Inc.com: iPhone is "next major computing device"

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See, I had exactly the opposite reaction. Windows Mobile Smartphones (and to a lesser degree, Blackberry and Symbian devices) always leave me feeling no illusions about the fact that the device is a computer first and foremost and a phone is just one of the apps. In contrast, the 'Hi, I am a computer' aspect seems to just sort of step out of the way and let you DO things with the iPhone.

I dealt with Windows Mobile devices as my main smartphone for years, which are basically anemic little low-power computers. Windows Mobile makes no attempt to disguise the fact that you are dealing with a wannabe computer rather than a phone; the 'phone' app feels like a shoddy Visual Basic VoIP app, and in general I often felt like the device got in the way of what I wanted to do, rather than just doing it.

Then I tried the iPhone, and I thought, 'oh! It's a PHONE!' Because... well, the iPhone /is/ a phone. It is many other things, too, but still definitely comes across as a /phone/, not a computer with a telephony app. (Even though it IS a computer with a telephony app.)

If that makes any sense.

Yeah sorry Frank if it threw you but when someone says "It's a portable computer...." it frustrates me as for the life of me I can't get Photoshop to open on it, or Vienna, or.... the only thing it seems to do is make calls and browse the internet just like ALL my other phones over the past 40000 yrs, yes I'm prehistoric but then again....

8>)

Rob:
I agree with your assessment of what SHOULD be. Companies SHOULD use standards. But there is reality. At my company (a bank whose credit cards you likely have in your wallet), we're a Microsoft shop and that infrastructure is not going to change anytime soon. Yet countless employees are clamoring for an iPhone. We simply cannot grant those requests as the iPhone won't do Exchange. As for MS unpublished interfaces, the Blackberry interfaces to Exchange just fine. Thus, it's a Blackberry these employees will get. And Apple is shut out. Needlessly. And my claim stands--that if Apple is ignoring Enterprise (which we both seem to agree it is), then the original article should not have used the term "Enterprise" in its iPhone claim.

I spent Thanksgiving weekend with my 75 year old father from Canada and he was wowed by my iPhone. He can't wait until it's released there. We have always been a family to go to a reference to settle an argument, and having that capability in my pocket with an elegant interface was impressive. Too bad the TUAW site is one of the slowest to load- it always hangs forever at the end and I impatiently stop loading.

#22 - very good points re the drip-feed release

That said, I still want the damn thing in my grubby little hands :-)

Most gadget freaks that post here in their impatient fury can't seem to get past the current feature set of the iPhone when assessing its prospects for the near or far future (a fool uttereth all his mind, but the wise one keepeth it in till later, said Solomon).

I believe the article's author is talking about the emergence of the "convergence device" as the next mass-computing platform:
While the "jail-break" applications and the Webkit-legit ones written so far clearly show the vast potential of such a device, great care has to be taken at this early stage of development of the platform to avoid most of the irreversible pitfalls that PC development has fallen into. The implications of this potential are just too vast and complex to even begin to discuss here.
In this light, I am not in the least surprised at the "drip-feed release" approach by Apple, themselves a previous and tragic victim of several wrong turns in PC development.
One thing they are refusing to get wrong this time is neglecting to recover the vast sums they spend on Research and Development, thereby ensuring that they are not just going to be doing all the innovating for other gormless, witless and unimaginative parasites to run away with efforts they have not contributed to in any significant way. And believe me, from the USA through Europe and the Far East, those parasites loom large and thick as swarms of hungry locusts waiting for the next free ride...
Not this time, I suspect, not if the folks at Cupertino can help it. Once bitten, thrice shy.

Great list! I'm a huge fan of www.textonphone.com for all my ebook needs. I recently discovered it and absolutely love it!

Much as I hate to say it, the drip-feed release of such a cool device to half a dozen countries (so far) makes Apple look like a bunch of money-hungry chumps. I would love to love the iPhone, but Stevo and his marketing gimps won't release it in my country (and I'm not willing to buy a hacked iPhone that could potentially become an iBrick)

@JKT:

Why should he consider getting into the enterprise market? Microsoft has that hands-down, and as long as they control the de facto standards, Apple would end up chasing Microsoft forever. The margins at the enterprise level are just not worth that Sisyphean effort. As the saying goes, "Nobody got fired for buying Microsoft."

For every enterprise-level customer, there are a number of SOHO customers not tied to Exchange/Outlook, and are willing to embrace published protocols (IMAP, SMTP, LDAP, &c) without becoming reliant on Microsoft's proprietary extensions.

Apple's server offerings work well with Linux and Windows, because they follow the published rules. An iPhone will work well with a Linux server, because both follow the published rules. Only Microsoft's server offerings refuse to tell you what the rules are.