Newton? No..no..

Tsk , tsk.

The Newton was launched when no comparable device was on the market. As Brett said: it had to make its own way in a market that (it was 1993) had no space for innovation.

Furthermore: it was a personal digital assistant but no useful source of information was available either online or on the move just to justify its existence.

Th iPhone is.. Well, it's a phone just to start with.

Then it's also something else.

It is marketed with a hype factor that did not exist in '93: yes the Newton was cool but Apple as a brand was barely recognizable and not many people knew it even existed outside the graphic design and IT sectors. Look at Apple today please.

I am not saying this release of the iPhone will move many (small) boxes, maybe not, but I do not see it killed after its n-iteration: I think Apple is going to invest and renew the line as much as they can because they want a successor to the iPod form-factor and they think this particular device could take that place.

Would you be surprised if, in two years, no iPod would ever exist anymore being totally overtaken by iPhones? I wouldn't.

Apple can affod this: they did not invest in games but they are trying to be as pervasive as they can with common devices (and how did they learn the lesson: they even build obsolescence in their products: by making difficult to change a battery for example), just they keep them different and recognizable.

Criticizing an iPhone is like criticizing a Mini (to make an automotive parallel): it's not the fastest, it's not the most confortable and it's outrageously overpriced, but some people like it (me too, even if the original has better taste) and they buy it because they feel it's a product that reflects their need for lust and to stand out of the crowd.

I could not criticize a product that sells, I could dislike it but this is another story.

When, you IT writers, will understand that some markets have definitively escaped IT and that old rules are not equal to everybody anymore?

Why are you still writing about it anyway?

See you on this column in two years from now.