The Apple iPhone has gone on sale in the Eastern and Central time zones as I write this post. I haven’t seen any lines at APple or AT&T stores in Honolulu, but I’ve been busy.
BusinessWeek points out that most corporate IT departments will continue to use devices they konw and trust, such as the Blackberry. the main concern is data security. As I noted on June 6, individual employees often want more flexibility than their corporate messaging system provides. In some industries, privacy is a major concern. It’s hard to believe that any hospital IT administrator would let employees receive patient information through their iPhone, for example. On June 19th, I posted some additional thoughts about corporate IT and the iPhone.
According to Engadget and many other sources, Yesterday Steve Jobs announced that most Apple employees will receive an iPhone in July. Apple will have a “street team” of 21,000 employees explaining the iPhone whenever they whip out the device.
Of course, there will be executives who want their own iPhone ASAP. Small business owners and sole proprietors may be among the early adopters. These users have enough authority to get what they want.
I have to agree with Walt Mossberg on several points. His review in the Wall Street Journal was mostly positive, but he did mention that there’s no clipboard in the iPhone’s editor. That’s almost a showstopper right there, but it’s something Apple can fix with an over-the-air update.
Apple’s partnership with AT&T is a bigger issue. iPhone users will find out what I learned after a few years with Cingular: EDGE is not a fast data service, even when its tweaked, as I mentioned on June 6 and others have suggested today.
I’ve been dismantling the old hpu.sodeman.com web site. Some of that content already had a new home here on billso.com, at the APAand Finding references menu items.I also fixed my old pages for the IS 6100 and IS 7010 courses, so that they redirect to the proper pages on billso.com. I have not updated those course pages for the Fall 2007 term yet.
Both Honolulu papers have added several blogs over the last year, so we are getting more local news and comments on their web sites.
Case in point: the Star-Bulletin’s So Necessary blog reported Tuesday that Magoo’, the fabled bar at Puck’s Alley near UH-Manoa, is closing its doors tomorrow. I don’t get to Magoo’s often, but it’s one of my favorite places and I’ll miss it.
There was a follow-up article in yesterday’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and a hint that new ownership may open their own restaurant in the same space next month. Magoo’s will use 10 vans to sell pizza around the island.
Kamahemeha Schools bought Puck’s Alley last year, and today the Star-Bulletin announced that Kamehameha schools has purchased the Varsity Theater across the street. The Varsity closed its doors last week, with a similar lack of advance notice. Expect construction, renovation, and new business in a year or two. Construction will finish soon at another Kamehameha property, the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, which may become a fourth campus for the schools according to another Star-Bulletin article today.
Apple and AT&T have finally announced the rate plans for the iPhone, which will be released Friday in most of the United States. If you live in Alaska, there’s no iPhone at all for you: AT&T doesn’t offer service in that state. See Consumerist and MacWorld for more details.
I mentioned on June 6 that two web sites (Consumerist and CenterNetworks) predicted that the first year cost of iPhone service would be US$1936.
I should have read the articles a bit closer. That figure was for the entire 2-year contract.
Based on analyses published at several web sites over the last 24 hours, that US$1936 figure might be low for heavy users, even as a two-year prediction.
On the other hand, users who can get by with a 900-minute per month calling plan might get two years of service at that US$1936 price.
Engadget has posted several charts that compare the various iPhone plans. Users can buy additional minutes and more SMS messages, and it looks like iPhone users will get unlimited data through AT&T’s cellular network.
Some of the iPhone plans are about $20 higher than their regular AT&T counterparts. Coincidentally, AT&T has been charging cell customers US$19.99 per month charge for an optional unlimited data plan.
iPhone reviews are starting to appear. I just watched David Pogue’s video review and read the print review on the New York Times web site. He seemed to like the iPhone. He’d probably like it more if it weren’t on AT&T. Pogue has posted his answers to frequently asked iPhone questions here.
Based on a quote from John Heilemann’s article on Steve Jobs, the Internet is bubbling with rumors that Google might buy Apple. Philip Elmer-Dewitt of Business 2.0 discusses the rumor here.
The two companies have cultures that are similar in some ways, so the rumor has some face validity.
Google + Apple = something interesting
Apple would give Google a platform to roll out some interesting consumer devices. As I’ve noted in other posts, including my discussion of the Heilemann article, the iPhone includes a few Google web applications, including mapping.
Google has shown a great deal of interest in networked storage, however. Given the pervasive nature of broadband Internet access in the US, Europe and the Pacific Rim, it’s only a matter of time until we see PDAs and portable computers that rely on services provided by Google, Microsoft, and other vendors to store user email, images, music and documents.
Google doesn’t have enough cash to buy Apple… yet
In the end, Google doesn’t have the cash on hand to buy Apple. Matther Siegler at ParisLemon ran the numbers. Apple’s network is over US$100 billion and climbing, while Google has a net worth of $US158 billion. So a buyout doesn’t make much sense this month.
Articles and contents posted on this blog represent billso's personal opinion and does not represent the views of my employer, employees or my clients. Comments are provided by individual users.
