We’ll never see another Steve Jobs event like MacWorld 2007, when the original iPhone was unveiled, but boy did today’s announcements turn up the heat in the mobile space.<\/p>\n
$199 for a better version of what has been almost unanimously hailed as the greatest mobile phone ever built.<\/p>\n
$199.<\/p>\n
And a year from now, it’ll be $99. That’s like an iPod Shuffle.<\/p>\n
At the risk of sounding like a fanboy of the highest order, how on *earth* could the average customer justify purchasing any other mobile device at this point? If you can still get a free phone somewhere and that suits you, then great. But for the person thinking of spending between $99 and $799 on a Nokia, Motorola, Palm, or Sony, how can you even think about those alternatives given where the iPhone just went? The quality\/feature\/usability gap is so large that even a hatred for AT&T can’t keep people away now.<\/p>\n
This sounds overly simplistic, but I really do think Apple just split the mobile world into two choices: settle for a free phone or buy an iPhone. There just aren’t many reasons to do anything else.<\/p>\n
Even our Director of Technology and our CTO (both PC people) are both getting iPhones on July 11th… both having previously harangued the rest of the Newsvine staff for our incessant iPhone claqueury. When Apple critics turn that quickly, and without any prodding, you know a very important inflection point has been hit.<\/p>\n