Written by: Tom Sawyer

Kim, thanks for stepping in for me last week.

Let’s get right down to it and talk about some of the questions raised last week. Yes, AT&T has an exclusive contract with Apple to sell the iPhone. How long that will last is a mystery to many because nobody seems to have seen the details of this agreement. There are indications of the deal ending sooner than originally thought: there will not be revenue sharing and the phone will be subsidized which accounts for the new pricing.

Did you know that Sprint and Verizon have a different technology, CDMA, which is a US-only technology for the most part? Most of the rest of the world used a technology called GSM (no definition right now); T-Mobile and AT&T use this technology in the US, but even their technologies aren’t exactly the same when it comes to 3G (more on that later).

What is the big deal with the iPhone and why has it become so popular in only one year? It is the closest thing to having a computer with you, as far as cell phones go at least, due to the Internet experience. Using the Internet on the iPhone looks and operates very much like a home computer or laptop – at least like an Apple computer. This isn’t the easiest thing to accomplish or else other companies would do it. It is also easy to get the hang of using an iPhone, the iPhone includes an iPod and is an overall sexy device as far as electronics go!

3G is the third generation of mobile phone standards and technology, superseding 2G. It is based on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) family of standards under the International Mobile Telecommunications programme, IMT-2000.
3G technologies enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephony, video calls, and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment. Additional features also include HSPA data transmission capabilities able to deliver speeds up to 14.4Mbit/s on the downlink and 5.8Mbit/s on the uplink.

In other words, 3G is a faster network. Sprint and Verizon have 3G networks as well – it is called EVDO on those carriers. It should be noted, every time you use your phone or transfer data, you are not necessarily using a 3G network if your cell provider has one. If no 3G network is available, due to lack of service or location (out in the boonies), a cell phone will fall back to older technology. All of this is done seamlessly.

Until now, the iPhone was somewhere between a smartphone and a regular phone. The knock on this device was the fact that there was no Microsoft Exchange support meaning business people could receive their corporate email and were stuck with using their Blackberries. Well, this is about to change with iPhone 2.0 software. Another positive change is the ability to download applications using the 3G network instead of being forced to be near a wireless hotspot; this will include (hopefully) the ability to download content via iTunes.

The virtual keyboard on the touchscreen has caused much angst in the cell phone community, but Apple is determined to change the game. Hey Apple must be doing something right because other companies have been working hard to come out with “iPhone Killers.” Sprint Touch, Samsung Instinct, LG Voyager and Blackberry Thunder are just a few of the phone out now or coming out soon that will include capabilities clearly aimed at mimicking the iPhone experience. So far they have all seemed to fall short in one way or another, but maybe the upcoming Blackberry Thunder will fair better.

There are many more features of the iPhone than mentioned in this article. The iPhone will probably be the best mobile computing solution short of a laptop once the new model comes out. The end result will be a new way of using a cell phone for everyone because the iPhone has forced other companies to compete on their level. Is this a big deal? I say yes because it is a game-changer!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under Random Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.