The simplicity of the UI and experience of using the device appeal to many who've not used a smartphone before, but those same features also appeal to at least a subset of those who have. Clearly it's not for everyone, but then I'd imagine no one device ever will be.
I had said something similar earlier. If you are gonna enter a market, ya gotta figure apple was thinking where can I make the biggest splash....and where can I get a big fat return to fund future R & D.
If it was me, my first model would go right where apple went.....the non business user who would use many of the features of a smartphone but hadn't so far because:
1. Too difficult to set up.
2. Too cumbersome to use.
3. Web browsing was a kludge.
4. Too complicated and unstable
The iPhone we have seen so far goes after that market. Next they should wanna go for the mass market, impressing wall street and gaining mindshare. This will require a device with no more than a $300 price tag. The iPhone nano or whatever it will be called that we hearing about now goes after that market. With a strong foothold in those markets, it can turn it's attention to the until now miniscule "business smartphone" market ... that 6% of 2006 total sales.
The income from the 1st two entries could pay for the R & D which the time delay had permitted them to develop and refine beyond anything we have seen to date. They have to be thinking that by then, they will be in position to do what Palm and MS haven't done......provide a stable, uncomplicated, intuitive UI based unit with no "kludge" like experiences.
Loot at the desktop space. Boot camp allows one to install windows on an apple desktop. Why not an Apple UI on top of WM6 ? Why not Bootcamp for the iPhone ? Why not take a shot at their own full featured mobile OS ?
Well I'll answer that .... remember the smartphone market is still only 6%. Yes 6% of people have decided that they like running programs on a 2" screen. That means 94% have decided that they do not or can't be bothered with. I have to wonder whether apple wants to invest that much T & E in that market unless it shows signs of future growth. If they were to take 15% of that, is 1% of the market enough to invest the time and money to be a contender ? Or is the consumer / entertainment sector their best shot ? MS has the business lead in with Windows, Exchange and Office being dominant. Apple dominates with iTunes. So in the end, I don't know that it makes sense just yet for apple to pursue the business market.
But at the very least, us Treo and other business smartphone users will benefit as MS, palm and everyone else are scrambling to adapt to the paradigm shift caused by Apple's web experience. Everyone expected Apple to come up with a wonderful UI and they did. But what they did with their web experience just wraps the "kludge" label around everything else.