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Top 7 iPhone Questions Steve Jobs Doesn't Want You To Ask

Apple CEO Steve Jobs was the star of the Mac(world) universe this week, with his unveiling of the uber-cool iPhone. While the device is earning kudos in many circles as a "leapfrog" device, it's also prompting a backlash. In that vein, we present a David Letterman style list of questions, which take a few pointed but not necessarily unfair potshots at Apple's as-yet-unproven product.

7. Why isn't the iPhone faster?

How can you have a decent streaming mobile experience if it's slow? Word is that Cingular's network, which the iPhone will use, provides average data speeds of between 75 Kbps and 135 Kbps. That compares with an upcoming network from Sprint, which will offer speeds of 450 Kbps to 800 Kbps speeds. At its worst, Cingular's net could be up to 10 times sloooooower. I can hear iPhone data-sharers asking each other now, "Was it good for you?"

6. Why doesn't it have a more original name?

The trademark on the "iPhone" name, it turns out, may belong to Cisco, not Apple. Indeed, the day after the iPhone's launch, Cisco sued Apple for infringing on the former's iPhone trademark, which it claims to have owned since 2000. You think if the shoe had been on the other foot -- like if Cisco had named one of its networking products an "Ethertalk" something or other -- that Apple wouldn't have been the one to sue?

5. What, Apple's first iPod-capable phone effort wasn't good enough?

Apparently not. It turns out that the iPhone is not the first crack Apple has taken at bringing its iPod experience into the mobile space. Apple has previously partnered with Motorola to put mobile iTunes onto the RAZR cellphone.

Not to put too fine a point on it, while iTunes is king of the standalone pod, Verizon Wireless and its VCAST service has been the leading mobile music offering. Perhaps now that VCAST has taken off in the mobile marketplace, Apple sees the time as ripe for another crack at mobile music.

4. Do we really need another "cool" gadget?

Okay, maybe Mr. Jobs isn't really the right person to ask. Truth be told, even without an iPhone he's cooler than I'll ever be. But consider that folks like me are already technologically over-burdened, what with laptops, Walkmen, MP3 players, cellphones, Blackberries, and assorted USB dongles, not to mention golden oldies such as a Stereo receivers and turntables. Hey, who's got space for an iPhone?

3. Will the battery crap out after 18 months?

Here's a legitimate question for Apple, given the desultory experiences many users have had with their iPod batteries failing to hold a charge a year to 18 months into one's ownership. (Check out the infamous Neistat Brothers video "iPod's Dirty Secret.") If my iPhone battery suffers a similar fate, will I have to depend on the kindness of Apple? Or must I purchase the dreaded extended warranty?

2. Does it come with back-dated stock options?

'Nuff said.

And the number one question about the iPhone that Steve Jobs doesn't want you to ask -- drumroll, please -- is:

1. Why should you pay $500 for an iPhone, when you can get a full-function, music-capable handset like the LG Chocolate for $100, or a Nokia 3250, for about $250.

Both, not coincidentally, run the rock-solid Symbian OS, which has a proven track record in the mobile space. That shouldn't be an afterthought, especially if the quality of your mobile experience is of as much concern to you as is the coolness of the phone. Despite recent competition from Windows Mobile and mobile Linux, the Symbian OS remains the most widely used and most highly developed mobile OS.

After many years as an also-ran, Windows Mobile has come on strong in the last year, following its adoption by Palm for that company's popular Treo line. Now, though Apple hasn't definitively talked about all the software inside the iPhone, it's fairly clear that it will use some sort of downsized variant of the Mac OS X. One could make a valid argument that a mobile OS with a Mac pedigree will come out of the box at least the equal of Windows Mobile, or possibly better. But there's no way it's going to have the embedded smarts which Symbian has garnered through its years of mobile service.

So the informed choice is clear: Come June, the iPhone will be the coolest device kids of all ages will be able to buy. But those with mission-critical mobile business to conduct will be well advised to use a Symbian-based device, and let others deal with the iPhone's sure-to-surface growing pains.

[Updated Jan. 12, 8 am. As some commenters pointed out, the original post incorrectly identified the Samsung Blackjack as a Symbian phone; it runs Windows Mobile.]

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