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2007-01-26-apple-reinvents-the-phone.md (2200B)

      1 +++
      2 title = "Apple Reinvents the Phone?"
      3 date = "2007-01-26T00:00:00Z"
      4 slug = "apple-reinvents-the-iphone"
      5 tags = ["iPhone", "Japan"]
      6 +++
      7 
      8 *Update (2009-02-28)*: Alright, guilty as charged. "No wireless. Less space
      9 than a nomad.
     10 [Lame](https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/Apple-releases-iPod)."
     11 
     12 After watching the Steve Jobs iPhone keynote, I have to say I'm a little
     13 disappointed. While this phone has a slicker GUI than any other phone I've
     14 seen, it's not so much the $499 US price-tag, but the stone-age functionality
     15 of the phone compared to what we have here in Japan that makes my jaw
     16 drop.
     17 
     18 Here in Japan, 3 years ago in 2004, for 1 yen, I had the following in a
     19 cellphone:
     20 
     21 * 3G download speeds of 50 Mb/s.
     22 * Two-way video-phone.
     23 * Built-in fingerprint scanner (for security checks).
     24 * MP3 player and download service.
     25 * Edy BitWallet (like Interac, except you swipe your finger on the
     26   phone's scanner to accept the transaction).
     27 * Can be used as a *Suica* train pass.
     28 * Can buy movie tickets and scan in at the theatre, bypassing the
     29   lineup.
     30 * Can wave it at vending machines for food and drinks.
     31 * Will figure out train routes, transfer locations and times, and
     32   ticket prices.
     33 * Can scan barcodes which take you to websites – eg. scan at the bus
     34   station to pull up the schedule or scan a magazine to order a
     35   product.
     36 * MP3 player and download service.
     37 * Decent email (+ attachments), SMS, calendaring, notepad.
     38 * Automatic location triangulation (by determining which antennae are
     39   nearby) and location-aware mapping, shopping/restaurant listings.
     40 * Interactive mapping of current location with zooming and scrolling.
     41 * Integrated graphical web-browser.
     42 * 1 megapixel Camera, Video camera.
     43 * Display/graph your phone usage to the day.
     44 * Can write and deploy your own Java/C/C++ applets.
     45 
     46 If you go for a high-end phone with more than the above (e.g. built-in TV
     47 tuner), you'll need to pay more than one yen, but the price range is normally
     48 below ¥20,000 ($200 Canadian). In its current state, the iPhone won't sell in
     49 Japan even if it's free; Apple is going to have to do some major work if it
     50 wants to compete with even the bare-bones models on the market in Japan.