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1. Comment - Doing the math: 3G iPhone not really cheaper in the long run

   (Jun 12, 2008 - 11:43 PM)

   There are a number of rather off-base arguments here.
   
   "So why and how does there continue to be such a buzz over the 3G iPhone being somehow cheaper?"
   
   Perhaps because the purchase price of the iPhone 3G is 1/2 the purchase price for the older iPhone, and for that lower price you get a significantly better phone (3G, GPS, etc.). The monthly service fee gives much faster data performance and better voice quality for only $10/month more, which is a great deal (not only relative to the older iPhone's data plan, but is a MUCH better deal than competing unlimited data plans for other phones). So the new phone is a much better deal for customers at time of purchase, and is a better deal as an ongoing phone service, which is why people think that the iPhone 3G is a great deal.
   
   I suppose that if you don't value battery life, phone call quality, or data speed, you're better off buying an old iPhone on eBay. I am sure that there will be tons of them available soon. Heck, if you really want to save money, you can get a "free" phone on a voice-only plan. Why waste money on data? :-)
   
   "Having a large number of apps constantly polling for updates sucks down battery power faster than vampires at phlebotomist convention."
   
   This is even more absurd. Applications that check for updates do so when they're run, and no more than once a day or once a week. In either case, the impact on the battery of a single data packet is essentially zero.
   
   The reason for Apple to provide a common system for all software purchasing, delivery and update is exactly what they said it was - to have the best experience for users, by making the process easy and consistent, and for application developers, by making software sales and delivery completely painless. Their ulterior motive is that if they make the iPhone application market a fantastic success, they will sell tons of iPhones, and will make tons of money running the marketplace. This is essentially a much more open, developer-friendly version of the video-game console model, which has worked well for a few decades now.
   
   "Key to Apple's control over that new market, Louis believes, is its new push activation service"
   
   No, the key to Apple's control over the iPhones software market is Apple's absolute control over the platform, which allows them to lock out any other software delivery mechanism (which are, btw, prohibited by the Terms of Use of Apple's SDK, so you can't use Apple's software service to deliver a competing delivery service). The push notification of updates is simply them providing a common application feature through their platform, which is good for all involved.
   
   Complaining about the application sales data being reported monthly is also a bit misguided. Monthly sales reporting is typical for most retail sales, and given that Apple will presumably have thousands of developers to send sales reports to, a monthly sales reporting cycle is pretty reasonable as a starting point. If a company really needs real-time sales reporting, they could put a trivial "phone home" command into their install/first run code, so they'd know of new installs in real-time. This would be a good idea, actually, as it would give them independent confirmation of Apple's sales reports.