Today I was reading TUAW and there was a post discussing the value proposition of the iPhone wthout phone calls which really caught my eye. Having been an iPhone owner in my recent past I had to check this out as I had tons of my own thoughts on the device which I even wrote about here. Now, first of all, an iPhone without a phone would clearly require a new name. Erica discusses that t the value added is the ability to utilize the EDGE network to surf the web anywhere. This is a nice benefit however I think that goes against the point of what Apple and a number of other handset manufactures are attempting to accomplish.

When reading Erica’s post, the main argument is that “the iPhone transforms people like me from insufferable know-it-alls to insufferable know-it-alls with the entire internet in our pants”. I definitely see this as a nice to have. I’ve definitely been in conversations where I had to resort to the Blackberry 8830 to pay google a visit to prove a point or answer a question for the group. However, all of these handset manufacturers are striving for the same thing. That is to create the best all in one device. For this reason and this reason alone is why you won’t see an EDGE iPhone without the phone function. The phone in addition to the internet capabilities creates on overall value that is way more in demand than a device that requires an EDGE connection without a phone.

Apple created the iPod Touch to fill the gap for those that don’t want a phone but that only is effective in WiFi locations. If you give the device the ability to connect to the EDGE network I think it would be practically pointless (not to mention a poor business decision). Maybe this is just my opinion as well but I think the value for a device such as the iPhone is created by giving it all of the functionality it could have (if not more) into one little sexy package. I’m excited to see new versions of the iPhone as well as the device that tops it!

What functionality do you feel would be a nice add on to the iPhones current mix of functions? Where do you see the value in a device like this?

If you're new here at toonice4TV, please subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for tuning in!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 5:12 pm and is filed under Mobile, News, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.