iPhone: The world in the palm of your hand

I mentioned in my introductory post that if Apple was going to break into the smartphone/PDA market, it would have to be with a technology that is both transformative and disruptive. The new Apple iPhone, set to ship this coming June, is poised to be that rule breaker. 

The one key thing that sets Apple products apart from the pack is their fundamental simplicity, a hallmark of the company's products from the first graphical user interface of the original Mac in 1984 to the click-wheel of 2001's iPod.  Apple now intends to grab some of the smartphone market, again, by keeping it simple. 

Only 11.6 mm thick, the device sports a single large screen, 3 1/2 inches diagonally across, and a single "home" button at the bottom. Press it, and the bright 160 ppi screen comes to life, as seen in the image above. From there, virtually anything you want to do, from a simple phone call, to listening to your music collection, to watching a film you just downloaded from the iTunes Music Store, is only a few finger-taps away. 

Over the last two and one-half years, the iPhone team has been developing a completely new user interface allowing for better interplay of hardware and software. But at its core is something Apple fans are already very familiar with: Mac OS X. Yes, thanks to OS X under the hood, this device is capable of desktop-class applications and networking. 

The iPhone automatically syncs with iTunes on your PC to import/play songs and movies. But through iTunes, it can also be set up to import your notes, e-mail, and bookmarks.

Its proximity and ambient light sensors know when you're using the phone, and pause other functions (like music or movies) until you're finished, preserving battery life.

The cell phone supports GSM and EDGE, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and the software moves seamlessly from one environment to the other without you even noticing it. The phone will merge two calls into a 3-way conference call by pushing one button.

The iPhone also includes a speaker, a microphone, an iPod connector, and a 2-megapixel camera. The built-in imaging software works like iPhoto. You can open view your pics in slide show mode, and go from one to the next by swiping your finger across the touchscreen. You can expand or shrink your images on the screen by touching the screen with both thumb and forefinger and simply pinching or pushing your fingers apart. You can also zoom in on an image by merely tapping it twice.

Your e-mail and phone lists are scrolled the same way, by stroking your finger up or down on the screen. The text messaging feature will look familiar to anyone using iChatAV, the QWERTY keypad only pops up on demand, and disappears again when you'd rather watch "Pirates of the Caribbean." Another interesting feature: If you rotate the display 90 degrees, the unit senses it and changes the display to landscape mode.

Internet capabilities include the Safari browser, rich HTML e-mail, any IMAP or POP3 mail service, Google Maps, widgets, and full-size web pages.

Steve Jobs' iPhone demo ended with Jobs talking to a friend, finding a specific image from his local drive, and e-mailing it to the caller all at the same time, without losing a word of conversation. Then, with the Safari browser, he went to Fandango to find a film they could see later at a local theater. When the call was complete, iPhone went back to an iTunes song that had been playing before the call originally came through.

Jobs claims that the iPhone's battery will last for 5 hours using the phone, browser and/or video, and up to 16 hours of straight audio playback.

Cingular (whose service wasn't exactly rated as top-notch by CR's readers) is Apple's exclusive partner for the cellular services. That makes this a GSM-only phone, and means it won't offer the high-speed EV-DO Internet access that Sprint and Verizon customers take for granted (and, unfortunately, it doesn't offer Cingular's high-speed HSDPA service either).

Extra accessories include a 1-button activation Bluetooth headset, and iPod-style headphones, which include a switched-mike on the cord.

The iPhone will be priced at $499 for a 4GB model, and $599 for 8GB. 

I would imagine that, because the cell phone industry shipped more units than all other digital devices combined last year (including gaming consoles, music players and desktop and laptop PCs), a whopping 957 million altogether, Apple figured it was high time to make a play in such a huge market, only 1 percent of which would make the initiative very successful for the company. Jobs even went so far as to highlight this fact in a slide, pointing out that garnering such a share by 2008 would mean 10 million units shipped; not a bad goal, considering it took Apple over 18 months to sell its first million iPods.

— Thomas A. Olson 

Thomas Olson, the Publishing Systems Administrator for Consumer Reports' Editorial, Design, Production and Pre-Press groups, has been a Mac enthusiast since 1984.