Brier Dudley was fortunate enough to get some face time with AT&T’s Glenn Lurie. Glenn is one of the big players in the deal between Apple and AT&T regarding the iPhone. They covered many of the usual topics including price, subsidization and features.
Glen was unable to comment on most of the good stuff, but he did talk about his favorite features. He cited that he enjoys the browsing experience and how simple it is to use. When talking about the high price point he compared the price of purchasing an iPhone to what you would pay for an iPod nano, a BlackBerry and a cheap phone. I’m not sure what the cheap phone had to do with anything, I don’t know anyone that doesn’t use their BlackBerry for talking. That one detail aside he does make a good point. You’ll spend about the same, and only have to carry one device.
He also brought up some of the other great aspects of the iPhone including upcoming Google apps that are going to be included. He only mentioned Google applications in passing, but we’re speculating that it means we’ll be seeing some of the Google office apps like Docs & Spreadsheets. This would solve the issue of being able to access and edit Word and Excel files on the iPhone. This has been a major concern for many would-be users and may help to boost sales.
As our Editor Vincent put it, this “will be the dagger into Microsoft’s heart” since they have been touting that the iPhone will not be good for business users without the ability to open or edit Office documents. It would be great if Apple utilized their existing relationship with Google to bring this feature to the iPhone. Look out Microsoft, the iPhone just might tempt your business users to make the switch.
Leading the charge on iPhone [via seattletimes]
The one feature I have been wondering about is voice dialing. Almost all phones have it, and the blackberry perl has a great implementation that will let you speak a person’s name without having to do any training. Steve didn’t mention it on his keynote, and there is no info about it on the web site. Furthermore, OSX does not have a lot of great support for voice commands. (Okay, lets face it, Speakable Items is not great by any means) Is this going to be a weak spot for the iphone?
I don’t find voice dialing that useful. The more accurate ones take way too long work. At the end of the day, I’m more frustrated than it’s worth. I’d rather see useful widgets for Slingplayer or compatibility with Google docs and spreedsheets.
I don’t know, it’s been a pretty standard feature on most phones, so I never really thought about it. I’ve used voice dialing a lot in the past and I really like using it. I’m not going to be heartbroken if it doesn’t show up, but I do hope to see it.