[TofuTurkey]

I think of all the electronic gadgets I've owned, Apple's (and Steve's) products are the ones that are the boldest and best embody what the future might be like. Most gadgets simply make incremental improvements based on what the marketing departments think consumers want, it's rare that someone recognizes that people usually can't be wanting what they don't know, and even more rare that someone is bold enough to realize his vision.

Personally I think it's good that Apple is catered towards only a niche market, mainly consisting of hip, young people who are more open to innovation. This I think makes the company more agile: they don't have to deal with legacy products as much as Microsoft since people are more likely to upgrade. Apple fanboys are also more forgiving of the initial bugs ever present in new products (especially in an area completely new to the company, such as cellphones), enabling Apple to stay afloat, and ahead of its competition. I actually hope Apple will never grow to the scale of Microsoft, there's going to be too much baggage.

I think the iPhone is a great platform that merges the web with a personal device. The interface makes browsing the web actually pleasant from a phone. Understanding that the company has limited number of programmers, and looking at the possibilities enabled by AppStore and the iPhone SDK, I'm willing to ignore the fact that the iPhone Bluetooth still doesn't support A2DP.

In summary, I think Apple embodies much of the innovation in the electronic industry today. It is bold enough to take big steps, and Steve is charismatic enough to influence related companies (like AT&T) to collaborate and make changes so that things can work better as a whole. That is truly difficult today.

Edit: It's really hard to predict what the future of the electronic landscape will look like. Google was able to grow to its formidable size because when it was born the big players didn't think much of search and thus left it alone.

[skierman64]

Originally Posted by FirstClass

People who want to share photos with their friends while on the go? Apple claims that the iPhone is a revolutionary mobile device, but it lacks features found on free handsets. That's just in poor form. It's not like it would be difficult to implement.

Every cell phone from a major cell phone company can receive email. Most folks don't even know that their cell phone can receive email. For example, Verizon customers can receive email at their "phone number"@vtext.com or 1234567890@vtext.com or for T-mobile, 1234567890@tmomail.com. If you can't mms a pic, just send it by email.

It's not even a difficult work around.

Also, why do you need a new phone in VA, just get your current Voyager switched over to a new number in VA. No extra cost involved. Besides, why do you need a local number there, everyone has unlimited long distance on their cell phones now. I know guys that I work with in the military who still have the same phone number they came into the military with, even though they've lived 5 different places in the 10 years since they got the phone.