There's this commercial that's been playing randomly while I work for the last few days. All I'd heard was "the first phone to beat the iPhone" to which I would roll my eyes and promptly tune out the rest of the commercial. But last night, I finally watched it all the way through. It was a commercial for the iPhone 3G.

Apparently the 3G released July 11th in 22 countries. And here again... I don't care. Yeah I like gadgets as much as the next person. But, I honestly expect people to flip their collars and turn up their noses the second they slide one of these shiny bastards into their pocket. Then they get all Biff and Muffy about the features while I happily count the money in my wallet that that I didn't spend on one.

Call it envy. It might well be. And keep in mind that I have little room to talk, I lusted after and ultimately owned the vastly overpriced Razr. I would like to point out that I DID take the highroad when drafting this comic though. Originally the last text bubble was "Oh and it'll teach you to bend over and blow yourself".

See? High road.

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Today's Pimpage: The iPhone Guided Tour guy is wearing a stylish black tshirt from Pomp & Bombast Inc.

Oh man...

"Oh and it'll teach you to bend over and blow yourself". is, in my humble opinion, the better punchline. High road, low road...whatever. That is classic!

I like Apple products as much as the next guy....but I've always felt Steve Jobs' keynotes and every Apple product commercial under the sun are a bit too much. Maybe I just really don't like the word 'keynote' and hate hipster commercials.

it's kinda funny that you made this comic because I have been thinking of something along this line since I heard about the iPhone 3g though the last bubble could have had something to do with all the trouble they have been having activating the new phones and if you didn't get the 2.0 software verison of the old iphone, that is pretty much a paper weight now

One of my developers got the first version the first day (waited in way too long a line) and any time he tries to use it to act holier than thou, I just kick him in the peas and set him on his way.

Then I tell him to text me blindfolded or I'll do it again. Then I remind him that I make more money than he does and I still don't have an iPhone (omitting the part because my wife won't let me buy one) and that I'm better looking than he is and that he'll never amount to anything more than a applenoob. He then goes all emo and I walk away.

There is this one really cool app he recently got...it can listen to a song playing (on your radio or whereever) and it figures out what the song is. It was pretty darn accurate. While this had nothing specifically to do with iPhone as it was just software, having that software available wherever you may hear a song that you don't know the name of is pretty sweet.

What show did the spoof of that commercial?

It was something like, "I can use the GPS to find the quickest rout to the bus stop since (thanks to the iPhone) I can no longer afford to put gas in my car."

I personally love the "half the price" line. It has a built in higher monthly fee than the original iPhone, so a 3G will actually cost you more during its 2 year contract than the original iPhone did, even though it had a higher up front cost.

The only reason to get one is because the web experience is a joy instead of a wonky mess, and the App Store now opens up the possibilities tremendously. Some people take it out and act like status-obsessed assh[at]s, but most take it out because it's just hard to not play with it.

The commercial annoys me, but not in the way it would most. (Many companies have taken a similar tack, "beating" their own products--especially car companies.) It just re-emphasizes the stupidity of the mass-market and the press/punditry. Is the iPhone 3G "half the price?" Of course not. The data plan is normalized with the rest of the smartphone/mediaphone market instead of $10 cheaper with a normally $5/mo. freebie, so your total cost of ownership over two years alone more than makes up for the up-front price savings.

...but what was by far the biggest complaint about the iPhone? "It's too expensive." Amount of analysis of unit + plan costs...? Almost none. The answer? A MORE expensive phone that can still be marketed to [us] as "half the price," because apparently [we] are idiots.


Hell, I'd rather take the OLD plan and "**** 3G" for a while, since it still has poor coverage area out in my neck of the woods, so I'd only use 3G while out in the city, Wi-Fi at home/work/friends/relatives, and EDGE when on the road. Losing 3G and getting back $15/month is well worth that trade-off. (I'm still deciding if I'll upkeep this, or backtrack and get a simple phone for communication, and an iPod Touch for the platform, which would just then have some usage restrictions.)

Cost-balancing is annoying. *grumble*

[ Edited for language. ]

Like anything else nonessential we buy, you make a choice of how much of your money you will give up for the added convenience and enjoyment you will gain from the product. For me as a full time student with a part time job making half a house payment, the last 3 months of owning one has been worth every penny.

For the people who are pretentious about owning one, if the media said the new coolest thing was having a plastic wrapped turd in their pocket, they'd stand in line for that too and still deserve a stiff kick in the gonads. Point being, don't judge a product by it's zealots.

I just love how the commercial sounds as if they made it with the express purpose of making everyone who bought the first version of the iPhone feel like a complete sucker.

My biggest problem with the iphone is the service contracts and price plans. They are too costly for the service you get out of them.

I think we have a ways to go before the service plans make sense to the rest of the user base.