Rumors and Techland

Last week's gaff by Endgadet caused a stir in the financial markets. For a few hours the blog had posted a note that internal memos showed that Apple had decided to delay introduction of the iPhone. That caused Apple stock to do a slight tumble - which quickly recovered when the rumor proved false.

There seem to be a couple of things going on here. First, the level of excitement for a product which is still about a month out (end of June is the announced date for introduction) is absolutely mind-boggling. That may be caused because there is not much else happening - Vista proved a disappointment and there is simply not a lot of whiz-bang in the pipeline now. But second, it may also set some very unrealistic expectations about the product. From what I saw of the device in January (which is very atypical for Apple to announce a device which at that time had not even received its final approvals - by the way last week it received its FCC approval) it has some very good features. I am not as interested in the iPod integration as I am about the other parts including legitimate web browsing.

By the way, of course I am on the list and have been since the day it was announced. SO I guess you could say I am also part of the frenzy. I used the Newton (that is the picture) and was enthusiastic about that device. The new features of the iPhone seem to have taken up some of the best parts of the Newton and of other devices. I have looked closely at the rest of the market of Smartphones and found all of them wanting. But I may keep my Razr as a back-up phone.