While the iPhone has an incredible number of fan(boy)s talking about it on the
Net, there is no dearth of articles criticizing it, either. The 2G version came under fire for not having GPS or a video camera — and for being 2G, of course. The 3G version now comes under fire for battery life, the kill switch, the app store, etc. If you were the product manager in charge of the iPhone, what would you do? What would you roll out and when? How would you balance the features, the price and the release timing to satisfy the clamoring crowds?

Whoever is making these decisions — my hunch: a guy wearing a black turtleneck and blue jeans and nothing so lowly as a product manager — has done a fantastic job. The first generation was aimed at the Apple fanatics. These are the evangelists, the first to buy every new Apple product at high prices and tell their friends about it. You have probably seen pictures of them lining up outside Apple stores. They serve as Apple’s test market, helping the company to recover development costs and reduce risk. That’s how Apple got away with pricing the phone around $500 initially. I’ll bet Apple knows exactly how many of these guys there are, where in the world they are located, what they want, and how much they are willing to spend. (more…)

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http://www.rcrnews.com/article/20080804/VIDEO/548088684/VIDEO–Olympics-to-provide-vast-opportunity-for-mobile-content

The Olympic Games (summer and winter) come around every two years – virtually an instant in the 21st century pace of life. Two years in the mobile internet space, however, is an eon in terms of what can happen and what can change. During the last Olympics in 2006, mobile content and mobile advertising were still in their infancy, from both industry and consumer points of view. While many would argue that the industry is still lagging behind its true potential, the 2008 Olympics give us a benchmark opportunity to assess the progress of its evolution.

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Graham Carey, Bytemobile’s marketing director for EMEA, was recently interviewed by Rakesh Raman of My Techbox Online on the demands and potential of the mobile Internet across global markets. Read the full article here.

- Dan Fisher

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/technology/04open.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

Laura Holson makes a number of interesting points in this article about the ripple effect of the iPhone on the direction of the mobile ecosystem and the consumer experience that is driving it.

Certain comments are particularly noteworthy:

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