Polemic®

There has been so much hype, speculation, and nothingness regarding Apple’s potential entry into the cell phone market that I wonder if it’s not the biggest tech red-herring since… Apple’s replacement for System 7.

But I think Apple has shown with the iPod that they know how to make consumer electronics. But to keep the iPhone from being lame, it’s going to have to have the following three features.

1. Unlocked. It needs to work on any (presumably) GSM carrier, and not tied to them. Making a separate CDMA version might be OK, but since most of the world uses GSM, I can’t see Apple doing that if it’s not simple.

2. Push e-mail. There are two basic ways of doing this right now. Blackberry and Windows Mobile. (There are alternatives, but I don’t like them much.) This entails a Mini Mac OS on the phone. Apple needs to get over its PowerTalk disaster and advance beyond POP3, an ancient protocol that’s the lamest feature still on the Internet.

3. Cellular iTunes Music Store/Sync to home computer iTunes. This will require a 3G connection. I can’t believe the rumors that say it will come with EDGE. Maybe that’s the minimum requirement, but to make these features really work, HSPDA needs to be included.

If these three elements and their corollaries are met, I’ll ditch my Windows phone and my wife will probably ditch her CrackBerry.