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iPhone launch hype, the day after

I wasn’t planning on purchasing an iPhone (primarily because I’m on T-Mobile), but I’ve been watching the hype and subsequent launch with great interest. I love smartphones and tend to buy a new one every six months or so. Partly because of new features I *need* and the rest is I just love playing with the newest gadgets (much to my wife’s dismay).

I’ve been waiting for years for mobile content development to really take off, but there has yet to be a compelling reason for developers to make a big push into the mobile web. Yes, we have billions of people using SMS, but there’re not surfing the web on their phones. With Apple’s marketing muscle, I have hope we may be moving closer to a turning point.

After yesterday’s iPhone launch, I was excited to start reading some of the initial feedback this morning. Of course I started with my Twitter friends. Here’s the summary: some like Steve Rubel are complaining they now have an iBrick due to activation issues while others like Scoble are praising the iPhone as the second coming.

It appears that those who were actually able to activate their iPhone absolutely love the device. Prior to Friday’s launch, all the concerns were on the phone’s technology (potential issues with touch screen typing) and the speed of AT&T’s network. In reality, the biggest issue is just getting the phones activated so purchasers can start using them.

It will be interesting to see over the coming days where the fault for this lies. Was it AT&T not being prepared for the onslaught of new iPhone customer activations? Or was it Apple for forcing iPhone activations through the recently updated iTunes?

If you purchased an iPhone, I’d love to hear your initial thoughts.

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2 Comments

  1. I purchased the iPhone Friday night and have been using it every sense. Now, note that I am on the road a lot and so having the internet was one great feature, I got to keep up on the Nascar race. The other great feature is the Map program. It is one thing to look up things when you are at your computer but how often are you out on the town or traveling and you want to find something, Starbucks, a steakhouse, AAA, just punch it in and there are pins marking your search everywhere! Fantastic. I have had a Palm Treo before and would say with the touch screen, welcome to the 21st Century! They are saying the second generation might have GPS capabilities but if you don’t need that, this is a Great Phone. The keyboard is easy. NOTE: I did watch all the tutorials prior to purchase so I had an idea on how it would work, and it did! The other nice thing, one unit! Not one phone, one PDA, one iPod and one disposable camera (don’t always want to carry the big digital camera) plus all the other features of the internet. I live in Portland, OR and have not had a problem with the internet until I was in certain parts of Sacramento, CA, but that is Sacramento. My Treo had issues there also. Hope this helps.

  2. One other note. I have not been able to find a Junk Filter for the mail program on my iPhone which is a real pain. I have delete, no joke, hundreds of extra emails. As they say, it’s not that it can’t do it, it’s when will the software update be out to fix that!!