The BB Bold vs. iPhone 3G is pretty telling - the Bold was announced a month before the 3G iphone, but is only to be released a few weeks from now. Meanwhile, Apple went ahead and released their product with piss poor battery life and according to many users, unstable software, often unresponsive UI etc. When the Bold comes out it won't have these problems.
iPhone users have made a pretty clear choice: looks above ALL else.
> "statement about Apple as it as about the rest of the smartphone marketplace, which frankly stinks."
I'd really love to see you try and back that statement up
Now, if depended on your smartphone to get stuff done, you'd be scratching your head over the iPhone. It may have eye candy, but what about the features, reliability or stability that you'd actually need? I don't think the HN crowd appreciates how many people out there can do 80% of their job with just a BlackBerry. I didn't understand what the big deal around the BB is until I actually used it in such a scenario for a bit, and I know using the iPhone like that would be a no-go.
Really, the bold and the iphone are competing in different markets though.
This statement may be technically true, but I highly doubt it's true among the writers and commentators like Arrington that we hear so much about the iPhone from.
In fact, most of the people I know who have iPhones are early adopter types. People like my mom -- a prototypical AOL user -- wouldn't have a clue as to what to do with an iPhone.
Arrington's willingness to put up with the bugs, flaws, and "draconian" babysitter policies is a less a statement about Apple as it as about the rest of the smartphone marketplace, which frankly stinks.