It is definite that one of the most innovative ideas of the past century was the mobile phone. Going smaller, going brighter, going smarter, this object became an inimitable friend in our every day life. Dedicated to few business men in the beginning, he becomes a tool for everyone, and this made his fortune. His diffusion drives some applications to be deployed, other to growth and other to their maturity and completion, as it happens to the lot of features linked to the traditional phone call (voice mail, recall, multiple calls handling, and so on). Nowadays one of the most common debate is about if IT is still a phone, made for keep in touch two or more people from different places, or HE is more than this, made for act like a portable personal computer. A few days ago Mr. Jobs talk about “making calls” as the killer application for his new phone, surrounding this announcement with such a terrific outline made of special effects and special functions that boost his new jewel.

So, why you call it a phone? Why you think that I’m going to spend my cash for making phone calls? Some of the most appealing features are pictures management, zooming, music management, innovative visual interface; do they improve my phone calls quality? The feeling is that they hide something special under the “phone” coverage, like “we already put on the market the iPod and its brothers, how can we sell something similar, which is the feature we can push on, that could be new for us and well appreciate by customers?” Voice calls making, of course. For sure, there were a couple of alternatives they probably passed by, one of this is the iCar, a four wheel drive vehicle with 40GB of memory and downloadable tones for changing the horn melody, or the iBed, a couch with 40GB of memory and a touch sensible bedding and black blankets… exactly! What does it matter with? Nothing!!! Please, don’t call it a phone.

Why do I blog this?
Only to say that I’d like to buy it, but I’m not sure I’m going to use it for phone calls; it could substitute an old iPod, it could be good for photo show, for memos, for browsing through google maps and reading emails…like many others.