Mike Sutyak | marketing and new media

1) Mac OS. Everything just flows the way it should. There’s something to be said for intuitiveness. There’s a natural progression of getting from point A to point B. I guess I’ve been spoiled having already been a Mac user, but this is the first thing I hear from people who convert from Windows to Mac, “Wow, I never knew it’d be this easy. I wish I would have switched a long time ago.” For those Windows users who purchased an iPhone… let the resentment begin. I personally think this might be the tipping point that could bring Windows users over in droves… we’ll see. (Maybe Jobs’ plan all along?)

2) Checking email. Before this phone, I sat with envy at lunch, networking events, conferences, and anywhere else I couldn’t be in front of my computer, as others had the luxury of checking their email. In most cases it’s something that can wait till I’m back at the office, but those couple of times it can’t… well worth it. If nothing else it’s peace of mind.

3) Calendar. Now, my last few phones had a calendar function. I use iCal. Why would I want to enter all my appointments and events twice? Answer: I don’t. Especially when it’s clunky. I use iCal for a reason (see Mac OS above).

4) I can finally text message! I never got the hang of spelling out words while filing through each key on a regular phone keypad. It made more sense for me to just call someone. The virtual keyboard that the iPhone offers has made me quite comfortable at texting by actually finding the letters where they should be! Mind you, this is my first mobile device with an actual keypad so I can’t compare the virtual keyboard vs. a “regular” one (I wasn’t going to waste my money on something running Windows).

5) The touch screen. Most reviews I have read list this as one of the drawbacks. I think it makes using the phone that much easier (and it’s cool). Sure, it gets smudged up quickly, but so did the screen on my last phone. Unless you can constantly see the reflection of the smudges, it’s not that big a deal. The screen is bright enough that even heavily smudged, you can see everything fine. Besides, it comes with a microfiber cloth that works extremely well at wiping clean whenever needed.

6) Battery life. Yeah, that’s right, I’m listing this as something I love! Whatever problems they had when the phone was first unveiled back in January, seem to be gone now. Even using the video and music player, this phone lasted for hours. It probably helps that my last phone (Samsung A900) was a hog on energy and my battery tended to die on me daily only after a couple hours of use.

7) Visual voicemail. How’d I almost forget this? (You could say I’ve saved the best for last, although the Mac OS is the biggest reason for me purchasing the phone in the first place.) I really don’t need to explain much here… A list of all your voicemails that you can listen to in whatever order you want or even delete before listening. ANYONE’s gotta love that.

The phone has some drawbacks, but they pale in comparison to all the good points. In fact, I’d say I was being picky to even mention them. The biggest drawback has nothing to do with the phone itself but the network it’s on (AT&T). I’ll save that for a different post. Please, if you agree, disagree, or have reasons why you love or hate your iPhone, please comment below!

Posted on Friday, July 6th, 2007 at 12:16 pm in the category:Evolution, Viral Marketing, iPhone, Steve Jobs, Mac, Apple. Comment RSS 2.0 feed. Comment it , or trackback this post.