Apple iPhone

If you haven't heard of the Apple iPhone by now, then you're a bushman who lives in the Kalahari Desert, there are at least three "click" sounds in your name, and there is no possible way you can be reading this right now. The rest of you have been slammed by every possible media to be SURE you know of the latest chunk of techno geekery to come out of Apple - The iPhone, a gadget that plays music, plays video, has a touch screen web browser and - get this - places phone calls. Update patches may also include a can opener, cab fare, and a reasonable withdrawal of forces in the Middle East. Or not. Either way, you will pay through the nose for it. Like everything "cool" that runs on electrons, the iPhone is wicked expensive. And I do not mean the handset itself. (Though it is too - $499.) The pricing plans for using the thing are, to my way of thinking, astronomical:

Courtesy of Yahoo! Tech Blog AT&T is selling half the amount of minutes offered for this price by other cell companies. They also do not take into account the $36 set up fee, nor the required two-year contract. All for a gizmo that is just supposed to make phone calls - a function that not long ago could be taken care of in a booth for a quarter. Sure, the iPhone also plays music and videos... but guess what? If you don't activate it as a phone, NONE of the features will work. If you plan on buying this as a hip music/video player that you will someday use as a phone, you will find yourself the owner of an iPaperweight. And you will be iSad. And did I mention that the phone will run on EDGE, the slower, third generation cellular network? I did not, but I pretended not to know as a literary device to illicit awe. Not that I needed to - how awed will you be when you shell out all of that money, and you find yourself stuck with a below-average phone? I think it interesting to hear that even Verizon took a pass on the iPhone. The point I'm getting at is that these "neat" items are not only questionably useful, they are hideously over-priced. Are all of the features on this phone interesting and fun? Absolutely! The idea that I could switch from my music to an incoming phone call while jogging is a hoot. So is the utility of going on line while waiting at the airport. But ask yourself: Do you find yourself in that situation often? Apple is banking on enough people paying all of that money just for something that is, admittedly, exceedingly keen. In my opinion, however, all the money being asked for will be the bucket of ice cold water thrown in their collective faces. Fact is, cell phones themselves were inhibitivly expensive only a few years ago. Only CEOs - of major corporations - could afford to have them. Now high school students change up cell phones about once a year. Market demand increased the number of phones being built, and competition brought down the price of both service plans and handsets. My advice is to wait another five years for this kind of device. Make no mistake, the features and utility are definitely not empty promises, and this kind of phone is definitely the wave of the future. The problem is that this isn't the future - it's the present. And we have other things to spend our money on today.

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)

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