Questions About Apple's iPhone
There's no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help. — This week, I was swamped with questions about Apple's hot new iPhone …
Context & Ripple Effects
A week after the June 29 US launch, Walter Mossberg's mailbag is running over with iPhone questions — a confirmed flood he says left him 'swamped.' It follows a run of service journalism on the device, including a New York Times FAQ roundup in late June answering often-asked iPhone questions and PC World's early-durability testing of how tough the iPhone is.
The volume itself is the story: readers are treating a phone like a personal computer — the exact category Mossberg's mailbox exists to demystify — while the confirmed relationship notes the launch has dominated cellphone news so thoroughly that competing announcements, including T-Mobile's, are being drowned out.
First-order effects
- New iPhone owners face an unfamiliar convergence device with no established support culture around it, pushing their questions to columnists and reviewers rather than carrier or Apple support channels.
Second-order effects
- Competing handset makers lose their news window: T-Mobile's announcements are being crowded out by iPhone coverage, forcing rivals to time launches away from Apple's cycle.
Third-order effects
- If phones keep absorbing computer functions, the consumer-education burden shifts from manuals and carriers to tech media — making trusted reviewers gatekeepers of adoption for converged devices.
The trend: The iPhone's launch marks the point where cellphones begin generating personal-computer-level user confusion and press scrutiny, signaling phones becoming mainstream computing platforms.