Often times there are products which captivate the world and leaves just enough for the average consumer craving for more, in terms of features revisions and abilities. The iphone is just that product; one which was elegant, revolutionary in its ability of touch and web browser integration into the phone. It had all the features to make it a threat but not enough to make it a sustainable product. I think Steve jobs knew this was the best method to execute the launch and keep the average consumer wanting more. Thus every software update led to more features being updated and implemented that require a legal version of the phone and not unlocked. And of course every time there is a unlock hack which leads to the phone being usable.
Thus now the present with rumors galore about the iphone 3G will be announced during the WWDC (June 9th). Course these are rumors but the good folks over at boygenius obtained a letter which states ATT saying the following:
To: All Employees
Last year at this time we asked that all vacations be scheduled before June 15 or after July 15, to ensure adequate store staffing and to give everyone an equal opportunity to benefit from an exciting product launch. Thanks to your hard work, we experienced excellent sales during the mid-summer period. This year, the numbers you produced in 2007 will be hard to beat; but as a business, we must rise to the challenge, and make every effort to exceed last year’s sales results. Your management team is counting on you!
To ensure proper staffing during this period, Sales personnel planning to take approved time off are encouraged to schedule their vacations before June 15 or after July 12 to participate in the heavy selling period
This letter which can be found in the article : http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/05/06/apple-and-att-to-launch-iphone-3g-a-lot-sooner-than-we-think/ clearly makes a point that we will have launch occurring during that time frame. But those dates do not correlate with the WWDC conference, which leads us to the question of when exactly will the announcement take place? We all know the phone is on its way (as i have read about it and even conversed with a few ATT reps about it as well) due to the rumor mill spinning and the hype building. But one needs to ask the question of what exactly is ensuring a date to be set in the middle of the end of the month ? As there is suggestion that Apple may not be able to get enough memory to supply the huge demand that they anticipate due to Infenion’s stating less then stellar earnings for the quarter.
The Infenion announcement led a couple analyst to make the assumption this would impact iphone sales due to the chip “supposedly being” in the iphone. I would have to disagree with this assumption, as Apple has openly stated it will meet its goal of 10 Million iphones by year end. They would not limit themselves with a reasoning of not placing enough orders to Infenion for the chip. Thus my real big concern with the phone stems from the battery, will the battery be replaceable by the user??!!
Since they will be going to 3G and maybe even including GPS (fingers crossed) this leads to more consumption of battery in a shorter time frame. Leading to more charges, and requiring a new battery replacement sooner then later. Thus will the user have the ability to have multiple batteries, and be allowed to change them. This could be the deal breaker with many of the cooperate clients Apple is trying to capture with its PUSH sync on entourage and Outlook (RIMM server) in the SDK 2.0 kit. Thus if there is not enough juice, is it worth the squezz of paying for one at this level where your data is more critical and curcial to your productivity.
