Patrick_S

Re: Where have all the iPhones gone?

I think I'm looking at this far more realistically then you are but feel free to bump this thread each and every time the iPhone has reach dominance in any of these markets.

I love your "flesh and blood" test, here is my tally.

Univerisal Remote - Check. I know over a dozen of people who have Universal Remotes and most the models are in the $100 or more range. None of these people would be considered high end HT users. The biggest hurdles that iPhone will have to overcome are the need for the consumer to have to go out and purchase a bridge device and second the lack of tactile buttons.

eBook readers - Two Kindle owners and four Sony owners.

As for the bar code reading market, we'll have to wait and see but don't hold your breath for any application that drives iPhone sales.

Sam Posten

Re: Where have all the iPhones gone?

I still havent figured out why Apple hasnt vigorously pursued putting novels on the iTunes store. Magazines could be a big seller too.

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Buncha savages in this town.....

I ran outta gas! I had a flat tire! I didn't have enough money for cab fare! My tux didn't come back from the cleaners! An old friend came in from outta town! Someone stole my car! There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts!! It wasn't my fault I swear to God!!!

ErichH

Re: Where have all the iPhones gone?

Universal Remote?

How bout a higher quality phone?

I hear the crop circle chip didn't make it into the final design - bummer

Patrick_S

Re: Where have all the iPhones gone?

Have you seen the price of audiobooks? That explains why they aren't pushing ebooks along with the fact that audiobooks are a more natural fit for the iPod.

Ted Todorov

Re: Where have all the iPhones gone?

Patrick -- obviously your circle of friends/acquaintances is more technophile than mine , but ---

To me the acid test for something like the Kindle is the NYC subway. When the gen. 1 & 2 iPods started popping up all over the IRT I knew it would be a big hit. Heck, you could find old posts of mine here predicting it (I'm too lazy to search). The day I counted more white earbuds than all the walkmen/discmen/etc. combined, I knew it would be HUGE.

Up till now I have not seen a single Kindle in the subway. Not even one Kindle, ever. I couldn't swear about the Sony reader as I might not so readily recognize it, but no one uses a Kindle on the subway, which should be the first place you'd see it if it was going to be any kind of hit. Meanwhile iPhones are second only to Blackberries on the subway (as indeed the sales numbers attest).

Anyway, why argue about the future -- it will come soon enough, and we'll all see how it turns out.

Hold on tightly, let go lightly.

DaveF

Re: Where have all the iPhones gone?

I thought you did. But I guess you meant the 3rd party developers would do it. It was the "killer app" concept of remote control and barcode scanners that threw me. I agree that the SDK is a big deal -- that's the killer app. (And we should meet, so you can know a real life person who uses a universal remote. There's no way the iPhone will compete with the Harmony One...)

Exactly, the PDA, revived. I say tomato, you say potato.

Ted Todorov

Re: Where have all the iPhones gone?

I'd love to take you up on the offer -- but you aren't based in NYC, are you?

I don't doubt that Harmony One is a far better remote than the iPhone could ever be, or that the Kindle is a far, far better book reader than the iPhone could ever be. But, I think that a functional remote on the iPhone could end up being more popular. Who needs one or five or ten more different dedicated devices -- all about the same size/shape -- be they remotes or book readers or garage openers, when you always have an iPhone in your pocket anyway?

I'm not saying that anyone is going to go: Hum, I need a Universal remote -- should I get a Harmony or an iPhone. But when someone ALREADY has an iPhone, they might choose to download the remote control software from the iTunes store rather than buy a Harmony. And people who don't have an iPhone, might be more inclined to buy one because they've heard that it can replace 10 different other devices. A HT aficionado would stick to the Harmony. But there are 100 times more casual users than there are aficionados.

Hold on tightly, let go lightly.

DaveF

Re: Where have all the iPhones gone?

Not quite...Rochester, an hour east of Buffalo.

I agree with the sentiment that there will be some unexpected small app for the iPhone that will take the world by storm. But I'm certain it won't be a universal remote control program*. (and if I'm wrong, you can point it out in big red letters in a few months )

The iPhone is pointless to me until SplashID is available on it. That's my killer app. But it's a niche item and won't sell iPhones alone. But having the small killer app for every nutter on the planet is a killer app

*Casual users aren't going to invest the effort programming a universal remote requires. And I don't see iPhone users letting the family juggle their iPhone during Must-See-TV to change channels. And since it's not a dedicated remote -- it leaves when the owner makes a call, it's not very usable for the family. Finally, it lacks a feature all universal remotes have: learning. The iPhone has no IR input, right, so you can't learn missing remote codes. There will be a remote app and people will play with it for a day, and then forget about it -- just like 10 years ago with Palm PDAs. ("This has all happened before and will happen again", as they say on BSG)

ErichH

Re: Where have all the iPhones gone?

Meanwhile, on topic

Apple iPhone 8GB for $249, 16GB for $349 - dealmac.com

Ted Todorov

Re: Where have all the iPhones gone?

Yes! That is a perfect way of putting it.
I have a feeling that we need to stop arguing over this, as our experience gap is causing us to talk past each other -- I've never used a universal remote, and it sounds like you haven't used an iPhone.

I'll try one last time anyway: the way I see an iPhone Universal remote -- it wouldn't be programmable or capable of learning -- thus it would be way, way easier for Johnny Q. Public to use. Presets for every remote/device under the universe would be available for download online, or as templates through the iTunes Store. The iPhone U-remote vendor could go in either direction with a razor/blade sales model: give away the program and charge for the templates, or sell the program and give away the templates.

You are right though that the lack of IR is a big problem -- but not due to a learning deficiency but because you need IR to control devices that expect an IR remote signal. The only way around that is to have a separate little box mounted in front of your equipment that translates WiFi or Bluetooth into IR. That, or in the future all HT equipment will be equipped with with WiFI or Bluetooth just as entire airliners are being equipped with iPod docks now...

Hold on tightly, let go lightly.

DaveF

Re: Where have all the iPhones gone?

Thanks. I thought you'd agree with that.

I'll stop after this final comment
If the iPhone has an IR output, then someone will write a uni remote app. (if it has no IR output, this is all moot.) People wrote these apps for the Palm a decade ago. But it's not a device seller; it's a novelty.

Even stipulating the iPhone could serve as a good, even top of class, universal remote (in this class), I simply don't believe people will want to use their phone as a remote control. Specifically, they won't want or be able to let their family use the iPhone as a dedicated remote because they're using it to take phone calls and listen to music. Who's going to leave their iPhone in the living room all day / evening so the family can use it to watch the news and Blue's Clues? If the most powerful remote in the house isn't actually available for use, who's going to bother learning touse it? That leaves the single guys who can ignore phone calls because they're changing the channel.

This app will be made. I assert it will merely be a novelty, forgotten a month after release.