All right, I’ll admit, the iPhone looks pretty nice. It seems pretty significant that the actual device is nothing - it’s just a screen with some guts underneath it. It’s the end of design. When the world is hooked up wirelessly, we’ll all have blank little boxes like the iPhone which we will carry with us everywhere and use to tap into any information we need through the networks. All of our “stuff” - music, TV shows, documents, bank accounts, &c. - will be stored in virtual lockers somewhere, and we will use our touchscreen devices to stream whatever we need. Now you know the future! I bet you’re glad you read my website.

The reason why I bring this up is because of this article I was just reading, in which they reach this conclusion:

With the announcement of the iPhone during Steve Jobs’ keynote on Tuesday, Apple has put a tremendous amount of pressure on handset makers like Motorola and Nokia, according to industry analysts. Capitalizing on its legendary ease-of-use, Apple will be a competitor out of the gate.

“There was so much demand for the iPhone, it should serve as a wake-up call to the rest of the industry,” said Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director of JupiterResearch. “It’s going to put a lot of pressure on the other handset makers in the high-end market, and that’s where the money is.” (Emphasis mine.)

The disheartening thing about this is that already, the industry is only thinking about the kind of impact this is going to have on “the high-end market.” So, rich people will now have more exciting phones to choose from with better design and crazier features. Democracy!

I don’t know when I will have that leap of mindset, but right now, I am not so concerned about being able to take crystal clear pictures with my cell phone. I would like A) cheaper bills, B) a plan that doesn’t chain me to one company for 2 years, and C) better coverage. For all of Apple’s beautiful ad campaigns positioning itself as “the consumer’s company,” they sure don’t seem to give a shit about the average consumer. Sarah and I pay something like $125/month for our cell phones (combined), plus ludicrous amounts per minute if we go over our time limit. Which we often do, because Sarah makes a lot of work phone calls. We’re stuck with our plan for 2 years. The only way to get a new phone at a reasonable price is to wait until our contract runs out and sign another 2 year contract. We made the mistake of buying last year’s hot phone, the Razr, which is a complete piece of garbage that I cannot wait to get rid of.

So is all of this Apple’s concern? I say yes. By bundling their phone in the traditional manner ($500 with a 2 year Cingular contract), they’re upholding the status quo. They have one of the few products that could actually change the way business is done. Why not make it available at one price to everyone? There’s no reason why the hardware should continue to be attached to the service plan, especially if the hardware is costing upwards of $500. What other form of technology works this way?