The wireless handset (i.e. cellphone) market is getting absolutely insane just in time for the “economic stimulus checks” to start arriving. I am not using “insane” as some sort of bad-meaning-good euphemism; I really think people are losing some mental stability.
For those living under a rock, the next generation of the iPhone is going to be released sometime in the next 30 days. There are thousand of people pontificating online over whether it will be announced tomorrow, June 24th, or any day in between. The second debate is when it will actually be released. Of course, no one REALLY knows what the specs are for the device. Luckily that doesn’t stop people from arguing about it.
My favorite part about the next iPhone release is that the vast majority of the people talking about it have no fucking clue what they are talking about. One of the better confusions comes from people who confuse 3G wireless networking (a devilishly ambiguous term at best) for Apple’s traditional use of 1G, 2G, 3G, etc to describe revisions (or generations) of the iPod product line. Some of these people seem to think that 2G and 3G will be released at the same time. My second favorite confusion comes from people who are debating 3G data speeds using benchmarks from EVDO devices like the Blackberry 8130 (which is a particularly bad test b/c of the Blackberry servers in the middle). AT&T’s 3G network is powered by HSDPA which is completely different from EVDO (though both are in fact “3G”).
It has gotten so bad that professional technology journalists don’t even know what they hell they are talking about. I just read an article that was talking about how Blackberry beat Apple to the 3G market with the Blackberry Bold. They then proceeded to talk about the video of a Bold demo that RIM brought to their office. It is amazing, a video showing a prototype qualifies as beating someone to market.
I don’t fault anyone for the confusion though. It is exacerbated by every single handset maker trying to release an exclusive iPhone look-alike on a US carrier. Sprint has one, so does Verizon, I assume TMobile has one too; hell, I think I even heard about AT&T getting one.
I am all for an increase focus on mobile technology. I am excited to see new handsets finally being released first in the US (which was not true for years and something I predicted would happen as a result of the iPhone). Still, all of this madness may cause more harm than good. What makes a good mobile device? Is it a big touch screen and a single button at the bottom? Or it is something that allows you to communicate via multiple channels easily and quickly? If you ask me it is obviously the latter.
While I am pretty much convinced that I will be a 3G iPhone the day it is announced, I am already starting to look ahead to Android devices. Remember, I switched to AT&T so that I could easily use multiple phones. Soon I will have a 3G iPhone and a Blackberry Curve. I would like a Nokia N95, but I think I will hold out for something Android. Maybe I can finally try out an HTC handset once it doesn’t mean suffering though Windows Mobile.
The iPhone is cool and the 3G iPhone is cooler, but jesus christ people, it is just a damn phone.
Oh, and the Blackberry Bold is almost as big a disappointment as the Palm Centrino. (Though that is tainted by my growing displeasure with BIS/BES).
