Apple iPhone

Introduction

Apple's 30-year history is full of highs and lows, which is what we wouldexpect in a highly innovative company. They evolved throughout the yearsinto an organization that is very much a representation of its leader, Steven Jobs. Apple made several hugely successful product introductions over theyears. They have also completely fallen on their face on several occasions.Apple rarely introduces a new type of product. Thus, instead of being thepioneer, they are an expert "second mover" by refining existing products.Portable music players and notebook computers are some of theseexamples. Apple increases the appeal of these products by making themstylish and more functional. They now appear poised to make significantstrides in the home computer market and to creating a total digital lifestylewhereby the home is a multimedia hub.Apple lives its vision through the technologies it develops for consumers andcorporations. It strives to make its customers masters of the products theyhave bought. Apple doesn't simply make a statement. It lives it by ensuringthat its employees understand the vision and strive to reach it. It has putsystems in place to enable smooth customer interaction. It has putobjectives in place to continuously move forward; implemented strategies tofulfill these objectives; and ensured that the right marketing, financial andoperational structures are in place to apply the strategies.Apple's iPhone, iPod and ITunes are a powerful combination that fosters anetwork style of increasing returns. By selling iPhones, Apple increases theconsumer demand for music from iTunes. By placing more musical choiceson iTunes, there is more demand for iPods and iPhones. Apple had 70% of thelegal music download market in early 2005.It is said that variety is the spice of life. This is indeed very true and it is alsotrue for music. In addition, if one has an iPhone, there is no better way tohave music on the go. It does not matter where one is heading to; everyonewants music in his/her life. The portable CD players are now a thing of the past. Digital music isavailable as MP3's. These files are easily carried with someone be it in anMP3 player or an iPhone. The Apple iPhone makes retrieving one’s favoritetunes in a snap. Just a touch of a finger and one can quickly browse throughall of his music.

iPhone 3G

The

iPhone

is an internet-connected multimedia smart phone designed andmarketed by Apple Inc. Its minimal hardware interface lacks a physical

keyboard, so a virtual keyboard is rendered on the multi-touch screeninstead. With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support forenterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone3G puts even more features at one’s fingertips. And like the original iPhone,it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreeniPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and adesktop-class web browser.

Music Features:

The iPhone rules the music phone industry; it easily synchronizes up withiTunes and plays both iTunes formats and MP3s. Finding one’s tracks isbeyond easy with this phone, one can simply flick through the album coverswith the ‘cover flow’ feature, tap the album he wants to listen to and drilldown to the song he wants. It uses the same kind of docking connection asthe iPod, so it works with all kinds of iPod toys and accessories.It has the ability to play streaming music but cannot download songs fromiTunes directly; one has to use his PC or Mac for transfers. According to pre-release reviews, the sound quality for music was amazing and the ear budsthat came with the phone were adequate.

Voice/ Text Features:

This cell phone includes all basic cell phone features such as text messaging,speaker phone, conference calling (up to five) and voice dialing. The most wonderful, exciting and practical feature in the iPhone is the visualvoicemail. With visual voicemail one can view his voicemails similar to anemail inbox. So one can actually sort through his voicemails and listen to justthe ones he wants and in any order. One can even back up the recording andlisten to any part of the message without having to re-listen to the wholemessage. It also has threaded text display, so one can see an entire textconversation and easily stay on topic.

Internet Features:

The iPhone uses a Safari type browser for web browsing which worksexceedingly well. The phone has a huge 3.5 inch screen that displays fullweb pages and one can easily zoom in on an area of interest with a few tapsof his finger. One can also just tilt the phone to look at web pages in portraitor landscape orientation. The iPhone can automatically detect and connect toa Wi-Fi connection.

Lifestyle Tools:

This phone includes the basics, like a calendar, calculator, alarm clock andan airplane (or flight) mode. It also has an excellent map and travel tool thatutilizes Google maps. With Google maps and the iPhone, one should be able

to easily find restaurants, hotels or other points of interest in any city one isvisiting. It does not however offer GPS tracking, so one can view maps butthe phone cannot tell where the person is on the map. This phone has a 2 megapixel camera and a great photo organizer. One canalso zoom in on images and reposition them quite easily. It can also playmovies and video clips and it has a direct connection to YouTube.

Technical Specifications:

The iPhone offers exceptional battery life, four or eight GB of flash memoryand a powerful operating system. It also has a big, gorgeous screen that candisplay millions of colors. Typically, high end phones are battery drainers, but the iPhone has a sevenhour battery life for general use. This phone is a bit wider than the othermusic phones, but it has a much larger screen, otherwise it offers a fairlytypical height and weight. Nearly all interactions with the phone take placethrough the multi-touch screen.Compared to other music phones, this cell phone has the best internal flashmemory capacity at 4GB or 8GB. But it does not have an extra memory slot.Unlike other music phones, the iPhone offers a high-end operating system, itruns OSX. The screen offers two orientations and switches by turning thephone. Movies can also be switched between standard view and wide screenview with just a few taps.One major problem with this phone is that the battery is expected to onlylast 300 to 400 charges, which means one might have to replace his batteryonce a year for about $80 plus shipping.

Significant Network Management Problems

In April of 2007, Peter Oppenheimer (Apple's CFO) announced that Apple willbe using what is commonly referred to as the "subscription method of accounting" for sales of the iPhone where the sales revenue from the iPhoneis deferred and recognized over a 24-month period instead of at the point of sale. Both that decision and the underlying reason in support of the decisionwould go down as being one of the worst in Apple's history. In his openingstatement of the2007 earnings call, Oppenheimer made the followingalarming comments:

"Since iPhone customers will likely be our best advocates for the product,

wewant to get them