The Apple iPhone Hype
I must say, the iPhone hype has certainly gone round the globe. It’s become the idol and object of desire for many. According to the Boston Business Journal, its launch on 29th June 2007 was the biggest handset launch ever. It even dwarfs other gadgets such as the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. Meet Greg Packer – he started queuing for the iPhone outside the Mac store 4 days before it went on sale – how crazy can you get? Don’t even ask if he showered.
When the iPhone launched, it was an extremely closed system – you had to subscribe to an AT&T plan, and there were many limitations on what you could install – imagine, you couldn’t even change ring tones! Nonetheless, it spurred the hackers to greater heights and bound them together working countless nights, with gallons of energy boosters and coffee consumed in order to circumvent the protective armour around the phone. Here’s the real photo of what was consumed during the unlocking process by George Hotz.
Eventually, the duel between – world vs Apple ended with the world succeeding on 21 August 2007. However, it was a hardware unlock process that required some soldering work to be performed – not a nice sight. Though messy, he made it! Amazingly, he was able to trade the first unlocked phone for a Nissan 350Z and 3 8GB iPhones. Not bad at all, eh?
All the world needed then was a cleaner software method to unlock the iPhone. Some people tried it and literally blew up their phones!
Barely three days after George Hotz’s success, a software unlock was announced by iphonesimfree.com, but it’s not free. This has angered the free software proponents and are working to reverse engineer the solution.
Ironically, it represents an even bigger win for Apple with more units sold, but a loss for AT&T (Pssst… Maybe the Apple guys are behind the unlocking solution!). I’ve seen the iPhone used on the shores of Malaysia already, and local auction sites have them up for grabs around the RM2,000 price range. Unfortunately, as of this present moment, it seems that Maxis users are not able to use it – perhaps Maxis is hoping to have a tie up with iPhone and only allow the Maxis-friendly version of it.
Indeed, you’ve done a good job with the marketing, Apple. Can’t fault you there. But I think I’ll wait for the 3G version of the iPhone, then consider whether or not it is worthy of my use. After all, for the hype, I think it’s rather limited in what it can do. Sure it’s pretty, but I need the machine to crunch hard for me. Sorry Apple, not this time…
Other interesting stories about the iPhone:
Razlin Dawina October 25, 2007 at 10:20 pm
I do know that Maxis is currently looking into this. It would be interesting to know why it doesn’t work at this moment.