There were two articles in the New York Times this past weekend about the iPhone. They are both getting a lot of buzz, so I though I would link to them in case you haven't seen them yet, and write a little about one of the articles.
First, there was an article in the Fashion & Style section (of all places) called "The iPhone Gold Rush." It talks about some of the (few, lucky) iPhone app developers who have made a ton of money, such as the developer of the iPhone game iShoot who made $800,000 in five months. A related article also ran in the Bits section of the Times.
Second, there was an article by Virginia Heffernan, the former television critic for the New York Times who now writes a column for the New York Times Magazine called "The Medium" which covers, among other topics, the convergence of television and the Internet. I've long been a fan of Heffernan's writing, even though she has been criticized as highfalutin and called to task for her esoteric references, not to mention once called the "Sarah Palin of Journalism." Her column that ran yesterday is called "I Hate My iPhone." When you combine the unprecedented popularity of the iPhone with a title like that in a publication as esteemed as the Sunday New York Times Magazine, there is no wonder why the article has been making the rounds on the Internet. (One of my favorite critiques of her article was this one by Mike Rose in The Unofficial Apple Weblog.)
In the article, Heffernan talks of her purchasing an iPhone and then returning it. The article is quintessential Heffernan, with phrases like this: "the iPhone probably sips, like a lipsticky girl with a vodka drink" and "that device’s tarty little face and those yapping 'apps'". Um, okay. After I stepped over the clever phrases and looked for the reasons that Heffernan returned her iPhone, I found two. First, she says that she has been a Blackberry user for years and she had trouble getting used to the iPhone's virtual keyboard. Heffernan doesn't say how long she used the iPhone before returning it, but it sounds like it was just a few days, and even she admits that during that time she mostly just kept it in her bag. She even notes that she felt hesitant to touch the screen after "years of not touching screens — so as not to smudge or scar." To perhaps state the obvious, anyone afraid to touch an iPhone's screen cannot possibly understand all that an iPhone offers. And it is a shame that she didn't give herself more time with the iPhone. The virtual keyboard isn't perfect, but it is a good tradeoff for not having a physical keyboard always take up half of the space on the front of the device when you only need it a fraction of the time you are using the iPhone. Moreover, just as it took time to get used to witting with Graffiti on an old Palm or to type with thumbs on a Blackberry or Treo, it does take time to get used to the iPhone's keyboard. It appears that her occasional usage over just a few days was not enough.
Second, she found that her AT&T coverage in New York was worse than her T-Mobile coverage. That is obviously a fair complaint; I've heard many people say that Verizon has the best coverage in Manhattan and the surrounding areas. On the other hand, I get great AT&T 3G coverage in New Orleans. And I don't see how returning an AT&T iPhone for an AT&T Blackberry would solve her coverage woes.
What I find most odd is that Heffernan seems like the perfect candidate for an iPhone. She uses a Mac and an iPod, and Heffernan frequently writes about technology, social media, online videos, and other media. The iPhone needs to have a phone, of course, but I find that the phone is one of the features that I actually use the least on my iPhone. I am more often using my iPhone to run third party apps, surf the Internet, watch short YouTube videos, look at pictures, read e-mails or Twitter updates or Facebook updates, etc., and these are the very sorts of things that Heffernan has been writing about for years. A device like a Blackberry Bold may be better at composing e-mails for those who demand a physical keyboard, but I don't believe that the Blackberry can compete with the iPhone on all of these other features. I can't help but think that if Heffernan had just taken the time to get to know the iPhone, she would scoff at the idea of returning it for a Blackberry.
On the other hand, her experience did result in a fun article with an attention-grabbing headline that caused me, and countless others, to pause while flipping through the pages of the Times Magazine and has resulted in numerous links across the Internet. For a journalist, I suppose that is one measure of success. But I also know that lots of attorneys (and others) will read her article, and I hope that it doesn't mislead them into failing to consider all that an iPhone can offer.
