iPhone Reaction Roundup

Well, that was easy. The iPhone is now a reality, meaning one of my predictions for 2007 has come true within a few days of my making it. I even said "Apple needs another home run," and TIME Magazine, describing it in detail, is calling it "a home run."

Engadget can't stop drooling: " Yeah, we said it: 'iPhone,' the name the entire free world had all but unanimously christened it from the time it'd been nothing more than a twinkle in Stevie J's eye (comments, Cisco?). Sweet, glorious..."

Engadget is referring to the fact that Cisco owns the "iPhone" trademark, which could be an, ahem, complication in the marketing of this device-- but let's keep the focus where it belongs right now. The technology is amazing (check the TIME piece for details), and the implications for mobile content are what we'll all scramble to discover this year. I'll have some more thoughts about that tomorrow.

You know a tech story is big when even webcomics pull their heads out of the latest video game and movie releases to pick up on it. Their reactions range from catatonia to proud hypocrisy, with Jerry Holkins, as usual, the most eloquent. Take it away, Tycho:

Despite the savageries I have borne for purchasing a Zune, I did buy it for a reason, and I held this reason tight in my palm like a mystic amulet...

But I didn't just purchase the wrong [MP3 player], at the wrong time: I purchased it virtually on the brink of its dissolution. I can hardly look at it now, it's like holding a dead squirrel. On its 4:3 screen - the exact ratio of obsolescence - I can see destroyed futures. I don't have to tell you that the iPhone is the future of that platform, as opposed to an aberration. iPods just have touch interfaces now, multipoint touch interfaces with clever gesture controls that you use to manipulate a rich video environment on a screen that is best in show.

I wonder what the mood is at the Microsoft booth over at CES - I would imagine that it is apocalyptic.

Indeed. Back in my predictions list, I also said people wouldn't be laughing at the Zune for much longer, using Holkins' own strip as an example.

I am less sanguine about that prediction than I was.