Apple should have kept iPhone secret

I was working on a feature about the iPhone this weekend and I kept getting back to the same question. Why did Apple announce the iPhone at Macworld San Francisco?

Why not wait until June (or maybe earlier) when it’s ready, and ratified by the Federal Communications Commission? If Apple had waited until June it could have taken its competitors by surprise. Announcing the phone now has given Apple’s competition a heads up on what they need to be doing to match Apple’s offering.

LG can already match the iPhone in the design stakes. That company has just announced that its iPhone-like mobile phone, designed by Prada, will be shipping in February. While I doubt it will share the intuitive user interface or the iPhone, or the Multi-touch functionality, the new phone from LG will take away form the iPhone’s originality when it comes to style.

Another reason why it is strange that Apple went ahead and announced the phone is that it is currently embroiled in legal action with Cisco over who has the right to the iPhone brand name. Cisco’s subsidiary Linksys launched a VoIP phone before Christmas and says it’s owned the brand name for years. Apple thinks that the claim is “silly”. Silly or not, either Apple announced the phone now to back up its claim to the name, or it just wanted to piss off Cisco.

The third reason why I was surprised that Apple announced the iPhone when it did is that it is so unlike Apple to pre-announce a product. The company is famous (or infamous) for never talking about future products, so why should the iPhone be different. Perhaps Apple wanted to get feedback on the features before launch – to ensure that the phone was right for the market. Maybe the company wanted to drum up some mania about the launch, and gather some headlines – it certainly succeeded in doing that.

Alternatively Apple might have been stumped as to what to announce at Macworld San Francisco. Maybe the product that the company would have showcased wasn’t ready. Or perhaps Jobs decided that leading on the AppleTV wouldn’t be a good idea and something else was needed.

Thinking back to the keynote, Jobs started by talking about the Mac and the transition to Intel, and then just 10 minutes into the presentation he said that he had nothing more to say about the Mac. Considering that in last year’s keynote Jobs began by saying that “this is Macworld so we are hear to talk about the Mac”, I’d say that was a bit of a huge omission. I wonder what was omitted.

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Comments received

adamtropics said on Tuesday, 23 January 2007

I agree with most of that, although I was under the impression that the FCC process was pretty much public record. The mac rumour mill being what it is would certainly have found out before any hoped June announcement. It does make you wonder though, if the iphone announcement was 'complete'? I wouldn't be surprised to hear Mr Jobs pipe up in June "....and another thing"!..

JonnyEvans said on Tuesday, 23 January 2007

Admittedly, Apple boss Jobs did say that the company unveiled the gadget because - as it was a phone - it would have had to get FCC clearance before it went on sale, so the cat would have been out the bag months before anyway, "better we tell you first than the FCC does," I think he said. That is what he said, isn't it?

thyl said on Wednesday, 24 January 2007

Don't underestimate the effects and rights conferred by proper patent protection. If Apple's more than 200 patent applications on the iPhone prove valid, competitors will have a hard time in copying this phone. I am sure Apple will not licence the patents.

It seems quite the same with the iPod. Why does everybody copy the look of the click wheel, but nobody its functionality?

Still , I have to admit it seemed a bit early, considering that the FCC process usually seems to take two month, and the software of the iPhone is evidently not finished, not even to mention possible development tools (hope dies last ;-)).

AlanAudio said on Thursday, 25 January 2007

Discussion of Apple's iPhone totally eclipsed everything else that was announced during the same week at CES.

No other Apple product announcement could have done that and I can't see CES running head to head with the Mac Expo again either, so there won't be another opportunity to do that in the future.

It's now two weeks on and people are still talking about the iPhone. It's far better that it gets massive publicity on Apple's terms, than gets leaked piecemeal while being subjected to FCC approval.

gregorsamsa said on Tuesday, 30 January 2007

The iPhone was the one product that saved this (Mac?) Expo from being a major disappointment due to the absence of any major Mac-specific news. For this reason alone, the iPhone's announcement was justified. Apple have wisely taken out quite a few patents on this product, whilst the ongoing publicity generated thus far seems to have been mostly positive.

I also think that delaying any major new Mac announcements until after Vista's release is a smart move!