It was a first generation iPod Touch 8gb and had YouTube, Widescreen, played videos and even browsed the Internet and looked smart and sleek! I got it from the missus on Christmas day and immediately named him "Crambo". I remember it well and revelled at what my new little iPod could do!
A long time has passed since then, the iPhone arrived and re-arrived (I called him Gringo!!) and now other companies are biting the bullet and are finally beginning to emulate the iPhone's capabilities, catching up rapidly and in some cases having an argument for the "Best Handset" tag!
Despite all this, the iPhone continues to outsell its rivals, recently overtaking Nokia as the worlds leading handset manufacturer after just 2 years in the industry. How have Apple managed to achieve such success and volume of sales in the face such fierce competition in the last decades most "competitive" market place? And with a handset that before the release of the appstore, was written off for being "Too Big", possessing a mediocre camera and not having MMS or video recording, amongst many other shortcomings!
One reason could be Apples clever and modern marketing, and we all know they are no mugs when it comes to cool and trendy advertising.
Another almost certain element of the iPhones success is iTunes "cross compatibility" and monopoly of the official download charts.
And I'd be stupid not to acknowledge that possessing the appstore with over 100,000 apps doesn't do them any harm.
But I believe above all of these, that the main element to the popularity of Apple's handset is a little process called JAILBREAK!!
I can honestly say that if the possibility to Jailbreak my device didn't exist, I would still have owned an iPhone this whole time but I would not be as absolutely certain now, that I couldn't be tempted away by a newer and decent rival handset!
I honestly think that Apple acknowledge this and that they believe they can use it to their advantage to beat off the competition. I'm no hacker or developer but I do find it hard to believe that a company with the size, money and power of Apple couldn't make a larger effort in tackling Jailbreakers (Could they even aid the process for this purpose???) . I believe when the time is right for them, they will. Hopefully I'm wrong!!!!
I hope I am wrong because even if apple ever did do such a thing, surely then they would have to start dishing out Cydia type upgrades and utility's through the app store. One downside to that being the nice Apple over-price tag. And although the Cydia store is now up and running, most of the software available is free. Available for free and made by the developers for what you feel is the love of all things iPhone. Taking it upon themselves like technological adventurers, discovering new ways to improve their lackluster devices to perform to their technological capabilities and thus sharing it with the world in a bid to make it a better, happier place!!!!! That last bit may be a little far fetched and exaggerated but its leaning towards my point slowly.
Saving money isn't a big motivation for me to stick with my Jailbroken iPhone either. As juvenile and sad as it may sound, I often delight in talking to other un-jailboken iPhone users and showing off how much more I can achieve with my "Gringo", feeling the envy as I constantly tear apart their arguments against the Jailbreak with my "Slideshow User Backgrounds"(Bosspaper) and "Sub menu Folders"(Categories) . I feel almost like a member of an exclusive club, a club that most look at with disapproving eyes but secretly would like to enter and are too afraid just to pop in and see what its all about.
And that almost leads me to my point! Don't get me wrong, I loved my iPhone before I liberated it from the constraints of "The Man", but there wasn't any competition around to make me think otherwise. Now there is and the market is now once again threatening to add the words "Fierce" and "Competitive" to the next decade of the mobile phone industry. If Apple defeat the Jailbreak and provide the software and utilities through iTunes and the appstore themselves, then Cydia's "Adventurers" and all associated sources and developers will disappear and in turn, the doors to my exclusive club will close. The novelty will have worn off and I, like countless other Apple customers, would have to find a new club to join. I just cant imagine going there with a Nokia in my pocket!!!!!!!
iPeet!
