To hold it is to love it. To first behold it is was almost spiritual – certainly sensual. But the iPhone is not a Cell Phone, as the table will show.
The line dividing what is to be or not to be a cell phone
has become blurred. Would you buy a phone
if it did not have a camera? Ok, what if
it couldn’t text? What if it had no address book? Or what if it could not
exchange contacts?
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If you have an iPhone, you’re seeing where this is going.
If you don’t have one yet, don’t get one yet. Please don’t
get one … yet rather make it your mission to let everyone and Apple know that
you are holding out, waiting for them to launch a real cell phone, now that
they’ve got their feet wet in the communications business.
From a usability standpoint, what functions must a cell
phone have to be considered a cell phone. We compare
the iPhone to the close-to-the-bottom-of-the-range, almost-free-without-a-contract,
brick no cool human would be seen dead using:
Must have’s | iPhone | Brick |
| Make/Receive calls | Check | Check |
| Edit number before a call | Oops | Check |
| Speed dial | Oops | Check |
| Voice dial | Oops | Check |
| Send/Receive SMSs | Check | Check |
| Address Book | Check | Check |
| Send/Receive contacts | Oops | Check |
| Delete SMS’s | Oops | Check |
| Forward SMS’s | Oops | Check |
| Copy and paste | Oops | Check |
| Add recipients to SMS reply | Oops | Check |
While there are Apps out there that attempt to address these
issues, they don’t yet bridge the cellular gap because they don’t integrate
into the iPhone’s architecture or security model.
But wait! Please wait and let everyone know you’re holding
out for the iCell that’s also an iPod.
So fulfilling only 27% of the cell phone requirements, the
iPhone ain’t no cell phone. But then real cell phones ain’t no iPod. And the iPhone is a great iPod in fact it can
even make calls.
