Dan's Papers - July 13, 2007 - The North Fork And The iPhone

The iPhone is now a reality. The concept, the marketing, and the hype now faces the test of everyday use here on the North Fork. AT&T must provide a high level of service to keep the high priced iPhone in operation. According to the company, the closest store to Riverhead was in Shirley. I put in a call. As of Monday, only the eight-gigabyte phone was available at $599 and there were only a "few" available. The $499, 4-gigabyte models were sold out. This led me to believe that the consumers in the area were interested in the phone but still concerned about the steep price. It was reported a Richard Hart of Southold waited online at 5:30 a.m. to get the iPhone, and is very happy with his purchase. In fact he said, "The phone is more than I expected."

The iPhone is a cell telephone that comes with a touch screen instead of the usual cell phones keys. It is designed to access the Internet and has a camera and a multimedia player. Its large screen with its state of the art technology helps make it user friendly to people who are even all thumbs. There are new ways to hear voicemails in the order you want to instead of the order of the calls, plus there is a way of editing photos right on the screen and the photos have a much higher resolution then most cell phone cameras.

The details of when and how many phones are being shipped is still a company secret. But one thing for sure is that you won't be getting any buy one get one free offers in the near future. Although the price is on the expensive side.

Reports of the E-Bay speculators who thought the iPhone would be unavailable, other than through them because of an acute demand, miscalculated. The phones are not being sold effectively on E-Bay at increased prices. They are saying that the iPhone will revolutionize hand held communications just like the Blackberry did a few years ago.

As steep as the pricing seems, more expensive products will come, as well as knock offs and copies. I am sure there will even be counterfeits sold in alleys and in city streets at night. I like the quote of some man on the evening news last week. He simply said the phone, "Is not just another cell phone it is art, sort of like a sculptured piece of technology that when you hold it in your hand you feel the energy of the many brightest minds that dreamed it, planned it, created it, and by owning it you're on board."

Like all technology devices it will only be a matter of time when it goes from being fun, to an item our livelihoods are dependent on.

So as the North Fork enters the era of the iPhone men who work on three-hundred-year-old family farms may be on their tractors with Apple's latest technology. Children will grow up thinking they always existed, like we feel about driving around in cars and flying in planes.