Category: Blog

Now that Australia is confirmed to have the iPhone from July 11 it is time to save our cash and decide do we get an iPhone or an iPhone killer?

Samsung are hosting a local mobile phone roadshow today (Thursday), to show off all the different phones they are bringing to Australia this year. I’ve been reading a number of unconfirmed reports on the web about a new touch screen phone from Samsung that will do all that iPhone does and more, I look forward to seeing it – hopefully today.

Competitors for iPhone are few and far between. HTC has the ‘Touch‘ which is a great phone, but has not come close to capturing the minds of consumers like iPhone.

The hype is in the market, consumers have not yet laid down their cash – will a major CE company please stand up and show us your ‘iKiller’. If you don’t do it soon, the world will be introduced to smart phones via the iPhone, and like we learned about digital music players through the iPod, it will be tough road to walk once the horse has bolted.
So, for you is it an iPhone or an iPhone Killer?

Australia’s appetite for consumer technology seems to be never ending. Just recently a major national retailer that focuses on the sales on consumer electronics has increased it’s profit outlook for the year. In a time of doom and gloom for practically every, everyday essential from petrol to housing, consumer electronics remains on the shopping lists of Australians.

I have a couple of theories as to why this is so.

First up gadgets have a shorter life span. I remember being young and the family TV lasting for over ten years. Today TV’s may still last that long, but the technology change in a flat panel over a ten year period so much that after a few years the flat panel on the wall of the lounge is quickly moving to another room to be ‘the second’ tv set. With this in mind we’re encouraged to up-grade our gadgets more frequently to take advantage of the better features, technology and so on.

Gadgets are also used a lot more in our daily lives. We choose a gadget and do everything with it. It doesn’t matter whether it is a laptop, digital music player or mobile phone. The simple act of using our gadgets more today than yesterday means they wear out faster either through use, or being dropped, crushed or my own personal favourite – falling into water!

Gadgets are getting cheaper each year and therefore becoming more of a purchase option than a luxury item. Now before you yell at me in disagreement let me clarify. Have you seen a 42 inch flat tv costing $15000 lately, me neither. You can pick up a great 1080P flat screen for under $3000. Phones and digital music players packed with features are now far cheaper than five years ago. There are still top of the line devices that fit into the luxury pile, but overall if you want a great phone or a great digital music player $500 should see you purchasing one outright.

The big question is, “will the party continue”. Let’s check back on this one in six months.

Finally the iPhone 3G has been announced and it will arrive in Australia on July 11th. To purchase one you will need to sign up with either Optus or Vodafone, and both are running sign up’s for people who want to register their interest. Which phone company? It will depend on the price of the phone, the plan and the coverage of the provider, and this last point is going to be specific to your area.

This is the time when we can all point at the people who purchased an iPhone from the USA (and unlocked the device to be used on local networks) and say “Dude, you wasted your dollars”. I am sure they will disagree, however time and time again history shows that when purchasing technology, patience is a virtue.

The 3G iPhone will be the technology gadget of the year. It will have all the productivity features, ease of use and ‘cool factor’ of the 2.5G iPhone, but with much faster download ability for it’s content. But what extra features will we see in the future?

With the iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit) now available and being downloaded by small developers all the way up to mega corporations you will soon see a multitude of software available. In the future from Apple I bet we will even see a service like the Itunes music store for your pc, but sitting natively on your iPhone so songs can be downloaded directly through the phone network.

For the first time since 3G launched I am keen to trial 3G phone content, load music onto my phone and use it for more than just calls and email.

Bring on July 11.