Decay On Net

Everyone is talking about the iPhone that Steve revealed to the world yesterday. I was excited too. I stayed awake until 2:30am last night just to watch read steve's keynote. I couldn't load the live cast. I guess the server is overloaded with gadget freak all over the world. In the end, I have to settle with the live text commentary from macrumors and engadget. I could almost smell the iPhone by reading those text and seeing the pictures. No kidding.

What is the iPhone exactly?

What Apple has given us is not really new. Its actually a large screen PDA phone like the ones from HP, Dopod and O2. But all the current existing large screen PDA phone lack good interface. Perhaps it is because they are using window mobile and not their own firmware. That is why they are unable integrate the software and hardware to produce a good device. And also, their touch screen is not multi-touch.

But there are 2 features that are worth mentioning. The accelerometer sensor that detects if the device is at a portrait or landscape position, then automatically rotates display. And the proximity sensor which turns off the display when you put the iPhone to your ear. They are not really high technology stuff. Its infact just some simple sensors. When Steve talks about these 2 features, I was thinking to myself.... "Why didn't I think of that?" I bet many people around the world, especially handphone makers, have the same feeling too.

It is still too early to tell if this iPhone is going to be successful or failure. From the demo, we can see that they pretty much solved the problems encountered by existing PDA phone users.

But if the iPhone is really successful, then I guess it would had more or less nailed the coffin for Treo and Palm. I love Palm. I love my TX. I feel that its the best OS for PDA. But sadly, they lack the R&D to create something big.

Posted by DK on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at 10:28 PM