[quote]rainjack wrote:
I just can’t figure out the demand for all the whistles and bells.
They are supposed to be telephones. You know - you dial it, or answer it, then you talk.
[/quote]
Are you aware of the smart-phone market? iPhone isn’t a cell phone in the traditional sense. It is a “smart phone”. Smart Phones are, basically ultra mobile PCs that do telephony. The primary demographic for these types of phones are business users that need extensive anywhere internet and PDA functions and nerds that like gizmos.
It has never been a mainstream market, and I don’t think the iPhone will change that. But, if the iPhone user experience is superior to that of blackberry/palm/treo/lg/samsung then I think Apple will grab a fairly large portion of that market.
If the iPod is any model, it stands to reason that Apple is planning more phones. iPhone mini, iPhone nano. Priced closer to normal phones($50-200) lacking some of the features of the iPhone, but still providing a superior user experience(ideally)
Apple seems very serious about grabbing a decent cut of the cell phone market. They are officially shooting for 1% of the US market which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is still about 12 million phones, and enough to firmly keep them in the phone business.
Personally, I’m sick of the iPhone hype. Most people will never get one, most people have absolutely no need for one. The product is far from being perfect(although it apparently is exceedingly good) I am not entirely sure what Apple is planning, but I think they know what they are doing.