We of course need to put some distance between yesterday's announcements and market reality but I'll go out on limb here. The iPhone will transform the cellular phone market in the US in the consumer space and eventually Europe. Even with a spotty proxy for a keypad with its touch-based interface Apple's commodification of gestural interfaces will have a ripple effect on consumer electronics (with credit due to Nintendo too of course).
I want one, and I'd buy one right now. But what it won't do is supplant Smartphones or Blackberries in the enterprise, at least not yet. Perhaps the only niggling things is the lack of 3G support and its pricey nature. But it's no more expensive than the first iPod and is actually less in inflation adjusted dollars. But, at the end of the day my Moto Q can be had for 100 bucks and it's a very capable phone for a fraction the price of the iPhone.
Apple is emerging as the premier marketer of consumer electronics in this century. Perhaps no quote sums it up better than this...
"CES is dead because iPhone is all that mattered today. There is a mood of -- like everyone here went to the wrong party."
-- An NPR reporter attending CES in Las Vegas notes the increased range of Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field. (Excerpted from Good Morning Silicon Valley)
Updates: Photo courtesy of Apple. Post title modified as was content around gestural interfaces.
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