Bernard Meisler

The waiting’s almost over. The iPhone’s finally almost here – the official release date is June 29th. Will it be a smash hit, or abysmal failure? (Or both?) I tend to think the iPhone’s gonna suck, here’s why in a nutshell:

1. No tactile keyboard – the keyboard is mechanical-only. I have one of these on my Treo 650, and I hate it. My fingers are probably about average size, and I find using a mechancial keyboard difficult – I always use the physical, tactile keyboard. No choice on the iPhone.
2. It’s on a 2.5G network, which isn’t even a technology, but marketing-speak. Man, if Helio can release a 3G phone, why can’t Apple? Without getting too technical, 2.5 G is slowwwwww…which brings us to point 3:
3. It’s only on Cingular/ATT. Without a doubt, the most depressing part of last January’s MacWorld keynote speech - if not my entire life – was watching the shlumpy Cingular CEO stiffly read off the teleprompter about how happy he was to partner with Apple, while Jobs stood next to him, mentally groaning. Perfect representation of the company – stodgy, out of it, lost. And oh yes – Cingular has the worst service of any cel company, in case you were thinking of switching providers so you can get an iPhone.
4. It’s a closed system. Developers can’t build – and you can’t install – cool, 3^rd party software. Any apps will be browser-based, in the (execrable) Safari format – which is probably why Apple released a PC version of Safari last week. I certainly can’t think of any other good reason.

Why it will be a smash hit – my 6-year-old daughter not only knows what it is, she wants one – “Look Daddy, you control it with your finger!” And yeah, with all it’s problems, I want one too. But I’m gonna wait till at least the 2nd generation…