[slather]

Garmin has announced that they won't be developing for the iPhone because it competes with their still unreleased nuvifone product. How can the nuvifone possibly compete with the iPhone? This is very foolish. I've just sold all my Garmin stock in an attempt to cut my losses. Not selling any AAPL any time soon.

[rampg]

Seems like the iPhone's only weakness is AT&T's mediocre call quality. Is Sprint's any better? I just left them... for, yep, AT&T.

[snapcridge]

This is really sad for Garmin, being that TomTom has already developed a native app using Apple's 3.0 SDK. They have also created a car dock for the iPhone and it works with most car stereos. Oh well Garmin...survival of the fittest!

[snapcridge]

This is not a weakness for AT&T. I have great call quality where I live. Traveled to Texas last week through IL, MO, OK and had not one problem. It seems there are some remote places in the US that seem to get not so great coverage. It's funny..I was a Sprint user for years after leaving thos a-holes at Verizon, then switched to AT&T in 2006.

[Chris Breen]

snapcridge said:

This is really sad for Garmin, being that TomTom has already developed a native app using Apple's 3.0 SDK. They have also created a car dock for the iPhone and it works with most car stereos. Oh well Garmin...survival of the fittest!

And that speaks to the point of the piece. TomTom appears to believe that there's a future in convergence devices like the iPhone and it's better to get in now while the getting is good. Garmin seems to think that a single-use device is the better way to go. Time will tell whether that's a good decision or not.

[quadmax]

Quote

{quote:title=snapcridge wrote:}
This is not a weakness for AT&T. I have great call quality where I live. Traveled to Texas last week through IL, MO, OK and had not one problem. It seems there are some remote places in the US that seem to get not so great coverage. It's funny..I was a Sprint user for years after leaving thos a-holes at Verizon, then switched to AT&T in 2006.{quote}

It's great that AT&T coverage works well for you but it isn't just in isolated areas that they leave something to be desired. Due to other constraints that I won't go into here I was unable to give up my Verizon RAZR when I got my iPhone (yes, I'm one of those dorks with two phones). This gives me a real time comparison of AT&T vs. Verizon coverage in the Phoenix metro area (5th largest city in the U.S.). Although I love my iPhone and it works well in most places, Verizon wins hands down for coverage across the entire desert southwest. I can use my iPhone most of the time but it's not unusual to have to whip out the RAZR to get a call or text to go through. I can't think of a time when it was the other way around.

[quadmax]

Quote

{quote:title=Chris Breen wrote:}...TomTom appears to believe that there's a future in convergence devices like the iPhone and it's better to get in now while the getting is good. Garmin seems to think that a single-use device is the better way to go. Time will tell whether that's a good decision or not.{quote}

It's not nearly that simple, Chris. There are a myriad reasons a company enters or avoids a particular market besides their view of the platform's future. Garmin may not have the expertise to develop for the iPhone, they may be resource constrained due to the general condition of the economy, they may not feel that mobile platforms are a core competency, heck, they might even be working on a Tom-Tom killer as we speak. All outsiders can do is speculate.

[MichaelM]

I think Garmin and the like are safe for now, you can't talk on the phone while listening to music while driving along following the on board GPS. I can do all of this at once with separate devices.
The problem with convergence is it's mostly vapor ware that reporters like to talk about and manufacturers wish we wanted. I for one follow the believe not to put all my eggs in one basket. If my GPS fails I can still use my phone, if my iPod dies I can still watch TV without it, if My phone dies everything else I own still works, life goes on. Further, many people still prefer to separate deferent forms of work, entertainment, (interactive vs, passive) and connectivity. I am one of those people who still uses many analog devices because they simply work better than the digital format, at least for now.

[sandbag1]

The thing with the iPhone and it's video and picture taking ability is that it's always with you. A lot of people don't carry a phone, a video camera and a camera to take still shots and if it's not with you when you need a camera, it's the worst camera you can buy no matter how good the specs look.

[ccbp]

NOT til the battery lasts a week while you are out hiking and camping and 'using' the devices...or there is an affordable, portable and sturdy solar charger that travels in your back pack! .

[snapcridge]

Ummm...let me know if you are ever driving in central Indiana! Who in goodness sakes would be driving, while talking on the phone, while monitoring their gps, while listening to music. Maybe phone and drive, music and drive, gps and drive, but it think it's safe to say that i won't be doing all at once. and while i'm driving...music playing I will be able to listen to music through my iPhone. This device has changed the game...period. Again I say survival of the fittest!

[burro]

How many more iPhones would you sell if an external keyboard could be used with an iPhone/iPod to take meeting notes, to get work done during commutes without lugging a laptop, to chat, etc.
It is a different world today than when people weren't buying portable keyboards in great numbers for their PDAs. If there was BlueTooth keyboard access, or a keyboard-dock built specifically for iPhones/iPods, Apple would sell a great many more iPhones/iPods, and whoever was making the keyboards would do well, too.
Think about all the folks who keep knocking Apple for failing to make a sub-notebook... with all the other features in the iPhone/iPod, allowing data entry and interactivity with external keyboards would go a LONG way toward filling that gap.
So, once again, even with the price breaks on the new iPhones, I am not going to buy one, and I am not going to be recommending them to business clients.

[hettingr]

Thinking about aviation GPS applications.
WOW!

[lukethegooner]

{quote:title=burro wrote:}{quote}
How many more iPhones would you sell if an external keyboard could be used with an iPhone/iPod to take meeting notes, to get work done during commutes without lugging a laptop, to chat, etc.

I would say not that many as this is clearly not the iPhone's market focus. One of the biggest issues facing corporates users, IMHO, is battery life. Apple have done their usual trick of making the battery integral to the iPhone unit. This of course has an asthetic value to it, Apple products are probably the most beautifully designed around, but heavy corporate users will need a stronger battery life or the ability to carry several charged batteries to swap in and out. In a business sense this will always outweigh asthetics.

A BT linked keyboard would surely have implications for the battery life span?

I think you miss the point, the iPhone wants some of the corporate market, but it's not going after the Crackberry's IMHO, not all the time it's trying to be a portable games console as well, if you catch my drift.