that prepaid service was an option for the iPhone (and then choosing not to add minutes). Hmmm... the iPhone is looking better.
The Nokia E90 Communicator looks like a worthy, at least in some respects, competitor to the iPhone.
Update 2:
Then there's the ever-helpful DVD Jon's approach to unlocking the iPhone (again, the cellular functions aren't active, but everything else works).
I probably should make it clear that I'm in no way encouraging or cheering cellular theft-of-service. I just feel that, for the (full, unsubsidized, as far as anyone has been able to determine) price one pays for the device, you should have the ability to use the functions of the device that are not involved with the separate, and as far as I'm concerned (should be) optional purchase of cellular service that enables the cellular functions of the device.
By Steve Stroh
This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh
Clearwire and Sprint / Nextel Likely To Combine 2.5 GHz Mobile WiMAX Deployments
Yesterday's Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint/Nextel and Clearwire have held discussions about the future of Sprint's proposed Mobile WiMAX deployments using its extensive 2.5 GHz spectrum licenses throughout the US:
At a Bear Stearns Cos. conference this week, Sprint Chairman and Chief Executive Gary Forsee suggested Sprint would consider spinning off the WiMax unit, but didn't provide further details. One idea being considered would be to spin off Sprint's WiMax unit as part of a deal with Mr. McCaw's Clearwire Corp., people familiar with the matter say. The two sides have had discussions in recent months, the people say.
I think that this has been the plan all along. McCaw has been on the inside track of the fate of the combined Sprint and Nextel (which acquired the spectrum from Worldcom) 2.5 GHz spectrum since his tenure at Nextel; perhaps the promise of ultimately wresting control of Sprint / Nextel's 2.5 GHz nationwide spectrum was McCaw's impetus for forming Clearwire.
While it's been widely stated in the popular press and the "wirelessati" bloggers that combining Sprint and Nextel's 2.5 GHz spectrum footprint was a major impetus for the Sprint / Nextel merger... I don't think that's really the case. My opinion is that combining Sprint and Nextel's 2.5 GHz spectrum was, at best, a minor consideration in the merger (even though it ended up being touted as a "major synergy"). I think that the major impetus for the merger was that both had something that the other needed to grow beyond their respective roles in the wireless industry.
Nextel had a huge, complex transition to make to resolve interference issues to public safety two-way radio systems. While it was awarded the precious last 1.9 GHz PCS block by the FCC in exchange for vacating 800 MHz channels, to make use of that spectrum it would have to build out a brand new network at 1.9 GHz, nationwide - something that it could ill-afford, both for cost and time-to-deploy reasons.
Sprint had its challenges in trying to grow against the onslaught of Verizon and Cingular/AT&T who were both growing by leaps and bounds both in acquiring customers and acquiring additional spectrum through acquisitions, and no good way to acquire additional spectrum that wouldn't conflict with the elegance of having using a single block of spectrum nationwide (no coordination or interference issues with adjacent blocks).
So, the Sprint / Nextel merger was a marriage of convenience. Nextel customers can now be migrated off IDEN on 800 MHz to Sprint's new Push-To-Talk-Over-CDMA capability on a mature and paid-for 1.9 GHz CDMA network. Using that last PCS block awarded to Nextel, Sprint can expand its networks in highly congested areas to serve existing customers and most importantly, continue to add 1xEV-DO (and Rev. A) data-only customers which are quietly becoming a major part of Sprint's overall business.
Offering Mobile WiMAX on its 2.5 GHz spectrum sounds good and gives people an impression of Sprint / Nextel being a leader and an innovator, even though I've been told by a number of sources that Sprint truly doesn't have any solid plans on how it would market Mobile WiMAX other than commodity Broadband Internet Access that happens to be mobile. But, even lacking a "vision"... Sprint / Nextel probably would deploy such a system if it could afford to do so.
But Sprint / Nextel is struggling. It has lost Nextel customers in the wake of trying to transition them from the Nextel network to the Sprint network. Sprint / Nextel's stock price has lagged since the merger, and the projected $3B cost to deploy Mobile WiMAX on 2.5 GHz is being questioned very seriously by stockholders and analysts. In short, deploying Mobile WiMAX on 2.5 GHz may well be a distraction and a financial drain that Sprint / Nextel simply can not afford at the moment.
So, it's quite logical that Sprint / Nexel would be talking with Clearwire about "taking over" their 2.5 GHz spectrum. I think that a lease arrangement is a more likely scenario than Clearwire buying the spectrum outright from Sprint / Nextel. Another reason for Sprint / Nextel to want to deal with Clearwire to take over their 2.5 GHz spectrum instead of another entity is that in Clearwire, they're not (quite) enabling a direct competitor (yet). Sprint / Nextel's ability to offer 1xEV-DO / Rev. A services and native voice, with full mobility, with a nationalwide footprint won't be able to be matched for years by Clearwire, enough time for Sprint to dig itself out of its current hole. If Sprint / Nextel were to make a deal to use their 2.5 GHz spectrum with, say, Verizon, it would be enabling a direct competitor.
For its part, Clearwire gains not only sufficient spectrum to offer services truly nationwide, but that much spectrum, nationwide, grants it credibility with investors that would then be far more likely to complete the financing that Clearwire will require to deploy Mobile WiMAX in the coming years (as opposed to its current deployment of fixed-mostly, portable-at-best proprietary NextNet Wireless / Motorola systems.)
Another synergy is that both Sprint / Nextel and Clearwire are pragmatic about entering into arrangements for others to use their networks under the other party's branding (most recently, Clearwire entering into a marketing partnership with DIRECTV and Echostar.)Yet another point in favor of Clearwire taking over Sprint / Nextel's Mobile WiMAX deployment on 2.5 GHz is that Sprint / Nextel hasn't yet deployed any substantive equipment, only test deployments (and, of course, its legacy Sprint Broadband Direct customers using Hybrid Networks (now defunct) systems.
Letting Clearwire take over its Mobile WiMAX effort will be a bitter pill for Sprint / Nextel to swallow given its high-profile promises for Mobile WiMAX and the overall favorable press and analysis it has gathered since announcing it. The PR spin will be interesting.
By Steve Stroh
This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh
Posted by Steve Stroh on June 15, 2007 at 09:31 in BWIA Industry Commentary | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (1)