Macopinion

The Price of Being an Early Adopter

by Marc Zeedar macopinion@designwrite.com

Within a day of Apple's announcement of new iPods and a $200 drop in the price of the iPhone, I had people asking me if I was upset. To my surprise, I was not. That puzzled me. Shouldn't I be upset? After all, I'm always out for a good deal and that iPhone cost me a lot of money and I could sure use a $200 refund.

Almost immediately Steve Jobs responded to the complaints with a $100 Apple Store credit -- a nice gesture that I'll certainly take (it'll pay for my Leopard upgrade). But I still wasn't upset by the whole thing. Why?

Then I realized two key things. First, I'd debated with myself long and hard over an iPhone purchase. After all, we knew the price as announced last January, so I had plenty of time to ponder the value. For me the only sticking point on the cost were the wireless fees, and once those were announced and I figured out it was affordable, the device cost wasn't such a big deal. I'd much rather pay for a device up front than pay varying unknown costs on a monthly basis for the long-term.

Second, and perhaps more important, I love my iPhone. It has been integrated into my life. Although I've only had it for a couple months, I've grown to depend on it, and the ability to have Internet access anywhere is addicting, to say the least.

Originally when the iPhone was announced, I wrote that what I wanted was an iPhone without the phone. I basically described the iPod Touch, which Apple just introduced. At the time I thought I didn't need a cell phone and I certainly didn't want the expense of one. I thought that WiFi access would be enough for me. But I must confess to a change of opinion.

Having an iPhone for the past few months, I've come to realize just how amazingly convenient is to have the Internet available even when you aren't near a WiFi hotspot. Several times recently -- before Apple announced the iPod Touch -- I had thought to myself, "Wow, I'm really glad I have the Edge network and I don't have to bother finding a WiFi location." I had purposely been keeping an eye on this feature and had decided that a WiFi-only device would have severely limited my mobile Internet experience.

The truth is that WiFi is not nearly prevalent enough, and in many places (like Starbucks), WiFi is not free, something I never realized (I'm not a coffee drinker and assumed the WiFi was free). Most of the time my mobile Internet needs are minor: checking for an important email I'm anticipating, sending an email, using Google Maps to find something, or using Safari to look up some information or read some news sites or blogs. Edge does well for most of these things. It gives me freedom to roam without having to worry about where I am. At minimum, I can use to Edge to find the nearest free WiFi hotspot!

The problem with the iPod Touch is that I would not be able to incorporate it fully into my life. The iPhone, because it's a phone, automatically takes center stage. I carry mine on my hip via a belt clip and it's always with me -- I'm listening to music while I mow the lawn, I have my grocery list on it while I'm shopping, and I read email or websites while waiting for my lunch at a restaurant.

Perhaps I'm the exception, but after an initial fascination, I never carried my old iPods with me everywhere. The hassle of finding and carrying the earbuds, hoping the iPod's battery wasn't drained, and the iPod's weight and size meant that I rarely bothered. If I knew I'd be in a situation where music would be convenient, maybe I'd bring it, but too much of the time I never used it, and after a while I stopped bothering.

The iPod Touch's WiFi access means I might want to carry it with me more often, but with WiFi hotspots so limited, I can imagine myself becoming discouraged: I'd lug the thing around with me with thinking I might be able to surf the 'net only to find I can't so often that after a while I hardly bother taking it with me.

No such problems with the iPhone, because these days we're used to carrying phones constantly, and with the iPhone's additional features -- PDA, email, Google Maps, web surfing, etc. -- I have even more reasons to use it and incorporate it into my life. Even my mom's doing it with her iPhone: she's using the Notes feature for lists of things to do and she told me recently she loves the calculator. Now she's been a mobile phone user for years and all her phones had calculators built into them -- but the feature was so hard to find she never once used it! With the iPhone, you have the ultimate marriage of convenience and ease-of-use.

In short, I truly believe the iPhone is worth $600. It's a fantastic device that can revolutionize your life. It's also just the beginning of a new platform with a huge future and will just get better and better via software upgrades.

All that said, if I could have one bought for $400, I would have. I'm certainly not going to pay extra if it's not required! But I'm not the least bit upset by the price drop. I'm surprised, yes. I expected a price cut, but not one quite so dramatic (say $100) and I thought it wouldn't happen until closer to Christmas. Coming so soon after the iPhone's launch is what upset most people.

But more on that in my next article....

macopinion@designwrite.com