Not everyone is happy with the new iPhone 3G, which made its official debut yesterday at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Critics say the iPhone 3G doesn't have any new exciting application to make it a "must have." Others say that while HSPA will certainly help the user experience, as will the promise of third-party applications, they were hoping for more capabilities. Here's a breakdown of some of the most vocal critics:
-- Ovum analyst Steven Hartley says that despite the iPhone's support for things such as Exchange and Cisco's VPN, most IT departments will be fearful of using iTunes to synchronize enterprise applications. "Fundamentally, the 3G iPhone is little different from its forebear. It offers nothing that many other devices can not offer."
-- John Wang, HTC's chief marketing officer, told Forbes that Apple's announcements were "old news." HTC, he notes, has been making "enterprise-ready" phones for five years, 3G phones for nearly a year and phones with global positioning system technology for more than six months.
-- Speaking at an event hosted by iHollywood Forum yesterday, Anu Kirk director of product management at Rhapsody, said that he doesn't think the iPhone 3G can duplicate iPod's success, at least not with just AT&T as the phone's only carrier. He also said that Rhapsody isn't threatened because the iPhone still doesn't provide over the air downloads on AT&T's 3G network, only over WiFi.
For more:
- see this Forbes article [1]
- see this CNET article [2]
Links:
[1] http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/06/09/3G-iphone-rivals-tech-ebiz-cx_ew_0609iphone.html
[2] http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9964258-7.html