When 'God Machines' go back to their maker

A case of sour grapes or truth-telling? You be the judge.....

The name "God Machine" gives you an idea of the scale of how much is missing from some people's lives - a yawning void they want to be filled by a piece of consumer electronics. But now that these machines are beginning to shuffle back to their maker (returning the product within 14 days of purchase may cost you $111.87- but saves you over $2,000 in operator fees) - it's time to ask some serious questions.

iPhone is perhaps not the emphatic "must have" gadget Apple's cheerleaders in the US press may have wished for.

The amazing multi-touch interface dazzles, in the way that a bright shiny object might dazzle a child. But as our own Cade Metz pointed out, it actually makes some tasks more tedious.

Over at PalmInfocenter, Tim Carroll compares the steps against a Treo, here, before advising Apple to "employ a tap counter".

In truth, the only four killer applications for the mobile phone are (in order); voice, voice, voice, and SMS. And if you make any of these more difficult for people to use than they should be, the manufacturer should have a very good Plan B. And here, Apple runs into the same wall as Nokia, and every other phone manufacture

The iPhone may yet, as I hoped back in January, give the established manufacturers a long overdue reality check. Both Nokia and Sony Ericsson have made their smartphones overly crufty and complicated as the years go by - while Windows Mobile remains a collection of cracks that defies any plaster. Reg readers long for simplicity.

The iPhone, however, doesn't look like the future of phones. If Apple permits it, the iPhone should make great inroads into the "second phone" market occupied by Windows Mobile and RIM's Blackberry today. But the tablet market is pretty small at the end of the day. And there really isn't much Apple, or anyone else, can do about mobile data services vs real life. Perhaps no one ever will.

Less than a month after the launch we can look back to the hyperbolic ventilations of Apple's Poodle Press - the Pogues, Levys and Mossbergs - and ask ourselves, "what on earth were they thinking??"

http://www.theregister.com/2007/07/19/god_machine_meets_maker/