iHysteria

OK, I'd be the first to admit that the just-unveiled iPhone is pretty sexy; I was instantly struck by the smart phone technoporn of it all. Come on, though, the write-ups are a little over the top. what are they serving at MacWorld, Kool-Aid?

Interesting analysis of the business model from savvy Jack Schofield's technology blog at The Guardian. It's work reading the whole post, but the highlight when it comes to considering relationships between Apple and other service providers besides Cingular?

"In particular, some network providers aim to make money from selling high-priced music and movie downloads direct to their mobile phone users. It's a safe bet that the iPhone (like the iPod) will be incompatible with those services, and iPhone users will get their content from Apple instead. (Update: the iPhone gets its music via a PC or Mac, not over the air.)

In other words, adopting the iPhone means a network is obliged to hand over to Apple some of its most profitable business opportunities. In doing that, it will also reinforce Apple's monopoly of the copy-protected download market."

Given how irritated many people are about Apple's DRM with iPods, it will be interesting to see how this plays out....