1 – Apple & AT&T are trying to make this as painless as possible for you to get set up with a new iPhone. Apple is trying to revolutionize the whole industry with some great new features, starting with how you activate your phone. Apple has posted a helpful video on their site that walks you through the process. If you have ever purchased something through the iTunes music store, you will be right at home with setting up your new phone – from porting your existing number to choosing the right cell phone plan, Apple has made it easy to get it done without the “help” of misguided cellphone store reps. So when you get your iPhone, don’t hang around the store to get it activated – take it home and do it yourself and you will not only save yourself time, you will help everyone else in the store get in and out quickly.
2 – Anybody who has ever owned a first generation Apple product has usually learned that it is best to wait until the second revision of a new product before buying it. Let everyone else test out the new hardware before you so that you don’t get stuck with a buggy new product. Besides, if you are still under contract with your existing provider, you’ll want to wait until your contract has ended before you get slapped with at least $175 in cancellation fees from your current service provider. If you absolutely must get an iPhone now, the consumerist has an article on how to get out of your existing cell phone contract.
3 – AT&T is not up to date with technology. I’m sorry to say it, but Verizon and Sprint’s networks are way ahead of AT&T’s when it comes to speed. Here in Charleston, Verizon already offers their high speed EVDO network for broadband speeds on your cell phone. Sprint is rolling it out here as well. AT&T’s Edge network is a huge leap backwards from a speed standpoint. Imagine going back to dial-up after having a cable modem for your home computer. It seems crazy, doesn’t it? Apple has tried to compensate for this by adding WiFi to the iPhone, but the scenarios when this will be useful are slim to none for most of us. What this means is that you will not be watching YouTube content like they show in the iPhone commercials unless you are connected to a wireless computer network (so you would just be using your computer instead, right?). It would be unbearable to deal with streaming video on the AT&T network, hence why I believe this is the iPhone’s weakest point.
4 – The jury is out on the touchscreen keyboard. Some reports are that it is not easy to use. Apple claims that it will take about a week to adjust to using it before it becomes second nature. This is a valid reason to adhere to what I stated above – wait a while and see what everyone else has to say. That said, I believe the touchscreen interface is brilliant because it lends itself to change. If most people hate certain aspects of it, Apple can push out an update to the iPhone and enhance/change it. If I don’t like the layout of my current phone, there is not much I can do but buy another phone to change it.
Other thoughts:
– Hopefully the iPhone will be a huge success and other better providers will offer it in the future. If Apple succeeds in the cell phone market, I would expect to see more movies from more studios in the iTunes store and more DRM-free music from major record labels. This is a big deal for any iTunes user!
– If you need help getting your iPhone set up (getting your calendar, contacts, photos, etc in sync with your iPhone will take some work if you are not currently using any of the supported apps), feel free to schedule an appointment with us to get you up and running.
– Check out the guided tour video on Apple’s website to get yourself familiar with how to use this groundbreaking new technology.