Just got home and in the course of checking my mail what do I find laying on the table. No other than the premier issue of iPhone Life. At first glance of the cover it looks like it’s going to be an interesting magazine and I was actually excited to get it. I opened it up, flipped a few pages and found myself rather disappointed.
I haven’t read any of the articles as it’s just to late for me right now, but just glancing at the article titles, software and hardware reviews, it is pretty much safe to say this. Everything in here I looked at has been either discussed on a podcast, written about, blogged about or posted on almost every smartphone, cellphone, or mobile technology web site already. So I guess I didn’t need to read it anyway.
The lay out which I was hoping to be something more interesting; if that’s even possible for a magazine of this type looks to be a rehash of their Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine setup with a little bit of Mac Life Magazine thrown in for good measure.
I don’t know where Hal Goldstein plans on taking this considering they weren’t to keen on the iPhone in any of the articles published in Smartphone Magazine. Not to mention comparing the no longer current 2G model (when they should have used the 3G) to a not yet released Sony Xperia X1 running Windows Mobile. Printing articles like that; how does one expect readers to have faith and trust in your writers. Where is the true objectiveness a writer is suppose to have. I thought that article was just a waste and ultimately proved how bad the writing became.
He complained of not getting backing for the Smartphone mag from Microsoft and it’s partners. So does he expect backing from Apple and AT&T. I did see a few WM advertisements in there, so I guess he’s at least getting paid for those.
On another note this is the third magazine change for Thaddeus Computing. Their first I recall and subcribed to at the time was called the The HP Palmtop Paper which exclusively covered HP’s 95LX Palmtop and their whole LX line of palmtops that followed. So with that in mind, it’s more than likely that Hal is just following the money trail. He had no problem quickly switching from that to the HP WindowsCE devices when HP discontinued the DOS based LX line for Microsoft’s new mobile OS. So again I say I don’t know where Hal Goldstien plans on taking iPhone Life but best of luck to him.
The iPhone market is an even smaller niche than the smartphone market so I don’t know how long Hal expects this to last. While the iPhone is wildly popular now, I think it would have been much better to continue Smartphone magazine and incorporate all the different smartphones. From the beginning Microsoft made the word smartphone synonomous with devices running their Smartphone OS. Smartphone mag should have said no these’s the first smartphones (IBM Simon released in 1993 and then the Nokia 9000 Communicator in 1995), etc. but this is where Microsoft wants to take it. Showcase all the existing smartphones and keep the readers informed not bash everything not running Windows Mobile. Phones like many electronic devices need to be in different forms because one size does not fit everyone and neither does a single device focused magazine. You would think one would learn from one’s mistakes.
Anyway, more than likely none of my suggestions will used, but rest assured that if WM becomes the talk of the town again Smartphone mag will be right there to ride the wave.
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